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Image: The Dawn Breaks Through

11/09/2020
The Dawn Breaks Through

Alex Holmes reflects on the darkness still experienced during COVID 19 in the Calais refugee camps.  Weekly blog.


A certain wise Teacher asked his students “how do we determine the hour of dawn, when night ends and day begins?” Rejecting their answers, he told them, “It is when you can look into the face of human beings and have enough light to recognise them as your sisters and brothers. Until then, it is night and darkness is still with us.” (Hasidic tale)
 
BBC correspondent Fergal Keane recently travelled to Calais, where hundreds of would-be UK asylum seekers are crowded into small tents and where there is no possibility of social distancing. He said, “For people already living on the margins, the arrival of the coronavirus has been nothing but catastrophic.”
Something of an understatement.
 
Five hundred metres from where Keane was filming, in the lee of the UK-funded “security” wall and overlooked by the Calais football stadium, is the narrow strip of land that’s “home” for some of the Eritrean refugee community. Their tents are sandwiched between the wall - an ironically useful place to shelter from the rain and hang wet clothes and shoes - and a dirty, rat-infested stream. A hoodie on the washing line is emblazoned with the words “This Life is your Adventure. Stay Tough.”
 
The lockdown in France began on 17th March. Many of the volunteer groups working to support the refugee community in Calais began withdrawing. On March 25th Abel messaged me: “We don't get any food today. I don't know what can we do right now. But we will see what happens next day.”  A day later Merhawi wrote: “We have some food but not like past. Little bit hard but no problem God always with us and you.” And a few days later, Abel again: “Today we having lunch and breakfast. Don’t worry about it. We are at the moment good. But thank you for asking. Good night. Sweet dreams.”
 
From the end of March the talk has been about plans by the French authorities to move the refugee community in Calais to safe accommodation in unused hotels and hostels.
 
“We are all fine. We have food. We have charge for phones. Maybe we go camp this week,” Merhawi told me. “I am not happy to move but I think it’s very important.” Abel sounded more positive about the plan: “We have much more food and water. So far none sick for us. They tell to us that it’s voluntary to go to the hotels. I personally accept this because it’s important for me to save the life. I tell you soon what happens. Stay strong with your own family. See you tomorrow.”
 
Meanwhile, every second day, the police continue with the policy of dismantling the camps.
 
“How do we determine the hour of dawn, when night ends and day begins?” runs the Hasidic tale. Michael is a young Deacon in the Eritrean Orthodox church. He is in Calais after years of being shunted from one European country to another. “It is fine. God is with us. Don’t give up.”  Abel writes, “Peace and love for all people of the world. Let’s stand together to fight against the corona virus. I hope the best yet is coming soon for all of us.”
 
In the midst of the current catastrophe, dawn breaks through.
 

Image: A Jubilee For The Earth

04/09/2020
A Jubilee For The Earth

Justice and Peace vice chair Marian Pallister reflects that the Earth desperately needs the jubilee promised by the Season of Creation.


We may have missed spring and summer – but now we’re in the 2020 Season of Creation, the liturgical period held annually between September 1 and October 4. This year’s theme is “Jubilee for the Earth”.
 
A jubilee year according to Leviticus is one of universal pardon, and the intention is to give all creation a well-deserved rest. After all, instead of being careful stewards of the earth, as God asked us to be, we have become cruel exploiters wielding a very big stick.
 
It has been so easy to fall into habits bad for Creation, advantageous to us. And we have been making mouth music for too long about reducing our massive carbon footprint, without actually following through.
 
Then along came COVID 19 and we all had to stay home, giving the Earth a temporary rest from human exploitation. Can the Season of Creation jubilee get the patient into a fit enough state to receive proper treatment and have a convalescence that – well, let’s not kid ourselves, goes on forever?
Air pollution dramatically reduced during lockdown, and wildlife moved back into spaces from which it had been excluded. Even here in the countryside where I live in Argyll, nature has breathed more easily.
 
The jubilee offered by the Season of Creation is the starting block. Now we have to run with ways that will create a real ‘new normal’. The steering committee of the Season of Creation is seeking what it calls the ‘moral imagination that accompanies the Jubilee’.
 
