Welcoming Central American Refugees
The Synod Assembly will be preceded on Thursday, June 2 by a Day of Learning, featuring a series of workshops centered around our assembly theme of “Church Together: Welcoming the Stranger.” Register for this year’s Day of Learning here.
Workshop Leader: Alexia Salvatierra
Coordinator, Guardian Angels Project
Central American children and youth and their families are fleeing to the United States (and particularly Southern California) because of violent persecution from the international mafia controlling their countries. Workshop participants will learn about Lutheran and ecumenical initiatives that are making a difference, gain understanding of the situation in our companion synod of El Salvador and in the other countries in Central America’s Northern Triangle, and learn how they can help.
Rev. Alexia Salvatierra has been an ordained ELCA Pastor for 28 years. She is the Coordinator of the Guardian Angels Project of the Welcoming Congregations Network of the Synod Justice and Global Missions Teams. She serves as an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and Azusa Pacific Theological Seminary as well as at five other academic institutions. She is the author of “Faith-Rooted Organizing” and coaches/consults/trains for a variety of organizations including World Vision, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, the United Methodist Church, the Reformed Church of America, and the Christian Community Development Association. She is assisting Pastor at Hope Lutheran Church in Hollywood.