Bishop Rob Hirschfeld in the chapel of the New Hampshire Episcopal Church in Concord on January 13, 2026.
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The New Hampshire Episcopal bishop’s stern warning to clergy has resonated across the country, drawing glowing praise from some and rebuke from others.
Bishop Rob Hirschfeld was one of several community and faith leaders gathered in Concord, New Hampshire. Lenny Macklin Good It came days after she was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis.
Hirschfeld called out the “atrocities, injustices and horrors unleashed in Minneapolis” and warned clergy to prepare for “a new era of martyrdom.”
“I asked them to listen to me to make sure they wrote their wills, because now is no longer the time to make statements, but maybe it is time for us to put our bodies on the line and stand between the powerful and the most vulnerable in this world,” he said.
Hirschfeld’s comments quickly went viral.
“I was actually very surprised when I opened my phone and found social media blowing up with my bishop on it,” said the Rev. Jason Wells of St. Matthew’s Eccentric Church in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
Wells, a community organizer who regularly prays outside ICE offices, and many others said they found great relief, and a certain kind of conviction, in hearing the bishop speak candidly about the growing anxiety felt by faith leaders across the country who have stepped up public prayers and prayers. Protests against ICEpepper bullets were thrown at him, he was assaulted, and arrested.
“People feel like he represents the feeling in the pit of their stomachs about what’s going on,” Wells said. “It was a relief to hear him name a concern that I had had on my mind for a while.”
The Rev. Betsy Hess of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Berlin, New Hampshire, added her voice to the “Amen” chorus and immediately sent an email of thanks to the bishop.
Hess believes clergy “need to stop being polite Episcopalians and go out and do something.” But what exactly she will do and how much risk she is willing to take is still being worked out.
“Before, it was… you might go to jail, now you might get shot! So we need to be more courageous,” she said. “I hope you’ll be brave, but I can’t promise you that you’ll be able to do it. But it’s definitely time to move beyond ‘I’m not going to do anything that’s risky.'”
A priest applauds during an anti-ICE demonstration in Los Angeles, California on June 9, 2025.
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But others took issue with the bishop’s words.
“My first reaction is, ‘Hey, hey, this is not calming at all. This is like a battle cry,'” said the Rev. Tom Gartin of Faith Episcopal Church, who heard the bishop’s comments in his diocese in Cameron Park, California.
“I didn’t sign up to be a martyr,” he said. “I have a family and a congregation that depend on me. If I were to disappear tomorrow, what would happen to them?”
Mr. Gartin was also furious at the idea that preachers would advocate physical resistance. In his assessment, mere statements “do not move the needle one bit.” He sees the bishop’s message as “inflammatory” and at odds with “via the media,” one of the Anglican Church’s guiding doctrines that calls for finding a middle path between extremes.
Demonstrators, including many clergy, protest near an immigration processing and detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, on October 10, 2025.
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Gartin said the focus of church leaders should be “to make peace and reduce the tensions we see around us.”
“We are called to do the work of peace negotiators and to reduce the tensions we see around us, because it serves no one to be the next victim, but it serves everyone to build the next bridge,” he said.
Hirschfeld said he was surprised by the ripples his comments caused.
“I don’t feel like I said anything new,” he said in an interview with NPR. “I have never incited violence or said anything that would incite violence.”
Hirschfeld said he understands some people may be hearing his words in a way he didn’t intend, but he stands by his message.
“I told the priest, ‘I’m just asking you to live your life without fear of death. Be prepared. I’m not telling you to go.’ look “I’m just telling you to be prepared, to take care of yourself, to prepare your soul for when the time comes,” he said.
Mr. Hirschfeld said: teeth Anglican tradition. At the vigil where he gave his first remarks, he named several church activists who became martyrs, including Jonathan Daniels, a seminary student from New Hampshire who traveled to Alabama in 1965 to help integrate public facilities and register black voters. He was shot to protect a black teenager who was with him.
“Not everyone can be Jonathan Daniels, but increasingly we are being asked to go to places where we feel unsafe,” Hirschfeld said.
That could be anything from walking into a neighbor’s house where a political yard sign made them feel unsafe to participating in a public demonstration against ICE, he said.
“I wonder more and more when I go to these rallies and peaceful vigils. There are people driving by, honking their horns,” he said. “I see people with guns in New Hampshire, and it’s a free gun state, which doesn’t necessarily give me a sense of security or safety. But does that mean I shouldn’t come? I don’t think so. I think going means I’m going, and I think I should be prepared for whatever happens.”
White House Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement to NPR that interfering with federal law enforcement is a crime and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The government claims the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Macklin Good acted in self-defense.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called Mr. Hirschfeld’s comments about martyrdom “ridiculous” and said that if he wanted to “really represent the vulnerable,” he would stand with ICE agents who are increasingly under attack.
Mr. Hirschfeld said yes. Feel sympathy for those agents.
“It is definitely our Christian responsibility to extend love even to our enemies,” he said, adding that it is definitely our Christian responsibility to love all of God’s children who may be “swallowed up in the maelstrom of ungodly hatred and fear and power.”
Hirschfeld added, “I pray for your conversion.”