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.

Conference description:

Migration shapes world history. It changes communities. It tests the human capacity to respond out of compassion or fear. People are forced to migrate because of colonialism, wars, climate disasters, persecution, and economic oppression. They take perilous paths toward survival and flourishing. They resiliently face the unknown. In current political discourse migrants are demonized, detained, and deported. They are called all kinds of slurs. They are deprived of all opportunities to make their dreams come true.  

Faith communities are called to respond to the discourse and politics that dehumanize migrants. They are called to embody ethics of compassion, hospitality, and empowerment. These are the times in which faith communities need to transform their anger with oppressive systems into action of love, inclusion, and generosity.  

Why a conference on migration? Because these times may feel lonely and enraging, this conference seeks to bring together religious leaders, community organizers, biblical scholars, theologians, artists, and activists who are committed to the empowerment of migrants and are discerning how to do this at this critical time. This conference seeks to connect networks of solidarity. 

There will be plenary sessions that explore how the bible and theological discourse have been misused to oppress migrants and how, at the same time, these religious traditions continue to inspire politics of compassion, inclusion, justice, and equity. There will be opportunities to learn about legal rights and processes to protect migrants. Workshops will offer various opportunities for speakers and participants to share their passion and expertise to equip one another with the knowledge and wisdom needed for this time.  

Lecturers

Isaac Villegas

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.

Yii-Jan Lin

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).

Call for Proposals

What is the Call for Proposals?
The call for proposals is for workshops, visual, and performance art that will take place during the conference, as well as an opportunity to “sign up” to share an experience, encounter, life story, or ministerial context to encourage one another and deepen our network of compassion and solidarity.  We invite anyone and everyone who’d like to share to sign up for a (roughly) five-minute slot during a mealtime. Click the link above to submit a proposal, and register below!

Register below!

FAQs

When will I hear if my workshop, visual art, or performance art was accepted?
Accepted artists and workshop leaders will be notified by July 30, 2025.

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.