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"This week, we were surprised to find ourselves at the center of a firestorm on our country's immigration policy, specifically on the policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their apprehended parents after crossing the US-Mexico border. said Reverend Tracy McNeil Wines, pastor at Clarendon United Methodist Church.
"Some in our denomination call us to move away from Sessions or to do what we can to change it," she told her congregation in two Sunday sermons. "There has been an uproar about this."
"I've heard many concerned citizens this week … Some speak eloquently and others shout: it's possible to scream on an email," Wines predicted Sunday. "And I watched the public speech and I'm worried."
Wines told CNN that she had had a "long and excellent" private conversation with Sessions earlier this week. The Attorney General is technically a member of a United Methodist congregation in Mobile, Alabama, but has attended services at the Clarendon Church since he was a senator. The wines called him a "very regular guest".
The Sessions wife, Mary, attended on Sunday at 11 am, sitting in fifth row while the wines were preaching. Mary Sessions stated that the Attorney General had not attended the service because he had to "take an early morning flight". The pastor and Mary Sessions greeted each other warmly after the service.
"This tension is not new in the United Methodist Church," the wines predicted on Sunday. "Remember that we are the church, the denomination of both George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton … As United Methodists, we do not need to go to church. another to walk in the same direction, divide us. "
In her sermon on Sunday, Wines told her congregation that she "deeply disagrees", both "as a person and as a pastor" with the "policy our government has adopted," meaning the separation of families at the border.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice made no comment at CNN's request about Sunday's sermon.
The wines preached that the "zero tolerance" policy had "serious unintended consequences: the trauma of some of the most vulnerable people in our hemisphere, the young children of poor immigrant families, separating them from their parents and causing great trauma.
The wines said that she has no easy answers to fix an immigration system. However, the pastor said, "My heart and mind have been shattered by the image and the stories that have been seen and heard in recent weeks, I feel that everyone's heart has been broken by this.
At the same time, however, Wines said that she is also "deeply troubled by the divisions that I see only growing in our culture, our nation and even our church."
"I have strong beliefs," Wines said. "I will work for our government to know how I feel and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ every Sunday and almost every evening at the table, if you ask my family, but I will not dehumanize those who do not. are not in harmony. with my deep and passionate beliefs, I will not write them as objects or obstacles, but I will remember that they are human flesh and blood … and I am committed to listening to them.
Instead, the 640 Methodist sessions, which include clergy and lay people, have called for a "reconciliation process that will help this long-time member … to give up his damaging actions and repair the damage that he has done. It currently causes immigrants, especially families and children. "
Wines said she's not officially involved in the process because Sessions is still a member of her church in Alabama, who would have jurisdiction in this case.
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