REDMOND — After the long, tiring journey from war-torn Ukraine to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Julia Yemelianova and her two young children stepped into the warm embrace of parishioners from the St. Jude Parish Welcome Circle.

“Though slightly overwhelmed and in shock, Julia was very grateful to our Welcome Circles group for the outpouring of love and support. They are now part of the St. Jude family,” Vinod Nazareth, the parish’s Welcome Circle ministry leader, said in an email to the group.

The Yemelianova family’s arrival Sept. 21 comes a little over a year since Holy Family Parish in Kirkland sponsored the first Ukrainian family in the country under the Welcome Circle program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services office. The archdiocese was one of five affiliate sites, receiving startup money from the USCCB to sponsor families eligible for humanitarian parole under the federal government’s United4Ukraine program.

To date, 18 families have been sponsored in the Archdiocese of Seattle by Welcome Circles formed at 11 parishes and by four non-parish groups; one parish is awaiting a family, according to Chris Koehler, the archdiocese’s director of Missions and Immigrant Affairs. Four other parishes have started the Welcome Circle process and another parish is in the discerning stage, he said.

To support their families for the first few months, most parish Welcome Circles raise at least $10,000, Koehler said. In addition, some parish circles have received grants through the archdiocese and from Catholic Community Services of Western Washington. Mentoring and support is provided by Amy Nash, the archdiocese’s refugee Welcome Circles coordinator.

Koehler said 175 people in the archdiocese are members of Welcome Circles, with another 100 listed as helping local efforts in some way.

“There’s nothing like having nearly 200 people stand up and find everything that they need in order to help someone resettle,” he said.

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne meets Natalia from Ukraine and two of her children, Nazar and Anna, during a Sept. 19 reception for Welcome Circle members and the families they have welcomed over the past year. At back right is Karl Leist, Welcome Circle leader for St. Joseph Parish in Issaquah, which sponsored the family. (Photo: Stephen Brashear)

At a Sept. 19 reception for families who have been welcomed and Welcome Circle members, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne expressed appreciation for those who have answered the call to support families fleeing war.

“What an inspiration all of you are. … This is putting the Gospel into action,” Archbishop Etienne said.

“As your archbishop, I just can’t tell you how proud I am of what you are accomplishing, and the love of Christ that you are making concrete,” he added.

‘The Holy Spirit at work’

At St. Jude Parish, the journey to welcome a Ukrainian family began about four months ago. The message to parishioners was that the new ministry would not only benefit the sponsored family, but also would “help us create a more vibrant parish. It will help us live the Gospel,” said Nazareth, who came to the U.S. from India as a young adult.

He expected two or three people to sign up — but 45 people responded.

As the Welcome Circle committee formed key groups — including housing, benefits and basic necessities — recommended by the program, leaders emerged, and parishioners with desired skills and experience stepped up to help.

“It was their way of giving back to the church, which is really good,” Nazareth said.

The team decided they wanted to support a family from Eastern Ukraine, a family “feeling the trauma of war,” he said.

Julia’s family is one of those. They experienced warfare when Russia captured their city, Kherson, and again this year when Ukraine retook the city; when Russia bombed a dam that flooded Kherson, the family lost everything, Nazareth said.

“They’ve been through a lot of psychological trauma, especially the children,” a 5-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, he added.

The St. Jude team has been busy preparing a home for Julia and the children (her husband had to stay behind in Ukraine). Many necessities were purchased by parishioners through an Amazon wish list, and the team partnered with the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul conference to obtain furnishings.

The biggest challenges were finding affordable housing and childcare for the preschooler so that Julia will be able to work after getting settled in.

The team is working with a nearby Lutheran church that has a preschool program and may provide subsidies. And they found a subsidized apartment — a savings of 40 percent — that is located on the bus line, two blocks from grocery stores and down the street from the school Julia’s son will attend.

“To me, that’s the Holy Spirit at work — we couldn’t have planned it,” Nazareth said.

Now that Julia has arrived, Welcome Circle members will help her get necessary documents, sign up for benefits, enroll her son in school and teach her how to ride the bus, among other things.

“You may not realize what a big difference you’ve made in the life of one refugee family,” Nazareth wrote to the Welcome Circle group Sept. 22, “but the joy and happiness that you see in the attached pictures tell the whole story. Without your passion and perseverance it would have been impossible for us to be ready to receive Julia and her family.”

Helping migrants in many ways

As parish teams welcome families and help them start life in a new country, what comes next is being discussed. Some parishes have welcomed another family. Others are considering how to use their new expertise to serve refugees already living in the community who could use some support.

Amy Nash, refugee Welcome Circle coordinator for the Archdiocese of Seattle, speaks with Martin and his sons, Venezuelans who are sponsored by a Welcome Circle at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Everett, during a Sept. 19 reception for Welcome Circle members and the families they have welcomed (Photo: Stephen Brashear)

Before Welcome Circles, some parishes were already helping immigrants in a variety of ways, Koehler said.

Initially, the Welcome Circle program sponsored Ukrainian families, then expanded to families from Haiti, Nicaragua, Russia and Venezuela who are eligible for humanitarian parole, then added asylum seekers, he said. Now the USCCB is working on certification to participate in a program that will sponsor people living in refugee camps who have been waiting years to immigrate, Koehler said.

When the Welcome Circle program began here, Koehler remembers telling the planning team, “‘Why would we ever stop at Ukrainians?’ I didn’t actually think that a year later we’d be helping asylum seekers and start opening to refugees,” he said.

Just as important as “living out our faith through welcoming the stranger,” Koehler said, is the community building that is happening in parishes through the Welcome Circles.

“We talk in terms of every parish being a refuge,” he said. “My dream is to see every parish family do some kind of migrant ministry.”

Learn more

To learn more about Welcome Circles, email Welcome Circles coordinator Amy Nash at [email protected].

Parishes with Welcome Circles

These parishes have welcomed at least one family:

  • Holy Family, Kirkland (committed to a third family)
  • Southeast Seattle parishes
  • St. James Cathedral, Seattle
  • St. John the Baptist, Covington (discerning a third family)
  • St. Joseph, Issaquah
  • St. Joseph, Seattle
  • St. Jude, Redmond
  • St. Mary Magdalen, Everett (second family is on the way)
  • St. Michael, Snohomish
  • St. Vincent de Paul, Federal Way

These parishes have committed to sponsor a family:

  • Holy Rosary, West Seattle
  • St. Gabriel, Port Orchard
  • St. Joseph, Vancouver
  • Our Lady of the Lake, Seattle 

Discerning sponsorship:

  • St. Andrew, Sumner

Non-parish Welcome Circles

  • These groups formed under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Seattle’s Immigrant and Refugee Ministry Welcome Circles, but aren’t sponsored by parishes:
    • Sanctus, Shoreline — three circles, including two connected to St. Luke Parish
    • Finn Hill Circle — family arrived 
    • Haines, Alaska — two circles, helped two families
  • Committed to sponsor:
    • Bothell Circle
  • Two other groups are in the discernment process