MINNEAPOLIS — The leaders of a St. Paul church are contemplating legal action against the activists who disrupted a Sunday service after the intruders determined one of the pastors works as the acting director of ICE’s field office in St. Paul.

A statement released on Jan. 20 by Cities Church to the Minnesota Star Tribune said “the group of agitators jarringly disrupted our worship gathering. They accosted members of our congregation, frightened children and created a scene marked by intimidation.”

The statement said the ambush, which included former CNN news anchor Don Lemon and Minneapolis civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong was “shameful, unlawful and will not be tolerated. Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus — or any other act of worship — is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws of this nation."

Houses of worship, the statement continued, “are meant to be places of peace and solace, where worshipers can hear and live out this message. We therefore call on local, state and national leaders to protect this fundamental right.”

While Gov. Tim Walz’s office issued a statement to Fox News saying “he in no way supports interrupting a place of worship.”

Looking ahead, the church leadership advised, “We are evaluating next steps with our legal counsel.”

St. Paul police told the Star Tribune that the activists totaled 30 to 40 in number and are being investigated for disorderly conduct.

David Easterwood, a pastor at Cities Church, is named in a pending class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Minnesota for aggressive tactics used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the agency’s long-running crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

Easterwood was not leading the Sunday service. Lead pastor Jonathan Parnell was confronted by the activists. In a video of the protest, Parnell can be heard telling activists, “Shame on you.”

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, announced an investigation on X into the protesters, who shouted the name of Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman who was shot on Jan. 7 by an ICE agent.

Dhillon called the protest “un-American and outrageous” and said she contacted U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI to investigate.

Activists in the pews, including Black Lives Matter Minnesota, chanted “justice for Renee Good,” as they stood up in the middle of the sermon.

“I normally don’t disrupt church services, but this was so extreme that we had to,” Armstrong said afterward.

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