The Sept. 2 edition of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers. TLC correspondent G. Jeffrey MacDonald writes in the cover story:
Along the U.S.-Mexico border in West Texas, people accustomed to being largely invisible are trying extra hard to go unnoticed these days. In a time of stepped-up border patrols, Hispanics reportedly dare not travel even 45 minutes to the nearest shopping area. Checkpoints to the north are seen as too risky.
“A number of the Hispanic families get really nervous, even the ones that are here legally,” said the Rev. Michael Wallens, vicar of St. Paul’s Church in Marfa, Texas. “It’s hard for them to be comfortable, so they’d rather stay south of the border checkpoints.”
This world of people trying to lay low along the border has become a mission field for Rio Grande Borderland Ministries, a five-year-old outreach of the Diocese of the Rio Grande. To keep pace with growing needs for everything from household goods to pastoral care, the ministry has recently expanded from one site in Columbus, New Mexico, to include two more. One is based at St. Christopher’s Church in El Paso, the other at St. Paul’s in Marfa.
✜
News
- A New Focus for Church Planting
- Eyewitness: Church Fights and the Hope of Worship at GAFCON 2018
Features
- Invisible People, Imaginary Lines | By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
- Finding Hope in a World of Optimism | By Matthew Kemp
- Twenty Minutes with John Tarrant | Hope on the Ground | By Matthew Townsend
Cultures
- Comic Tribute to a 14th-century Mystic | By Retta Blaney
Books
- Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society | Review by Neil Dhingra
- Churchy | Review by Christine Havens
Other Departments
- People & Places
- Sunday’s Readings
