Compassion Across Borders: A Call for Solidarity and Justice

The Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary invites you to Compassion Across Borders: A Call for Solidarity and Justice.

Click here to view schedule

Subject to change before September 1, 2025

Conference description:

Migration shapes world history and tests our capacity to respond with compassion or fear. People migrate due to colonialism, wars, climate disasters, persecution, and economic oppression, yet in current political discourse they are demonized, detained, and deported.

Faith communities are called to respond with ethics of compassion, hospitality, and empowerment. These times demand that we transform anger with oppressive systems into actions of love, inclusion, and generosity.

This conference brings together religious leaders, community organizers, biblical scholars, theologians, artists, and activists committed to migrant empowerment. We seek to connect networks of solidarity during these critical times.

The conference will feature plenary sessions exploring how biblical and theological discourse has been both misused to oppress migrants and used to inspire compassionate, just responses. Participants will learn about legal rights and processes to protect migrants, while workshops offer opportunities to share expertise and equip one another with knowledge and wisdom for faithful action.

Register below!

Lectures

Migrant God – Isaac Villegas

This lecture will center on immigrant justice activism as Christians put hope into action, bearing witness to the work of solidarity among people with and without US citizenship. Isaac’s biblical, theological, and political reflections help prod our imagination as we consider a holistic vision for life in solidarity with migrants.

This lecture will be livestreamed on September 16, 2025, from 4:45-5:45pm EST

Isaac Villegas is an ordained Mennonite minister and the author of Migrant God: A Christian Vision of Immigrant Justice. He has served as the president of the North Carolina Council of Churches and on the governing board of the Mennonite Church USA. He is also columnist and contributing editor for The Christian Century magazine.

Citizenship and the Book of Life – Yii-Jan Lin

American citizenship has a long and torturous history that is surprisingly linked to the heavenly citizenship described in the Book of Revelation. This lecture explores how the contradictions of U.S. citizenship echo those of the Book of Life and the Book of Deeds from Revelation.

This lecture will be livestreamed on September 17, 2025, from 3:30-4:30pm EST

Professor Yii-Jan Lin is an Associate Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School. She holds a Ph.D. in New Testament and Religious Studies from Yale University, an M.A. in New Testament from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and an M.A. and B.A. in English Literature from the University of Chicago and Pomona College, respectively. She specializes in immigration, textual criticism, race and gender, and the revelation of John. Her publications include Immigration and Apocalypse: How the Book of Revelation Shaped American Immigration (Yale University Press, 2024) and The Erotic Life of Manuscripts (Oxford, 2016).

FAQs

Do I have to attend the whole conference?
If you cannot attend the whole conference, you can select the times you will attend on the registration form above.

Will anything be offered virtually?
Both lectures by Isaac Villegas and Dr. Yii-Jan Lin will be livestreamed, and four of our six workshops will be available virtually. You can register for the workshops a la carte on the registration form above. Please be sure to check the schedule of workshops on our schedule to check virtual availability and timing.

How will I receive the Zoom link to attend the workshops virtually?
You will receive a link to the workshop Zoom sessions during the first week of September. The link(s) will be sent to the email you use to register on the form above.

Are meals included?
All refreshments and meals are included in your registration.

I have dietary restrictions.
Please note your dietary restrictions in the appropriate section of the registration form.

I have questions about the schedule.
Here is a link to the schedule, subject to change before September 1, 2025. This schedule and this website will be kept up to date.

I need to cancel my registration.
Please email Deborah Keyes, Administrative Assistant at the Leadership Institute.

I have more questions about the conference.
More details will be released as they become available, and this website will be kept up to date.