Blog

30/03/2018

This week in our blog, Alex Holmes updates us on his latest visit to Calais. Alex volunteers regularly at the Maria Skobtsova Catholic Worker House in Calais who do what they can to help destitute refugees in the area. This reflection on the ongoing situation in Calais for refugees makes for some difficult reading.

Mid-morning. There is little to say or do except shake hands and say you are welcome and would you like tea. Three young Eritreans from the Green Hotel. An occasional word is said but mainly the three sit silently around the table in the Calais Catholic Worker house. Gebre, sitting between his two friends, has just learned his mother has died. Deaths and sadness roll into the leaden silence. A fifteen year old Afghan boy, Abdullah, has been killed on the motorway trying to get to the UK and join his brother. Days later, Biniam, an Eritrean name meaning “Lucky Son”, met the same tragic fate.

Midday. The thin spread of pines and winter-bare trees of the Green Hotel offer minimal protection from the horizontal rain squalling relentlessly from the south-west. A huddle of young Eritreans are nursing a fire into life. They have firelighters, dry pine needles and a quantity of firewood, sawn up pallets, delivered by one of the volunteer associations working with refugees in Calais. A boy emerges from sleeping under an igloo of sleeping bags and plastic. A huge smile on his face, he says something and has everyone laughing. His plastic igloo has kept him dry. He gratefully accepts hot tea which he sweetens with two heaped dessert spoons of sugar. Away from the fire, the sound of a hammer driving in nails. Two guys are making a krar, a traditional five-stringed musical instrument. Later someone appears with a bicycle: the brake cables will be the strings.

Towards midday, people start to filter towards the “Church” for Sunday worship. “The Church”, a room-sized area bounded by a low wooden wall, once, perhaps, a safe play space for children, has no protection from the driving rain. The diakon (Eritrean Orthodox deacon) is struggling to light a candle. Others gather round him to provide shelter but the elements defeat them. We sit waiting on the peripheral wooden wall. Called to prayer by the daikon on the dot of midday, we form into standing rows and worship begins. Beneath the shrill whine of the wind and the flapping of the thin plastic ponchos worn by some of the worshippers, and the sound of the traffic on Autoroute 216, there is deep focus amongst the worshippers and a profound stillness. An hour into the worship, the daikon goes through an elaborate ritual of blessing water in a plastic bottle and then walks along the rows of worshippers sprinkling each of us with the holy water. We end prostrate on our knees, in deep reverential silence, our foreheads pressed to the sodden ground.

Mid-afternoon, the doorbell rings once again. Three guys and a young woman stand on the pavement outside the front door. I know them from the Green Hotel. “Charge, charge” says one of them. They need to charge their phones. Jamila, the young woman, has been tear gassed by the CRS. She asks for a shower. Another of the guys points to his head: “Panadol?” he asks. His head aches badly. He tells me he is so tired. I fetch him two paracetemol. Within moments, his head on his arms on the table, he’s asleep, exhausted. His friends, quietly sipping their tea, stare silently at the screens of their charging phones. Safety and respite for now; later, they will return to the raw cold and sleeplessness of the Green Hotel. Before they leave, one of them, Dawit, shows me what he has written: “Life is wrong, Life is walking. I hope, good always in my heart. Seven times down, number eight up. Life is a struggle, I will be successful. I pray to God to save me. I will win as God is with me. At last my life will be peaceful.”

*The Green Hotel is a sparsely wooded area on the fringes of Calais, home for some 100 Eritrean refugees hoping to get to the UK.

** https://catholicworkerfrance.wordpress.com/about/

23/03/2018

Pax Christi Scotland

A Pax Christi meeting in Glasgow looks like leading to exciting developments. Justice & Peace vice-chair Marian Pallister reflects on the possibilities.

The invitation went out last November – following an ecumenical Pax Christi conference last summer entitled Reclaiming Gospel Nonviolence, there was to be a meeting to explore setting up a Pax Christi Scotland. And so, on a chilly February Saturday, around 25 people from all over Scotland came together in Glasgow for that exploration.

It is perhaps testament to how important we felt this ‘exploration’ could be that delegates travelled from the Borders, from Aberdeenshire, and from Argyll, as well as from many parts of the central belt. Some were rooted in the anti nuclear campaign, others in Catholic Social Teaching that seeks, as Pope Francis has reminded us, to move towards a holistic nonviolent society. We all shared a hope for peace in all facets of society.

