Updated May 13, 2025 at 3:17 PM CDT
The Episcopal Church is ending its nearly 40-year refugee resettlement partnership with the U.S. government after refusing a Trump administration request to help resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa.
The church cited its commitment to racial justice as a moral imperative in a letter sent to its members Monday.
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe explained to NPR's Morning Edition that the administration's request crossed a moral line, and that the church would not help while other refugee programs remain largely frozen by the White House.
"The idea that we would be somehow resettling Afrikaners at this point over other refugees who have been vetted and waiting in camps for months or even years, is unfathomable to us," Rowe, the church's youngest presiding bishop ever, said.
President Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that white South African farmers, known as Afrikaners, are facing genocide and land seizures. The Trump administration classified the white Afrikaners as refugees earlier this year. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump said: "It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about, but it's a terrible thing that's taking place. And farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they're white or Black makes no difference to me, but white farmers are being brutally killed, and their land is being confiscated in South Africa."
NPR reported this week that while South Africa passed a land reform law earlier this year allowing, in rare cases, for land expropriation without compensation, no land has been seized. White South Africans make up about 7% of the population yet own around 70% of commercial farmland.
In this interview with NPR's Michel Martin, Rowe reflected on the values that led the church to end its partnership with the current administration.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity
Interview highlights
Michel Martin: Tell us more about what went into the decision to end the migration ministry.
Sean Rowe: Well, the reality is, we don't feel like we can be ourselves in the Episcopal Church and take the step of resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa. Our church has a commitment to racial justice and reconciliation. We have historic ties with the church in South Africa, particularly the Anglican Church, our sister church there. So we're not able to take this step. And in addition to that, we're sad and really in a shame that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the U.S. are people who've worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home. We just can't see that having fast tracked Afrikaners in this way is morally just.
Martin: I want to mention that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was part of the Anglican community. He was an Anglican cleric. He was, of course, awarded the Nobel Prize, in part for his leadership in opposing apartheid. Was that heritage, I would call it, part of what motivated the decision of the Episcopal Church?
Rowe: Absolutely, Episcopalians have been partners in that work. We've opposed apartheid from the beginning. Desmond Tutu was a teacher to us, and we were a partner to him. In fact, his young seminarian, I remember driving him around Washington, D.C. during one of his visits. We have strong ties to that country and to that fight against racism and the apartheid regime. And the idea that we would be somehow resettling Afrikaners at this point over other refugees, who have been vetted and waiting in camps for months or even years, is unfathomable to us.
Martin: The president claims that these folks, the Afrikaners, are being subjected to racist harassment. I think he even used the word genocide at one point for the record. You just say that's just not true?
Rowe: Yeah, I don't think the data bears that out. And certainly genocide, that's really a bridge too far.
Martin: Shortly after taking office, President Trump halted, as we said, nearly all refugee entry into the United States. Why do you think he seems to have such deep sympathy for Afrikaners and so little for people from other parts of the world?
Rowe: That's a really good question. I really don't don't understand why this is the way it is, except that it seems to me that some people are more valuable than others. And in this case, it seems to be that people who are white seem to be more valuable than those who are people of color. And in any case, the way that this has happened, the decision making, the criteria that has gone into this just doesn't fit with our morals and the values that we hold as a church.
Martin: So what impact has this refugee pause had on the work that you do? This pause on refugees from everywhere other than these white South Africans?
Rowe: Since 1980 we've settled more than 100,000 refugees and so have our other partner agencies with the government. What has happened since January is that this program has entirely been shut down. So now no refugees, almost no refugees are being coming into the United States, and now, all of a sudden, Afrikaners have been fast tracked over people who have assisted the government, over people who are being persecuted for their religion and for their political stance all around the world, people waiting to be reunified with their families, and now we've got Afrikaners coming in at this point. It just doesn't make any sense.
Martin: After your partnership with the U.S. government officially ends in September, what will your work with migrants look like after that?
Rowe: We're gonna pivot our work to work with immigration and migration on the ground. We can't be partners with the federal government at this point, but we will continue our work and our advocacy to the most vulnerable. That's what Jesus calls us to, to care for the poor and the most vulnerable. And we will continue that work.
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