Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
“What does it actually take to love your neighbor when your neighbors don’t agree with you—or may even oppose what you do? For 25 years, our community has practiced a demanding kind of love along the U.S.–Mexico border—driving remote desert roads, offering water, aid, and presence to migrants in distress.
But that work doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It puts us in regular contact with ranchers, Border Patrol agents, environmentalists, border bandits, and anti-immigrant activists—people with deeply different perspectives on immigration and our role in it.
This forum explores love not as a feeling, but as a discipline—something practiced in real time, in complex spaces, and across sharp disagreement. What does it mean to stay grounded, human, and open in those encounters? And how do we keep showing up with integrity when love gets hard?”
About Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer (ANTS MDiv, ‘94):
Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer is an ordained United Church of Christ minister. Deeply influenced by his time studying and living in Latin America, Randy and his family moved to the Borderlands 28 years ago so he could serve as Senior Minister of the Good Shepherd in Sahuarita, Arizona—35 miles from the US/Mexico border. As immigration and border issues have become more and more intense, Randy and his congregation have been key leaders of many of the humanitarian groups (Humane Borders, No Mas Muertes, and Green Valley/Sahuarita Samaritans) that give food water and medical care to migrants in the desert—for no one should be dying in our deserts. In addition the Good Shepherd and the Samaritans have hosted the annual Common Ground on the Border event going on its 13th year.
ANS Alumni/ae Forum Background:
The Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (ANS) Alumni/ae Forum is a new initiative led by the ANS Alumni/ae Board to provide a platform that promotes collegial exchange and fosters greater engagement across our alumni/ae community.
Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School
April 29, 2026
“What does it actually take to love your neighbor when your neighbors don’t agree with you—or may even oppose what you do? For 25 years, our community has practiced a demanding kind of love along the U.S.–Mexico border—driving remote desert roads, offering water, aid, and presence to migrants in distress.
But that work doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It puts us in regular contact with ranchers, Border Patrol agents, environmentalists, border bandits, and anti-immigrant activists—people with deeply different perspectives on immigration and our role in it.
This forum explores love not as a feeling, but as a discipline—something practiced in real time, in complex spaces, and across sharp disagreement. What does it mean to stay grounded, human, and open in those encounters? And how do we keep showing up with integrity when love gets hard?”
About Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer (ANTS MDiv, ‘94):
Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer is an ordained United Church of Christ minister. Deeply influenced by his time studying and living in Latin America, Randy and his family moved to the Borderlands 28 years ago so he could serve as Senior Minister of the Good Shepherd in Sahuarita, Arizona—35 miles from the US/Mexico border. As immigration and border issues have become more and more intense, Randy and his congregation have been key leaders of many of the humanitarian groups (Humane Borders, No Mas Muertes, and Green Valley/Sahuarita Samaritans) that give food water and medical care to migrants in the desert—for no one should be dying in our deserts. In addition the Good Shepherd and the Samaritans have hosted the annual Common Ground on the Border event going on its 13th year.
ANS Alumni/ae Forum Background:
The Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (ANS) Alumni/ae Forum is a new initiative led by the ANS Alumni/ae Board to provide a platform that promotes collegial exchange and fosters greater engagement across our alumni/ae community.
Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School
April 29, 2026
