The Rt. Rev. Rob Hirschfeld, Bishop of New Hampshire, recently drew national attention after delivering a speech at a rally at the State House mourning the death of Renee Nicole Macklin Good. The mother of three was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7.
In his January 9 speech, Hirschfeld spoke about several Christian martyrs, including Jonathan Daniels, a white seminarian and activist who took a bullet meant for a Black child. A native of Keene, New Hampshire, Daniels was enrolled at the Episcopal Theological School when he was killed in the summer of 1965.
“I have told the clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire that we may be entering into that same witness, and I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order, to make sure they have their wills written,” Hirschfeld said. “Now is no longer the time for statements, but for us, with our bodies, to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”
The bishop’s message was captured on video and went viral on social media.
On Threads, a pastor of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) said she quoted it in her sermon January 11. A Reel shared on Instagram by the nonprofit group Interfaith Alliance received 56,000 likes. The bishop’s words are resonating with Christians and non-Christians alike, “because it reflects an authentic Christian message of love unto madness, self-sacrifice for the good of the whole, especially the marginalized,” said the Rev. Misty Kiwak Jacobs, rector of Grace Church in Bath, Maine.
“Bishop Rob’s courage is a bright light which reveals the corruption of the gospel that is Christian Nationalism,” Kiwak Jacobs told The Living Church.
Hirschfeld told New Hampshire Public Radio that what he shared was nothing new. “It’s a message that I’ve been delivering ever since I became a priest, almost 35 years ago. And my job as a priest, and now bishop, is to direct people to a sense of preparedness and centeredness in the Spirit,” he said.
Macklin Good’s death at the hands of an ICE agent drew widespread protests across the country and swift condemnation, including from Republicans and conservatives. It also came amid news reports that 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025 and four people in just the first 10 days of 2026.
Responding to a torrent of criticism directed at the agency, the White House published a list of what it described as incendiary comments from “radical left Democrats” and reaffirmed its support for ICE agents, saying they are brave patriots who put their lives on the line to protect the country.
The Twin Cities continue to deal with the upheaval brought on by a surge of immigration enforcements officers in the area. On the evening of January 14, a Venezuelan man who was in the country illegally was shot by an ICE officer after he resisted arrest, the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. The agency said the officer was acting defensively as he was being ambushed with a shovel or broom stick.
The Living Church asked ICE for comment.
A Vigil and a Rally
More than 3,700 people gathered on the evening of January 13 for a churchwide Compline prayer service held over Zoom, with Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and Bishop Craig Loya of Minnesota offering reflections. The event was organized by the Public Policy, Partnership, and Witness Division of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Minnesota.
Loya expressed how weighed down and heartbroken he has been by what he witnessed during the week of Macklin Good’s death. “It is hard to overstate the magnitude of the random and reckless cruelty that we are seeing and the depth of the fear that nearly everyone is living with all the time,” he said. Saying that the forces of fear would want the church to meet “hate with hate” and “scorn with scorn,” he urged the church to disrupt with Jesus’ hope and agitate with Jesus’ love.
“We, as followers of Jesus, are in this moment going to make like our ancient ancestors and turn the world upside down by mobilizing for love,” Loya said, referring to the Apostle Paul and Silas’ mission in the Book of Acts.
“We are going to choose to turn the world upside down with love because we know, we know the cross of Jesus Christ settles this forever.”
Rowe thanked God for the church, the risen body of Christ, and reflected on the feast day of Christ’s Baptism (Jan. 11), when many renewed their baptismal promises. He then spoke of questions he might ask God (“How hard do I have to persevere in resisting evil?” “Do I have to seek and serve Christ in all persons?”), before reminding participants that “our prayers and struggles bind us together.”
Those on the call were invited to share prayer requests, generating more than 100 messages in the chat box in less than a minute. Many asked for prayers for Minneapolis, Venezuela, and other places facing conflict, while others sought prayers for wisdom and courage to speak up.
In New York City on January 12, Bishop Matthew Heyd of New York and the Rev. Chloe Breyer, an Episcopal priest who leads the Interfaith Center of New York, joined dozens of faith leaders for a multifaith memorial mourning the deaths of 39 people they said were killed by ICE agents or died in the agency’s custody, including Macklin Good.
The leaders, representing Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity, offered prayers and read aloud the names of those who had died.
“We want dignity for our neighbors and peace for our neighborhoods,” Heyd said. “We grieve the loss of Rene Nicole Macklin Good and the 39 other people killed by ICE in the last year. Many were people of color. What happened in Minneapolis could happen in any of our communities.”
Breyer, who described the events as a “long shadow of Trump’s immigration agenda,” said religious leaders were united in seeing ICE’s violence as the result of a political choice. “We reject the normalization of death as the cost of enforcement, and we demand accountability, dignity, and an end to this reign of fear.”
Mass deportation is a signature issue in the Trump administration. In December, the Department of Homeland Security said that 220,000 noncitizens had been deported since Trump took office. The agency said around 1.9 million people self-deported, but did not provide additional data.
The Migration Policy Institute countered that the administration’s approach has been extended to many lawfully present immigrants and those aspiring to become legal, as it stripped temporary legal protections for more than 1.5 million humanitarian parolees.
On January 14, the State Department announced that it is suspending immigrant visa processing for 75 nations, saying there is a high possibility that citizens from these countries would apply for public benefits once in the United States.
The policy does not include those applying for visitor visas, unless their country is in a visa ban.
According to the Episcopal Migration Caucus, a grassroots group of lay and ordained Episcopalians advocating against detention and deportation, immigrant dignity and justice have been at the forefront of conversations and resolutions across Episcopal dioceses.
A total of 11 dioceses had passed migration-related resolutions as of December, with more expected at future diocesan conventions.
The resolutions reflect language from C031, Migration with Dignity, passed by the 81st General Convention, which opposes U.S. policies that disrespect human and constitutional rights and urges church leadership to establish a Migration with Dignity Task Force and a Migration with Dignity Sunday.
Although the churchwide resolution has been generally well received across the church, it is not without its critics, particularly as it touches on politically charged areas such as the church’s refugee work.
Migration-related resolutions have passed in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and in the dioceses of Chicago, Georgia, Great Lakes, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, Northern California, Ohio, and the Rio Grande.
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Living Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has also appeared in Christianity Today, Broadview Magazine, and Presbyterian Outlook, among other publications.