As the day progressed and our intentions rose to the surface of our discussions, it became clear that the majority shared the idea that Scotland has its own identity, its own culture, and its own picture of peace. We wanted a Pax Christi Scotland.

As we moved towards this conclusion, there was a surge of positivity. We may be about to punch above our weight, reach beyond our pay grade – any cliché in the book that suggests we will be very small fry in a very big pond – but if we don’t give it a try, we will simply sit on the coat tails of Pax Christi England and Wales, however efficient and effective that organisation may be. We have things to say on the international stage about peace, and establishing Pax Christi Scotland will allow our voice to be heard.

We will, of course, be bound by Pax Christi’s mission statement – why would any organisation with the temerity to aspire to being part of the international Pax Christi change a word? That statement speaks of:

• Peace – based on justice. A world where human rights are respected, basic needs are met and people feel safe and valued in their communities.

• Reconciliation – a process that begins when people try to mend relationships – between individuals or whole countries after times of violence or dispute.

• Nonviolence – a way of living and making choices that respects others and offers alternatives to violence and war.

But what an exciting step forward - and one that we hope will gather in all those who believe in the concept but have felt themselves on the fringe of something that mainly happens south of the border.

Baby steps, of course. There are procedures to follow and to enable them, we ended that Saturday meeting with hands going up to identify volunteers for a steering committee. Those of us whose hands seemed to rise of their own accord – or was that the Holy Spirit tugging and telling us there was a task for us to get on with? – are now wondering what fine mess we’ve got ourselves into this time, Ollie.

The idea is to start Pax Christi Scotland under the wing of Justice and Peace Scotland, which of course, shares and promotes all of the Pax Christi ideals. That will allow us to meet the criteria set down by Pax Christi International, seek the approval of the Scottish Bishops’ Conference and hopefully engage the interest of a Bishop President. When the time is right and the requirements have been fulfilled, we aim to fly solo.

We’re recruiting for peace! We – Grace Buckley, Hugh Foy, Rosalyn Mauchline and me – want to hear from you because we want everyone who believes in peace and nonviolence to share this exciting moment when this new initiative is in its embryonic state. Help us to nurture it. We can achieve peace if we work for justice.

16/03/2018

South Sudan - The Forgotton War

In our new blog Jennie Chinembiri reflects on the tragedy of South Sudan and a project in peace building undertaken by the Church of Scotland.

The first and only time I have visited South Sudan was in early 2012. As the newest nation in the world, it was a country full of hope. People were migrating from the North back to the South with a hope that they hadn’t had for years. This was their country and they were going to build this new nation up.

Sadly, less than two years later civil war broke out. It was devastating listening to our partners, hearing the stories of what was happening, and seeing pictures of buildings and homes that I had visited now lying in ruin or burnt to the ground. It was difficult to comprehend that Malakal, the town our church partners had been based in and the town I had spent time in, was now a ghost town.

What could we do to help? The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan visited our General Assembly in 2014 and told us how he stood at the entrance of the church compound in front of rebels with guns, and refused them entry. He had a duty to protect those in his care. The rebels listened and lives were spared.

It was on this visit that he invited our then Moderator, the Right Rev John Chalmers to visit Juba in 2015. During this visit John spent a morning with around 80 or so church members delivering a session on mediation. John told me how people had arrived at the session and met friends that they believed had been killed. It was a meeting at which emotions were raw.

After this session, our partner asked us to do more, and not to forget. So, we as a Church have embarked on a journey with the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan. We have begun working with them to deliver mediation skills and also touch on trauma healing. We have had two workshops, both in Nairobi due to security issues, at which we have begun to develop a deeper relationship with these church leaders and hear their stories first hand.

We are now looking forward to welcoming nine of these leaders to Scotland on 5th March for a two and a half week programme, which will focus on peace building, mediation and trauma healing, and will end with a retreat. We had hoped to bring 11 leaders, but two have had their visas rejected, something we are currently fighting and hoping the home secretary will overturn.

It is a privilege to work with these men and women who have experienced and seen a level of suffering that we can only imagine. They want to share their stories. They don’t want the world to forget about South Sudan. We hope that in some small way we can help them to do this.

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