Ada Perlman, Contributing Photographer

About 50 people gathered at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme on Wednesday to support Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, which is facing funding cuts from the federal government. 

Members of local churches gathered to stand in solidarity with and raise funds for the refugee community. The gathering featured testimonies from refugees who benefitted from the work of IRIS, singing, speeches from faith leaders and ended with the lighting of candles. 

“Let’s light up the night with the fire of our determination to not give up, to keep moving forward, and to keep praying with our feet,” Rev. Laura Fitzpatrick-Nager DIV ’13, the senior associate minister at First Congregational Church, said. 

Last week, four churches and a synagogue donated $10,000 to support IRIS during their loss, which has forced them to lay off 20 percent of their staff so far. Now, these groups see it as part of their faith to continue supporting IRIS and welcoming refugees to New Haven. 

Glenn Formica, an immigration attorney in New Haven, spoke to the audience about the significance of their support. 

“By helping an organization like IRIS, by giving it financial resilience, to get through this insult, this desecration of our American values, this desecration of our Christian values, we’re giving back what [refugees] have given us,” Formica said. “We’re telling certain people out in Washington, ‘if you won’t care for refugees, we will.’”

Maggie Mitchell Salem, executive director of IRIS, choked up as she addressed the audience. She spoke of many refugees and undocumented immigrants being defined by their labels instead of being seen as humans. 

“They have value because they exist. And that is something that is probably under threat right now,” said Salem. 

She explained that in addition to the staff cuts she had to make, the organization had not been reimbursed the $3 million they were set to receive from the State Department Reception and Placement program before the “stop work” order. They were also expecting a $1 million contract to help nationwide organizations sponsor refugees through the Welcome Corps program.

Salem called the funding suspension “an attempt to crash civil society.”

According to Salem, a New England regional network of refugee resettlement agencies is working to create a powerful block for advocacy. 

After Salem spoke, attendees lit up small candles and prayed together for refugees and for IRIS. A singer led the audience in songs such as “We Shall Not be Moved” and “Rise Up.” 

Rev. Gini King DIV ’84 of First Congregational Church reiterated that her motivation to help refugees comes from her faith. 

After the event, King spoke to the News about her vision of civil disobedience. 

“I believe that my faith tells me that Jesus was a community organizer. He was civil disobedience,” King said. “He broke the law time and time again, and he was nonviolent. And that’s what I want to be. That’s who I want to be.”

She called the “stop work” order and the subsequent slash in funding an “intentional hate campaign” and emphasized the role of churches in combating hate.

First Congregational Church is located at 2 Ferry Road in Old Lyme, Conn.