The Bishop of Greenland has said people in the Danish territory are “clearly worried” and she’s urging them to “stand up” for their right to determine the country’s future.

Speaking as renewed threats from the Trump administration to take over Greenland have caused widespread anxiety among congregations throughout Greenland, Bishop Paneerag Siegstad Munk said: “This is a question of human rights, dignity, and respecting international laws and treaties. We are a small people, but we are not invisible. Our future is not something to be decided over our heads. We have language, culture, ancestors, children, and a future tied to this place. We are people, not property. Greenland is not land to be bought. It is our home and it is not for sale.”

Bishop Paneerag added that “It is critical to stay calm in a situation like this. Prayers heal and give meaning. We pray each Sunday for the Kingdom of Denmark and the autonomous government of Greenland.”

Recent polls show that an overwhelming majority of Greenlanders oppose becoming a part of the United States.

The Church of Greenland is a diocese within the Church of Denmark and a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The bishop also has a seat on the Council on International Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark.

She has now urged people in the United States to write to their representatives on Capitol Hill to ask them to stand by Greenlanders in their right to determine their own future.

“We must cooperate across national borders, work together and stand up for our rights. And we shall talk to each other in a respectful tone,” she said.

Almost 90 percent of Greenland’s 57,000 inhabitants are of Greenlandic Inuit ethnicity, and more than 95 percent of the total population are members of the Danish national church, known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark.