This press release has just been issued: Bishops call on Prime Minister to provide “meaningful and substantial response” to refugee crisis
17 October 2015
The Church of England today has published a letter sent to the Prime Minister in early September signed by 84 of its bishops calling for the Government to increase the number of Syrian refugees being resettled to this country “to a minimum of 50,000” over the next five years.
Referring to the situation in Syria as “one of the largest refugee crises ever recorded” the Bishops write that “a moral crisis of this magnitude calls each and all of us to play our parts.”
Calling directly on the Prime Minister to increase his current offer to accept 20,000 refugees over the next 5 years to 50,000 the Bishops write:
“We believe such is this country’s great tradition of sanctuary and generosity of spirit that we could feasibly resettle at least 10,000 people a year for the next two years, rising to a minimum of 50,000 in total over the five year period you foresaw in your announcement. Such a number would bring us into line with comparable commitments made by other countries. It would be a meaningful and substantial response to the scale of human suffering we see daily.”
In addition to “recognising and applauding” the announcements made by the Prime Minister the Bishops offer help from the Church of England in encouraging their churches to provide welcome, housing and foster care to refugees as well as to support the Government in its ongoing efforts.
In their letter the Bishops also called for the creation of a National Welcome and Resettlement Board, mirroring the successful work of such boards created by Government in response to past refugee crises in the 1950s and 1970s. Since the writing of the letter the board has been created with the Bishop of Durham serving as co-chair of the board.
Speaking on behalf of the bishops, the Rt. Revd. Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham said:
“The Archbishop of York recently said that the current situation has rightly been described as a refugee crisis but it is also a time of opportunity for us as a country and for our wider continent. The opportunity before us is to rise above narrow self-interest, however defined, and to embrace the highest parts of our humanity.
We recognise that both the Prime Minister and His Government responded to calls from the country for there to be a programme of resettlement and we are grateful to him for responding to those calls. However there is a real urgency to this issue with those increasingly being forced from their land as their homes are literally bombed into the ground. As the fighting intensifies, as the sheer scale of human misery becomes greater, the Government’s response seems increasingly inadequate to meet the scale and severity of the problem. It is disheartening that we have not received any substantive reply despite an assurance from the Prime Minister that one would be received. There is an urgent and compelling moral duty to act which we as bishops are offering to facilitate alongside others from across civil society.”
ENDS
The full text of the letter follows.
Rt Hon David Cameron MP
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
10 September 2015
Dear Prime Minister,
Like you, your Government, and the people of our nation we are deeply concerned for the refugee crisis that we have to face together. We are grateful to you and your ministers for the conversations they have already held with the Archbishop of Canterbury and others around these issues.
We pray for the millions of people fleeing war and violence in one of the largest refugee crises ever recorded, and we remember those who have tragically died seeking sanctuary on European shores: those like Alan Kurdi, the three year old boy who heartbreakingly died and was washed up on a beach in Turkey.
It is a command in Judaism , “to welcome and love the stranger as you would yourself because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”. Followers of Islam are obliged to provide food, shelter and safety to the traveller. Christ himself and his family were refugees. We are reminded that in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral there is a 17th century notice which pays tribute to “the large and liberal spirit of the English church and the glorious asylum which England has in all times given to foreigners flying for refuge against oppression and tyranny.”
Such traditions and prayers must be joined with action. A moral crisis of this magnitude calls each and all of us to play our parts.
We recognise and applaud the leadership you and your government are showing in this crisis, both as one of the world’s top international donors and the recent announcement that the government will resettle 20,000 people over the next five years.
We stand ready to play our part as well. We will:
1. Encourage our church members to work alongside the wider community in offering welcome, orientation, integration, sign-posting and support to all refugees who come
2. Encourage, where possible and feasible, churches, congregations and individuals to make rental properties and spare housing available for use by resettled refugees.
