What Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians believe about immigrants and refugees

The United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the Episcopal Church all teach that Christians should welcome immigrants and refugees as neighbors. The United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and American Baptist Churches USA teach the same. They ground this teaching in the Law of Moses, which commands love for the foreigner, and in the words of Jesus, “I was a stranger and you took me in” (Matthew 25:35).

Some readers have arrived from another country and want to know whether the church down the street will stand with them. Others are helping a refugee family settle in, or thinking as Christians about a hard public debate. Christians disagree in good faith about how many people a nation should admit and how its laws should be enforced. The churches’ statements begin from the dignity of every person and the command to love the neighbor.

What do Methodists believe about immigration?

The United Methodist Church, the largest Methodist church in the United States, affirms in its Social Principles, as revised in 2024, “the dignity, worth and rights of migrants, immigrants and refugees, including displaced and stateless people.” They urge United Methodists “to welcome migrants, refugees, and immigrants into their congregations and to commit themselves to providing concrete support,” such as help with food, housing, education, and work.

The same paragraph opposes laws that “criminalize, dehumanize or punish” people because they are migrants or refugees. It challenges policies that separate families, “especially parents and minor children,” and opposes for-profit detention centers. In 1999 the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) founded Justice for Our Neighbors, a network of church-based clinics that give immigrants free or low-cost legal help.

What do Lutherans believe about immigration?

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran church in the United States, calls itself in its 1998 social message Immigration “a church with immigrants and with roots in immigrant churches in a nation of immigrants.” It commits the church to “a generous policy of welcome for refugees and immigrants” and to laws that reunite families. It also recognizes “the right of all countries to control their borders,” and asks that enforcement “always respect the human dignity of persons attempting to cross the border.”

On August 7, 2019, the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly voted 718 to 191 to declare the ELCA a sanctuary church body. The ELCA explains that a sanctuary church walks alongside immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers as a matter of faith, and that the declaration asks no person, congregation, or synod to break the law. By 2020 seven ELCA congregations had sheltered people facing deportation, and dozens more were accompanying immigrants in other ways.

Lutherans have long supported Global Refuge, the agency formerly called Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which has served refugees since 1939. When the federal government halted refugee admissions in January 2025 and ordered resettlement agencies to stop their federally funded work, Global Refuge laid off staff. It continues to serve and speak for refugees and immigrants.

What do Presbyterians believe about immigration?

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the largest Presbyterian church in the United States, declared itself a “Sanctuary and Accompaniment Church” at its 225th General Assembly in 2022, by a vote of 340 to 25. The action encourages congregations, presbyteries, and members to support immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and calls the church to resist government efforts to separate families.

Accompaniment means going with immigrants to court hearings and appointments, helping them find lawyers, and working for their release from detention. The church’s Office of Immigration Issues explained that the declaration does not require any congregation to give physical shelter and that it affirms “decades and decades of policy that the PC(USA) has valued and spoken to.” Presbyterians have supported refugee resettlement through Church World Service, an ecumenical agency, since 1947, and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance now coordinates the church’s ministry with refugees.

What do Episcopalians believe about immigration?

The Episcopal Church, the member of the worldwide Anglican Communion in the United States, set out its teaching at its 2018 General Convention, the church’s national governing assembly. Resolution 2018-D009 recalls that “Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were refugees, as they were forced to flee into a foreign land to escape violence.” It calls on governments to “respect the rights and dignity of all people,” while recognizing “the legitimate need to protect borders,” and asks nations to keep families together and to expand refugee resettlement. Resolution 2018-C009 recommends that congregations “become places of welcome, refuge, healing, and other forms of material and pastoral support for those targeted for deportation.”

For nearly forty years Episcopal Migration Ministries resettled refugees in partnership with the federal government, welcoming nearly 110,000 people. The government suspended the agency’s agreements in January 2025. In May 2025, after the government asked the agency to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced that the church would wind down its federal resettlement agreements by September 30, 2025, citing its commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and its ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The church said Episcopal Migration Ministries would go on serving migrants through partnerships with dioceses, ministries abroad, and care for refugees already resettled.

What do the United Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, and American Baptists believe?

All three churches call their congregations to welcome immigrants and refugees. In 2017 the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, with 96 percent of delegates in favor, declared the UCC an Immigrant Welcoming denomination. The same year the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) unanimously passed resolution GA-1723, “On Becoming Immigrant Welcoming Communities.”

American Baptists adopted a Policy Statement on Immigration and Refugee Policy in 1982 and last revised it in 2007. Citing “the Biblical mandate that we be a caring and hospitable community,” it commits the churches to “continue our historical role in resettlement of refugees and in assisting immigrants,” in partnership with Church World Service.

What Scripture and tradition do these churches draw on?

The ELCA’s message quotes Leviticus 19:34, and the Episcopal Church’s principles quote Deuteronomy 10:19 and Matthew 25. The command in Leviticus stands in the same chapter as “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), which Jesus called the second of the two great commandments:

The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:34

Deuteronomy grounds the command in God’s own character: God “loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the foreigner” (Deuteronomy 10:18–19). In Matthew’s Gospel the Holy Family lives Israel’s story again when Joseph “took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt” (Matthew 2:14).

The early church kept the practice of welcome: “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2). In the sixth century Benedict of Nursia wrote in his Rule for monks, “Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ,” and asked that special honor be shown to pilgrims (chapter 53). The ELCA’s message quotes Martin Luther: “How do we know that the love of God dwells in us? If we take upon ourselves the need of the neighbor.”

Christians who stress enforcing immigration law, out of real concern for order, often cite Paul: “Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities” (Romans 13:1). The ELCA and the Episcopal Church both recognize a nation’s right to secure its borders, and both ask that laws and their enforcement honor the dignity of every person. For a fuller reading of the biblical texts, see What does the Bible say about immigrants?.

Strangers made into one household

Scripture tells the story of God’s people as a story of migration, from Abraham leaving his country at God’s call (Genesis 12:1) to the First Letter of Peter, which addresses Christians as “foreigners and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11). If you are far from the land where you were born, the church is meant to be a home for you. If you are the one already at home, the newcomer who walks into your church on Sunday may be the guest in whom, as Benedict taught, Christ himself is received. The Letter to the Ephesians says to believers who were once outsiders:

So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.

Ephesians 2:19