Cities Church harassed weekly after ICE protest, pastor says

Jonathan Parnell on Saturday said his congregation still faces harassment months after a group of anti-ICE protesters disrupted a service in January. Parnell is the lead pastor of Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minn. Agitators continued to show up outside the church building every Sunday, he said. The church wasn’t going anywhere, and its members rejoiced to be blessed by God, he said.

The January incident involved a group of 30-40 people entering the church during a Sunday service, yelling slogans and blocking exits. The demonstrators were opposed to a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area. The Sunday protest stemmed from reports that David Easterwood, a pastor at Cities Church, led a field office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  The state decided not to press charges over the incident, while a federal lawsuit against the protesters has continued.

Parnell also alleged that the activists who come each week use illegal drugs on a nearby plot of land under the authority of the local parks and recreation department. He accused local law enforcement of not addressing the situation.

The pastor also said Sunday that the Southern Baptist church-planting network he leads in the Twin Cities recently established a new congregation, King’s Church. It was located in the Twin Cities central metro area, he said. He shared a photo of roughly 30 people that he said made up the new congregation.

Dig deeper: Read Liz Lykins’ report on Parnell’s response to the state’s decision to drop charges against the protesters.