3. Promote and support foster caring among churches, congregations and individuals where appropriate to help find the homes needed to care for the increasing number of unaccompanied minors
4. Pray for, act with and stand alongside your government, to rise to the challenge that this crisis poses to our shared humanity
From what we see in congregations across the United Kingdom we are confident that the country stands ready and willing to support the government to be even more ambitious as it responds to this historic crisis.
We believe such is this country’s great tradition of sanctuary and generosity of spirit that we could feasibly resettle at least 10,000 people a year for the next two years, rising to a minimum of 50,000 in total over the five year period you foresaw in your announcement. Such a number would bring us into line with comparable commitments made by other countries. It would be a meaningful and substantial response to the scale of human suffering we see daily.
We believe that should a National Welcome and Resettlement Board be established in response to the crisis drawing together civic, corporate and government leadership to coordinate efforts and mobilise the nation as in times past, such an effort would not be beyond the British people. A senior Bishop would gladly serve on such a board on our behalf and at your pleasure.
This letter is written to you privately at present. The College of Bishops meets in Oxford next week and will spend some time on Thursday 17th considering our practical response. If you were able to respond to me ahead of that date it would help our discussions.
Faithfully,
for full list of signatories, go here, and scroll down
A most encouraging initiative on the part of the Church of England’s Bishops! This ought encourage all Anglicans around the world to respond to this international humanitarian crisis – in order to fulfil the requirement of the Gospel for a radical inclusive hospitality that ought mark out the Body of Christ. In a similar spirit, it would be lovely for the Church of England’s House of Bishops to offer hospitality to the ‘Stranger Within its gates’ – those of the LGBTQ community who need to be seen as part and parcel of the wonderful mix of humanity that makes up… Read more »
It’s morally commendable, but are we really going to peddle the notion that Our Lord was a refugee? because Herod ‘slew all the little childer’ and all that? That’s why we’d do it?
Just listened to the Sunday programme to a Syrian Archbishop who thinks the letter is charitable but not the right solution.Surely he is more in touch than this grouping, which includes several non bishops. keep them in Turkey, with substantial aid and help. Then they are more likely to return to Syria, once the civil war ends.
Our Lord certainly was a refugee – Matthew 2.13-15 says that he was taken to Egypt by his parents as they fled from their homeland fearing violence from a brutal despot.
It’s overwhelmingly likely that the birth narratives are theological fiction, and that Jesus of Nazareth, born in Nazareth, never fled from a place he’d never been to escape a massacre that never happened.
Moreover, I’ll bet that plenty bishops don’t believe it, either. Not that they’d ever say. As usual, it’s so much easier to keep quiet.
I do, however, agree with their call to take more refugees.
You don’t have to believe the birth stories verbatim to see a Biblical reason to support refugees:
“”Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” Exodus 22:21
Or, if you prefer the New Testament:
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…” Matthew 25:35
Re Pat O’Neill, “You don’t have to believe the birth stories verbatim to see a Biblical reason to support refugees” Exactly right, and your other citations are poignant. Notwithstanding, I think the symbolism in the infancy narrative, even as a kind of midrash, is powerful. It highlights, in the symbol of Jesus as the Christ, the unchanging narrative of the poor as pawn in the grip of mercantile imperialism. The infancy narrative, in this instance and in its own way, under-grids the contemporary notion of the preferential option for the poor. It’s an example, with reference to the kingdom of… Read more »
Three Cheers for the Anglican 84. Made me feel quite nostalgic for the good old days when the Church of England was effectively the Party of Opposition and it was Runcie v Thatcher. Yes, I remember it well and how irritated Maggie was with Bob’s Falkland Islands sermon at St. Paul’s. “Faith in the City” and “The Church and the Bomb” were two reports that had an enormous impact and contributed significantly to the debate. Much more meaty than the latest offering on whether or not to close rural churches or turn them into “Festival Churches”. So, well done to… Read more »
Yes, Pat, that’s exactly my beef: so many texts could have been used rather the Christmas story, but I bet that, since Christmastide’s already upon us the ‘our Lord was a Middle-Eastern refugee’ meme will be everywhere.