Let’s take the opportunity not just to care for our common home but for our sisters and brothers who share it. Justice and Peace Scotland has the environment firmly on its agenda, and there are resources on our website that can inform and inspire.
Our Scottish Bishops are joining with Bishops in England and Wales to reduce the carbon footprint of the Catholic Church. And as Eco-Congregation Scotland tells us, that isn’t just about making our church buildings greener, but about every parishioner taking responsibility for reducing their individual carbon footprint.
A member of the Season of Creation’s advisory team asked that we all push our governments and businesses for a “green economic recovery” that is socially fair and environmentally sustainable. I think that means curbing our shopping habits, doing a lot more recycling, and a lot less travelling.
 
COVID-19 has shown that it’s possible to work together for the common good. Our faith tells us that’s the way to go – the Vatican’s Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church says that ‘Respect for human life means respecting all of God’s creation.’ 
 
Catholic Social Teaching adds, ‘We must re-engage with our environment and take responsibility for it; live sustainably, live so that there are enough resources for everyone. The relationship between human activity and global warming must be constantly monitored for “the climate is a good that must be protected”.’
 
Let’s start in this Season of Creation to give our common home a permanent jubilee.

Image: New Scots

28/08/2020
New Scots

Agatha Kai-Kai, St Andrews & Edinburgh Archdiocesan Justice and Peace Refugee, Asylum Seekers & Migrant working group, suggests how we can best support refugees and migrants.  Weekly blog.


The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948; article 14) states that ‘Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries free from persecution’. This is the bedrock of the New Scots Integration Strategy (NSIS) and the policies of all organisations working for the welfare of refugees and migrants. Article 14 promises to all economic, social, political and civic rights that underpin a life free from want, fear, the entitlement of all peoples at all times and in all places.


The City of Glasgow is the headquarters of the government-run Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) and non-governmental organisations such as the Refugee Survival Trust (RST).
 
SRC, RST and others commit to making article 14 a living reality for all refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, but efforts can be hindered by the agonisingly slow process of the immigration system.
 
While the Scottish Government in its NSIS document anticipates refugees, asylum seekers and migrants should ‘live in safe, welcoming and cohesive communities able to build and pursue full and independent lives from day one’, the UK Government Home Office procedures that authorise basic needs such as housing, healthcare, education and employment take several months and sometimes years.
 
Hence there is need for the Scottish Government and the Home Office to aim at similar outcomes within a specific time-frame to give people the right to statutory support.

The newly formed St Andrews & Edinburgh Archdiocese Refugee, Asylum Seekers and Migrant Working Group’s vision is ‘to enable our churches and nation to welcome each other through welcoming refugees’. This working group of the Caritas Justice and Peace network is committed to:

• Find ways and means to work with local parishes and other organisations to make life better for refugees

• To educate ourselves and others about the problems facing refugees, and to communicate accurate information which conveys a positive message of the gift of refugees to society

• To make links with other voluntary and public organisations with a parallel mission
 
And so, we are inviting parishes to consider funding a destitute asylum seeker or failed asylum seeker, identified by Refugee Survival Trust (https://www.rst.org.uk/) or other agencies.

We suggest that parishes that wish to offer a welcome to a refugee family register with the Community Sponsorship programme, which can assist with the whole resettlement process. (https://www.sponsorrefugees.org/ or https://resetuk.org/ ).
 
Christian communities can contact Welcome Churches at https://welcomechurches.org/churches/projects/.
 
We’re also suggesting each parish publicises and takes part in a befriending programme.

Parishes that run soup kitchens, food banks and clothes distribution programmes could combine them with regular meet-up sessions, for conversation and language development.
 
There are other opportunities, too - The Welcoming provides an online befriending programme (contact Life for further details Life@thewelcoming.org) The Refugee Survival Trust befriending programme could be extended to all dioceses. And it would help if the likes of St. Vincent de Paul volunteers could look out for asylum seekers in need, and invite them to parish events, and put them in touch with the online befriending programmes.
 
Parishes can also join local networks to show their support for refugees, such as the New Scots Connect Map and Forum.
 
 
For more information contact Agatha Kai-Kai (m.a.kaikai@ed.ac.uk )
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