Name: Welcoming Our Neighbor: A Prophetic Vision for the World
Start: 2026-01-24T09:00:00-06:00
End: 2026-01-24T15:00:00-06:00
Location: American Swedish Institute

Welcoming Our Neighbor: A Prophetic Vision for the World

January 24 @ 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

In recent months, cities across the country have experienced heightened intimidation and fear, particularly affecting our most vulnerable residents: immigrant neighbors. How might we then reflect on what meaningful solidarity entails and what we can do collaboratively to shape a future in which our communities flourish? The Minneapolis Area Synod’s Immigration Task Force invites you to join a conversation on Saturday, January 24, dedicated to learning and community building as we collectively address the realities unfolding in Minneapolis and envision the future we seek. Hosted at the American Swedish Institute, this gathering is designed to foster strategic, faith-driven responses to these challenges.

We are honored to welcome Rev. Dr. Gregory Cuéllar, a distinguished scholar from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Drawing on his extensive expertise in the migrant experience and his work on the U.S./Mexico border, Dr. Cuéllar will share insights from both his scholarship and grassroots engagement to help us cultivate a prophetic vision for our communities.

After lunch, a panel of community leaders will offer insights into current challenges and share reflections on possible paths forward. This event provides a valuable opportunity to listen, learn, and consider how to be fully present during this critical time.

Details

This event is open to all clergy, lay leaders, and community members.

There is no cost. Donations are welcome and will contribute to the Welcome Fund, a mutual aid fund established to support our immigrant neighbors in the Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA.

Lunch is included. Pre-registration is encouraged for lunch counts.

Register >

About Rev. Dr. Gregory Cuéllar

Dr. Gregory L. Cuéllar is the Full Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and the Ruth A. Campbell Chair in Biblical Studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. As an international biblical scholar, Dr. Cuéllar is interested in counterintuitive ways of reading biblical texts, in particular those that are rooted in a decolonizing discourse of liberation. His research explores topics related to the U.S. Mexico-Borderlands, immigration detention (UK and US), anti-black and brown racism, and the intersections of religion and migration. His current book project is titled, Religion in Immigrant Detention: Securing Faiths in a State of Removal (Palgrave, forthcoming). For this book project, he was awarded the Louisville Institute Project Grant for Researches (2019).

He has published his research in a wide range of journals. He is also author of Voices of Marginality: Exile and Return in Second Isaiah 40-55 and the Mexican Immigrant Experience (Peter Lang, 2008). His two most recent books are, Resacralizing the Other at the US-Mexico Border: A borderland Hermeneutic (Routledge 2020) and, Empire, the British Museum, and the Making of the Biblical Scholar in the Nineteenth Century: Archival Criticism (Palgrave, 2019).

He has been a visiting scholar at the Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society (COMPAS) and the Centre for Criminology, Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford.

In terms of advocacy work, he is the co-founder of a refugee artwork project called, Arte de Lágrimas (Art of Tears): Refugee Artwork Project. This project is a traveling art exhibit and archive that aims to create greater public awareness of the lived migratory journeys of asylum-seeking children, youth, and adults.

Welcoming Our Neighbor: A Prophetic Vision for the World

Welcoming Our Neighbor: A Prophetic Vision for the World

January 24 @ 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

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