Join in Prayerful Solidarity during the Border Convergence

Congregations of Women Religious and Other Organizations are Invited to join Giving Voice Sisters in Prayerful Solidarity with the Border Convergence October 7-10 and All Catholic Sisters Attending the Border Convergence in Nogales are invited to the “Encuentro de Hermanas” on Oct 8th. 

Interested congregations of women religious, Church groups, faith communities, and other concerned organizations are invited to join members of Giving Voice in prayerful solidarity with the SOAW Border Convergence in Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico the weekend of October 7-10th, 2016. Giving Voice has prepared a prayer service and media kit that can be printed out and used as it is or tweaked for your setting and group. In order for a copy of the prayer service and media kit to be emailed to you, please sign up HERE. 

Participants are encouraged to connect with the network of groups praying in solidarity with the border convergence by promoting and sharing their prayer service on social media. Groups are encouraged to post videos and photos of their prayer service on Facebook Live, Twitter, Instagram and other social media channels using the hashtags/caption: We pray with #GivingVoice in solidarity with the #ConvergenceAtTheBorder and adding the name of their group and location.

Catholic sisters who will be attending the SOAW Border Convergence in Nogales are welcome to join Giving Voice for "Encuentro de Hermanas" on Saturday, October 8th, 2016 from 2:00-3:30 at the Kino Border Initiative "Comedor," Bulevar Luis Donaldo Colosio 55, Nogales, Mexico. Sisters will share about ministers, discuss how they might collaborate further around immigration issues and pray together. An optional tour of the Kino Border Initiative will follow the gathering. It is suggested that Sisters at the Border Convergence who attend the Encuentro de Hermanas bring their passports and cross into Mexico by foot on Saturday morning for the Rally at the Border Wall then eat lunch on the Mexican side of the border before coming to the encuentro. For more information about the Encuentro de Hermanas contact Sister Tracy Kemme, SC at tracykemme@gmail.com.

Giving Voice is an inter-congregational peer-led organization for women religious under the age of 50. Giving Voice sisters are from several different congregations of women religious throughout North America. These “young nuns” are often times the youngest members of their religious orders. Members center their lives on living the Gospel and live communally while being committed to service and social justice. Many of the sisters serve in the trenches with immigrants and refugees most impacted by the outdated and unjust policies.

The goals of the Border Convergence program are to expose the root causes of immigration, end the U.S. intervention in the Americas, resist border militarization, and engage in non-violent direct action, education, art and culture. The Convergence is sponsored by School of Americas Watch (SOAW), the organization that has previously hosted November protests at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.