Preaching about Immigration

What difference does it make to read the Bible with and through the eyes of immigrants? This workshop will explore the phenomenon of migration in the Bible and how preachers can engage these sacred traditions as they respond to the realities of migration in our world. Some of the themes that will be addressed include: sojourn as an essential aspect of faith communities, crossing and maintaining cultural and ethnic boundaries, and the biblical witness to a divine vision for inclusive and just intercultural churches and communities.

Safwat Marzouk is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary (Richmond).  He has authored three books: Egypt as a Monster in the Book of Ezekiel; Exodus, Joshua, Ezekiel in the Arabic Contemporary Commentary; and Intercultural Church: A Biblical Vision for an Age of Migration.

As a Christian Egyptian and migrant to the U.S., he interprets the Bible in ways that are interreligiously and interculturally sensitive, seeking…