District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia
The Congregation Action Network is a network of more than 70 Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Humanist, Hindu, Buddhist, and other congregations in the DC Metro region, bringing faithful resistance to bear to end detention, deportation, profiling, and criminalization of immigrants and demanding and upholding justice, dignity, safety, and family unity. In the face of hate and discrimination, the Network is committed to showing love, compassion, and hospitality.
The network takes action through advocacy, community organizing, fundraising, family support, media outreach, and communications. This has included campaigns to shut down immigration detention facilities, demand citizenship for all, stop deportations, end police/ICE collaboration, and expand the rights afforded immigrants.
CAN was founded in 2017 when Faith in Action‘s LA RED campaign and Sanctuary DMV founded the DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network to put the power of faith to work for immigration justice. Renamed the Congregation Action Network (CAN) in 2019, CAN was sponsored by Faith in Action’s immigrant justice initiative, LA RED, until May 2022. That month, CAN incorporated as an independent advocacy organization and also became a Faith in Action federation.
CAN hired its first Executive Director, Elias Johnson, in June 2022.
Network Member Congregations (July 2019)
- Adat Shalom
- Beth Chai
- Bethesda Friends Meeting
- Bethesda Presbyterian Church
- Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
- Christ Congregational Church
- Episcopal Church of Our Savior
- Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW)
- River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation
- Sandy Spring Friends Meeting
- Shirat HaNefesh (Song of the Soul)
- St. Camillus Catholic Church
- Temple Emmanuel
- Temple Shalom
- Vedanta Center of Greater Washington
- Westmoreland United Church of Christ
- College Park Church of the Nazarene
- College Park United Methodist Church
- Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church
- Hyattsville Mennonite Church
- Mowatt Memorial United Methodist Church
- Muslimat Al Nisaa Shelter
- Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church
- St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church/Iglesia San Mateo
- University United Methodist Church
- All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS)
- Beverley Hills Community UMC
- Great River Tendai Sangha
- Herndon Friends Meeting
- Kol Ami: Northern Virginia Reconstructionist Community
- Langley Hill Friends Meeting
- Rock Spring UCC
- Temple Rodef Shalom
- Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax
- Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston
- United Christian Parish – Reston
- Wellspring UCC
- 19th Street Baptist Church
- All Souls Church, Unitarian
- Assisi Community
- Calvary Baptist Church
- Calvary Episcopal Church
- Capital City Church
- Cleveland Park Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC)
- Community of Sant’Egidio
- Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community
- Dumbarton United Methodist Church
- First Congregation UCC
- Foundry United Methodist Church
- Friends Meeting of Washington
- Holy Trinity Catholic Church
- Inspire DC
- Luther Place Memorial Church
- Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal
- National City Christian Church
- New Community Church
- New York Avenue Presbyterian Church
- Nineteenth Street Baptist Church
- Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ
- Sacred Heart Catholic Church
- Seekers Church
- St. Stephen and the Incarnation
- Temple Sinai
- The District Church
- The Sanctuaries DC
- The Table Church
- Washington Ethical Society
- Washington National Cathedral
- Western Presbyterian
Select Media Coverage
- Undocumented immigrant refuses to board flight at JFK – The Washington Post, May 27 2018
- Activists Demand Action from Bowser After Recent ICE Raids – The Washington Post, Aug. 7, 2018
- Standing With Undocumented Immigrants – The Baltimore Sun, May 31, 2018
