St. Peter’s has had a rich history of refugee ministry- over 20 years in duration. It was begun by Deacon Tom Tripp, along with Deacon Joanne Coury Frake. When Joanne retired from active ministry, Deacon Diana Leiker replaced her. We have had relations and collaborations with Vive La Casa refugee shelter, Journey’s End Resettlement Services, and most recently with Jewish Family Services- all in Western New York.
Most of the work has been in re-settling families. The church has aided efforts in performing move-ins- some by ourselves, and others in collaboration with various other churches. We have also created mentor programs with some of the families, supported them financially, and established long-term relationships. We have assisted in settling refugees from Congo(2), Eritrea(1), Afghanistan(1), Burma (3), and Ukraine (2).
Deacons Tom and Joanne secured a grant of $20,000 from the Diocese of WNY in 2017 to continue and expand the ministry. One offshoot of that grant was to commission a video, “From Strangers to Neighbors” , which was used to educate other Episcopal Churches in WNY and Northwestern Pennsylvania. We also donated money to Buffalo United for Afghan Evacuees when the Afghan war was winding down.
When COVID and governmental slow-downs in 2017 disrupted settlements, Deacon Joane and Tom formed a mentoring program called LEAF, targeted at a large Congolese family that had already migrated to WNY. Deacon Diana began joining the efforts at that time.
Now retired, Deacon Joanne has created a Refuge Bazaar, to keep donations coming in. Sadly, due to increasingly restrictive physical abilities on our part, along with recent governmental fluctuation towards immigration we are now re-directing our involvement to advocacy.
We have thrown our efforts into the ministry because Jesus Christ told his followers to “Welcome the Stranger” That is what we did, and in our humble opinion- did it well!
Deacon Joanne Coury Frake (retired)
The Venerable Diana Leiker
Deacon Thomas N. Tripp (approaching retirement)