Bishops from the northern triangle of Central America will hold their first regional cross-provincial meeting later this month to discuss the growing crisis facing migrants and returnees in the region. The meeting will involve bishops from the Anglican provinces of Central America, Mexico and the West Indies; and the countries of Nicaragua, Belize, El Salvador and Mexico. They are being supported by staff from the US-based Episcopal Church.

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Mexico, Presiding Bishop Francisco Moreno, will be at the three-day meeting, and is asking people to pray for its success as they devise ways to “bring the good news to the afflicted and proclaim liberty to the captives and release of the prisoners.”

Edwin Guardado Montes, a lay minister with responsibility for community development in the Diocese of El Salvador, part of the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America (Anglican Church of Central America), said that the meeting had been planned “in the face of the regional migration situation that affects our countries, especially the most vulnerable sectors of our society and historically marginalised by unjust economic and political structures.”

Participants at the meeting will look to formulate a strategic plan to strengthen social, pastoral and human rights for migrants, with an emphasis on women and children. La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico (the Anglican Church of Mexico) said that the meeting, in part, will respond to “the lack of preparation to face the social effects of the migration policies of the United States government”. New US anti-migration policies, introduced by President Donald Trump, could see up to 250,000 Salvadorians who have lived legally in the US for nearly two decades face deportation, following the end of their “temporary protected status,” the television news network CNN reports.

The Anglican bishops’ meeting, being held in Esquipulas, Guatemala, from 31 January to 2 February, will also look at crises of “governability, violence, poverty, corruption and above all despair” in the region.

Presiding Bishop Francisco Moreno, has called on people to pray as preparations for the meeting continue.