MINNEAPOLIS (RNS) — As tens of thousands trekked over the snow and ice in Powderhorn Park on Saturday (Jan 10) to protest last week’s fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, the crowds were greeted by a group of faith leaders who called themselves “movement chaplains.”
Wearing bright orange hats and vests emblazoned with the word “chaplain,” the group, which was made up of mostly pastors, was led by Shari Seifert, a member of Calvary Lutheran Church and a self-described “street theologian.” Seifert said movement chaplains — who seek to “tend to people’s spiritual needs” at protests and de-escalate tensions as they arise — were last heavily active during headline-marking demonstrations in the city following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in 2020.
But looking out at the sprawling crowd, Seifert said the groundswell of outrage and organizing that has followed the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent has renewed the need for protest chaplains.
In Minneapolis’s Powderhorn Park on Saturday (Jan. 10, 2026), tens of thousands gathered to protest ICE’s presence in the city and the fatal shooting of Renee Good. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
“There’s a lot of hurting people right now,” Seifert said.
Religious leaders and groups that mobilized during the 2020 George Floyd protests have re-emerged as key organizers in Minneapolis’s sprawling resistance to the thousands of ICE agents deployed as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The faith-based networks, which developed organizing infrastructure and relationships during the Floyd era, are joined by newcomers as resistance efforts have intensified following the killing of Good, which federal officials called self-defense but which eyewitnesses and resident have condemned as murder.
Religion and spirituality was easy to find at Saturday’s massive protest, where thousands rallied and marched against ICE. A group of Indigenous leaders kicked off the event with a dance, and Rachel Dionne-Thunder, vice president of the Indigenous Protector Movement, told the crowd ICE agents threatened her with arrest the day before when she was acting as an observer — the same activity Good was reportedly doing when she was killed.
A group o …