... on Saturday afternoon at First Mennonite Church of Champaign-Urbana, at their church located on the northwest corner of Springfield and Lincoln in Urbana. There will be an additional session on Sunday afternoon at the Champaign Public Library. One of the featured speakers, Dean Linsenmeyer, will preach Sunday morning, October 23, at the Mennonite Church of Normal (MCN).

Saturday 1:00-2:30 PM - This session will be led by Saulo Padilla, immigration office director for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) US. He is considered an immigration expert, and will bring experience with the law and dispel misconceptions regarding it.

Saturday 3:00-4:30 PM - This sesseion will be led by Dean Linsenmeyer, pastor at North Goshen (IN) Mennonite Church. His congregation is extremely aggressive at ministry to immigrants, and is about one-third Hispanic, many of whom are undocumented.

Sunday 3:00-4:30 PM - This session will be led by Matt Soerens, co-author of Welcoming the Stranger. He works for World Relief. He has experience addressing immigration to evangelical and conservative Christians.

There will be a gathering for youth on Sunday evening , at First Mennonite Church in Urbana, both to view an immigration video as well as to socialize.

More specific information will be available about each of these sessions over the next few weeks. Please consider carpooling to one or more of these sessions. This forum follows the regional Culture of Service event which MCN sponsored one year ago.

We have other exciting collaborations happening at MCN. The Living Love Church in East Peoria is sponsoring a Bible study for Hispanics, held in our building. They were present at and provided information during the SummerFest event held August 7. We will gather with folks from Living Love at MCN on August 21, for a time of fellowship, singing and prayer. It will be an opportunity for MCNers to hear about their vision for a church plant in Bloomington/Normal, and a chance for us to engage more robustly with them in prayer for this venture.

Mennonite Church USA
Churchwide Statement on Immigration
Mennonite Church USA has roots in seventeenth-century churches planted by immigrants from Europe. Our church continues to grow and be enlivened by immigrants who join us from many countries. As Christians, we believe we are called to welcome these sojourners in our congregations and communities, especially as our govenment creates increasingly harsh immigration laws in the name of fighting terrorism. Assumptions about identity make some people more vulnerable to political biases and discrimination than others. Our concerns about the status of immigrants in this country relate to how people are treated based on race, nationality, ethnicity, and religious identity.

We reject our country's mistreatment of immigrants, repent of our silence, and commit ourselves to act with and on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters, regardless of their legal status.