Rural & Migrant Ministry is embarking in a Caravan across the state, from the South Fork of Long Island to Buffalo, to highlight and foster an appreciation for immigrants by highlighting their humanity and emphasizing their positive impact on New York’s rural economy and agriculture. Along the way, they’ll support local businesses, hold vigils at significant locations, and have gatherings, music and more.

The Rural Economy Caravan will be in Albany on Tuesday, August 5. The day starts at 9:00 at the NYS Capitol and proceeds to a 9:45 vigil at Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology at Siena College. From there, the Caravan proceeds to Saratoga and Elizabethtown before heading to 4:30 vigil at Representative Stefanik’s Plattsburgh Offices.

A critical conversation is taking place right now in Washington, D.C. and across the country about the treatment of immigrants, and specifically, farmworkers. Rural & Migrant Ministry seeks to uphold the truth that our communities are far stronger when we are cherishing one another than when we are abducting people. The Caravan will draw attention to this debate, not as a form of protest, but as a public witnessing that is carried out as much in the traveling between places as in the vigils themselves. 

The Caravan is co-sponsored by: Interfaith Public Health Network; Saratoga Immigration Coalition; Episcopal Diocese of New York; Episcopal Diocese of Long Island; Episcopal Diocese of Rochester; Interfaith Center of New York; The New York State Catholic Conference; New York State Council of Churches; and Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation.