Accompaniment in action
Global delegation begins week of advocacy with worship, hospitality in New York City
BROOKLYN, New York — A transnational delegation of migrant-led and immigration advocacy leaders began a week of engagement in New York with worship, fellowship and proclamation at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, embodying what organizers described as accompaniment in action.
The delegation, convened for the purpose of attending the United Nations’ multistakeholder forum on migration, brings together advocates from Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, African diaspora in southern California and Southern Europe. These advocacy partners reflect relationships cultivated by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) through its Global Ecumenical Partnerships and Immigration Advocacy offices in Presbyterian Life & Witness, an agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The gathering represents months of coordination by PL&W staff responding to invitations from global partners to stand alongside migrants and amplify their voices in international spaces.
Half of the delegation arrived as early as Wednesday and into the weekend, traveling from countries including Bangladesh, Hong Kong, El Salvador and Mexico. They were greeted at the airport by Amanda Craft and Global Ecumenical Liaisons Joseph Russ and the Rev. Cathy Chang. Organizers described this organized welcome in a time when traveling to the United States from other countries is fraught, as both practical and symbolic — an expression of accompaniment that begins not in meeting rooms, but in presence.
During Sunday worship at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, the Rev. Emily Brewer, the church's pastor, welcomed the delegation, noting their presence in New York for the UN forum and inviting congregants to meet them during a post-service gathering. Chang introduced several participants, including Pastor David Bonilla, the Rev. Santiago Flores and advocates: Rey Asis, Pervez Siddiqui, and Snap Mabanta. “This is the work of community building and alliance and network building,” Chang told the congregation. “You are doing this very work … and that is interconnected very much with the work that we are also doing in the hallowed halls of the United Nations.”
Chang connected the Brooklyn congregation’s identity as a sanctuary church with the broader efforts of the global delegation. By hosting and worshiping with the group, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church became a living example of how local congregations participate in global advocacy through relationships nurtured across continents.
The church, known for its engagement in community organizing and immigrant support, offered a backdrop that mirrored the delegation’s purpose. Chang emphasized that accompaniment — a core value of the office of Global Ecumenical Partnerships — means walking alongside partners rather than speaking for them.
For Bonilla, a Colombian leader serving migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border with Frontera de Cristo, the themes of accompaniment and cross-cultural solidarity took center stage in his sermon.
Reflecting on John 21, Bonilla described the moment when Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” — a question followed each time by the command to “tend my sheep.” Bonilla highlighted what he called Jesus’ patient insistence and enduring invitation.
“Jesus is not done with us. He wants us to be sincere,” Bonilla said during worship, underscoring a love that extends beyond personal belief into action.
He explained that the love to which Jesus calls Peter, and by extension the church, is not confined by cultural or national boundaries. Instead, it is expansive and liberative, what Bonilla described as “cross-cultural.”
Drawing on Brooklyn’s diversity, Bonilla pointed to census data showing that nearly 44% of the borough’s almost 3 million residents speak a language other than English. He described the congregation as an “intercultural community,” reflecting a reality that mirrors the global church.
“When Jesus asks you that question, ‘Do you love me?’ it means to cross another culture,” Bonilla said. “And the world will see you better.”
Bonilla linked this cross-cultural love to the delegation’s mission, suggesting that accompaniment requires entering unfamiliar spaces and building relationships across differences — much like Peter’s encounter in Acts 10 with those outside his own community like Cornelius.
Following the service, the congregation hosted a shared meal, offering both spiritual and physical sustenance to the delegation ahead of a demanding week. The gathering extended the themes of hospitality and accompaniment that began at the airport and continued in worship.
Delegates have spent the week participating in the United Nations’ multistakeholder gatherings of the International Migration Review Forum, which began on Monday, followed by a Tuesday side event on faith-based responses to migration co-sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and ACT Alliance.
Organizers say the delegation’s presence reflects a broader commitment to ensuring that migrants themselves — rather than institutions alone — shape the global conversation on migration.
As Chang noted, the work unfolding in congregations like the one in Brooklyn and at the United Nations is deeply connected. The relationships formed in congregations, she said, are the same ones that sustain advocacy efforts on the international stage.
In that sense, the delegation’s first weekend in New York served as both preparation and proclamation: accompaniment is not just a strategy, but a way of being church across borders.
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