SYRACUSE N.Y. (NCC News) — Episcopal Bishop of Central New York DeDe Duncan-Probe hosted a prayer service outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices of Central New York on Wednesday morning.
The purpose of holding the service outside of the ICE building was to send a message that people need to do better and be better to each other, including ICE agents, according to Duncan-Probe.
“The dehumanization in our world right now is big, whether it be looking at refugees and immigrants with fear and uncertainty and judgment,” Duncan-Probe said. “But the same can be true for how we are looking at ICE agents or police officers, often we are dehumanizing to them as well.”
Duncan-Probe wants people to be treated with dignity and realize that “God is in all of us.”
This service had no intention of acting as a form of protest against ICE, said Duncan-Probe.
“I was concerned that people would see this as being an opposition to, and not a calling forward to. We are so used to people opposing and fighting fire with fire,” Duncan-Probe said. “In this moment to come together in a positive movement would easily be misunderstood.”
In a commitment to showing unity, the bishop invited ICE agents to join the prayer. According to Duncan-Probe, this was essential to the service as it displayed that the goal was to progress forward and not cause issues.
“We have to stop being in opposition to each other, we have to start being for something, because what is happening isn’t okay. And I think there is a lot of ICE agents and police officers who would agree with that,” Duncan-Probe said.
Despite the invitation, ICE personnel did not participate in the service. However, the headquarters did give the service six spots in the parking lot to allow the gathering a space to pray.
Father Fred Daley is a pastor at the All Saints Catholic Church in Syracuse. Daley said he was happy that the service was able to be hosted outside the ICE offices.
“I appreciate the fact that the folks here at this facility are following the Constitution today, and allowing people to gather and pray in this space,” Daley said.
For many people, Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance or self-condemning, but with the service being outside of the ICE facility some attendees saw Wednesday as a chance for a renewal in the community and the nation.
Michael Songer is a pastoral associate at the All Saints Catholic Church in Syracuse. Songer used the prayer service to not only look inward but to look at society as a whole to improve going forward.
“When we’re in a state where people are being plucked off the street, just being taken from their homes, their families, their communities,” Songer said. “To be here as a witness that there is a need for that renewal.”