FIFTY MILES FROM THE NON-DESCRIPT Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building currently housing ICE detainees in Minneapolis, a beautiful, aged cathedral rises high in the heart of Faribault. Wednesday evening, February 4, that magnificent, massive cathedral—Bishop Whipple’s church—will center a community gathering.
Beginning at 7 p.m. the historic Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour will open its doors for “Evening Prayer for Our Nation” in support of Faribault’s refugees and immigrants. The Cathedral’s pastor, the Rev. James Zotalis, and the Rev. Henry Doyle will lead the event, which includes prayers, readings, music and teachings from Bishop Whipple.
Organizers also promise networking opportunities and information about ways to help others.
Bishop Whipple, who shepherded this congregation while serving as the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota beginning in 1859, would surely be pleased with the upcoming gathering just as he would surely be displeased with the imprisonment of detainees at the federal building bearing his name. He would likely be standing alongside protesters protesting immigration enforcement and asking to visit detainees inside.
This clergyman focused his ministry on “justice and mercy for all.” And that is evidenced in his ministry to the Dakota both in Faribault and parts west in Minnesota and then at Fort Snelling. Whipple went to the fort and ministered to the Dakota held captive there following the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.
When 303 Dakota were sentenced to hanging after the war, Whipple traveled to Washington DC to ask President Abraham Lincoln to spare their lives. Lincoln pardoned most, but 38 were still hung in the nation’s largest mass execution.
If Bishop Whipple was alive today, I expect he would be doing everything in his power to help anyone threatened and/or taken by ICE and CBC. But because he is not here, it is up to us to help. I know many people in my community are helping quietly behind the scenes. Walking kids to bus stops. Giving co-workers rides. Delivering groceries. Donating money and food. Volunteering.
Wednesday evening’s “Evening Prayer for Our Nation” is needed, too. It’s needed to bring people together in community, to unite, to uplift, to pray, to share, to recharge, to publicly support our neighbors, to find tangible ways to help. Bishop Whipple would feel grateful. He cared. And so should we.
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FYI: Whether you live near or far, Faribault nonprofits are in need of donations to help families sheltering in place during ICE operations in Minnesota. This is not just a Twin Cities metro enforcement. Many communities in greater Minnesota, including mine, are suffering.
Please consider helping immigrants and refugees in my community via a monetary donation to the Community Action Center in Faribault (Community Response Fund) or to St. Vincent de Paul. The need for rental assistance, especially, is growing.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
this is such a meaningful and much needed community event. I hope that many people will attend and I’m sure they will get so much hope from this. Minnesota has been incredible in so many ways and the planning and organizing of these events continues to show that along with all of the things that people are doing to pitch in to help each other.
My community definitely needs this as ICE operations continue throughout the area. We need this time to come together.
your state, your community as a whole has quickly grown into a strong movement, a model, organic and motivated by love and justice and standing up for humanity and what’s right.
Thank you. I have never been more proud of Minnesotans in this moment, in this movement. Minnesota Strong!
❤
This is a wonderful and much needed event: to teach about Bishop Whipple, to connect to each other, and to send up prayers in loving care of each other.
I’m sending prayers and love.
It’s so ironic that the federal building named after Bishop Whipple would be used to do something he would be against. Thank you for spreading the word about this historical figure in Minnesota.
Thank you, Rose, for your love, prayers and support from central Minnesota. I feel your love and deeply appreciate it. And, yes, we need this community gathering Wednesday evening.
I imagine we would have gone. So important.
Yes, so important to have a community gathering like this to quiet our spirits and to unite.
Another great community event. Even though we are not Minneapolis, I am proud of my community’s efforts to reach out to offer similar services to our local immigrant population. Everyone can do something in their own area.
You are right. Wherever we live, we can help, however and whenever we can.