Post by JEM on Oct 29, 2007 2:33:36 GMT
An eye witness account of the Ecumenical Service for United Nations Sunday
==========================================
held at the Parish Church Saffron Walden on the evening of Sunday October 28 2007, attended by the Mayor, Town Clerk , Mace Bearer, 3 councillors, and a colour party from Carver Barracks in a service conducted by Revd Lee Batson and a congregation from all the churches of about 30.
Including, A verbatim précis report of the sermon preached by the Revd Robert Wiggs Advisor for Asylum and Refugees to the Bishop of Chelmsford.
Readings included
###############
The Preamble to the UN Charter read by the Mayor Councillor Sarfraz Anjum
The Scriptures: Leviticus 19 v 33-34, Hebrews 13 v 2 -3, Matthew 25 vv 31-40 (NIV) read by John Maddams of the Baptist Church
The Message from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon read by Kathryn Fiddock CTSW lay representative from St Mary‘s Parish Church, for Churches Together in Saffron Walden
Prayers were led by Revd Murray George, Minister of the United Reformed Church
Notices were given by Canon Michael Swindlehurst of Saffron Walden United Nations Association.
Hymns were
=========
“For the Healing of the Nations”
“Lord of all power I give you my will”
“God is love let heaven adore Him”
A retiring collection was received for the United Nation’s High Commission for Refugees
==============================================
Notes of the sermon preached by Revd Robert Wiggs Advisor for Asylum and Refugees to the Bishop of Chelmsford
==============================================
The Geneva Convention, signed up to in 1951, states “A refugee is someone who has a well founded fear of persecution”
Some politicians now consider it to be out of date--meaning it is inconvenient.
Our society, us, need Conversion.
I was a Parish Priest from 1980 - 1999 in parishes at Stratford, East Ham and Grays in struggling churches in struggling communities.
At East Ham in the mid 1980’s we experienced the arrival of shivering Africans, loyal Anglicans from Africa, who turned up on our church doorsteps.
We gave them clothes, friendship and support. They gave us a great sense of the meaning of our Bible Stories which came alive in them. We were converted in our own story too
Our Church Council was brought up like a jolt to reality and actually offered these asylum seekers our church buildings as places of sanctuary. We went to the High Court on their behalf to plead for them. One woman was about to be transported back to certain death and we pleaded for her and she still lives in Epping where she is working as a social worker.
At Grays our religion had meant something in the 1950’s but it meant nothing in the 1990’s.
We were converted to children by the children who threw stones at the church and broke the windows’ for they had nothing better to do. We opened a Youth Club for them.
We were converted to the plight of the homeless by a tramp, who came as a stranger to the vicarage begging, We took him in and made him into a friend. In 8 years I buried 15 such strangers who had become my friends.
So we were ready when the refugees from Kosovo arrived, we were prepared to give them sanctuary and care. We provided accommodation and clothing and we persuaded the supermarkets to accept vouchers from them for food.
The Church had to learn to change.
Our whole British society has to learn to change.
In the 1950’s we could happily talk of “wogs” and “spados” referring to Africans and the handicapped. That is no longer acceptable talk. That much we have changed. Apartheid was overthrown by a victory of language. The Jubilee Campaign began to change our attitude to international poverty and world trading inequalities.
Climate change is the big topic today, which a small number of greatly concerned scientists have been worried about for years, and now it has reached the top of international agendas and millions are demanding change.
We have to have a similar change, a similar conversion, to the matter of asylum seekers.
In the Chelmsford suburb in which I now live a decision had been made to change a certain house into a hostel for homeless asylum seekers.
This caused a great public outcry, as it would change the character of the community. Rumours spread and were taken up by the local news papers that this was going to be a hostel for paedophiles .
The mayor led a petition campaign against it. The local MP wrote a letter saying he was not prepared to support in his constituency a hostel for sex offenders.
These were just for homeless strangers, aliens here who had fled from their countries in fear of their lives, seeking our protection and justice.
I spent half an hour on the phone talking to this MP until he promised to do his best to help. So one small victory was won.
In politics lying comes with the territory. Some lies are traditional, part of diplomacy covering up what is secret. The modern lie is to ignore the truth which is already in the public domain but is inconvenient to accept.
It also deals with what the public could know, but the politicians do not want them to know. Often the information is available in the public domain but the will is lacking to do what is right.
Adolf Eichman who signed the death warrants of thousands of people was asked afterwards how he could do such a thing to real living people and his reply was that it was “office talk”, part of the administration. “We did not deal with people but with numbers and statistics which had to be eliminated.”
Today it is the same in modern Britain. Faceless bureaucrats have their own jargon to avoid reality.
“We send them back to the places they really want to be” ( Maybe, but not at present for they will be arrested and shot on arrival) .
“Our policy is Fair“. (but to whom?)
“It is not our government’s policy to send them to their deaths” In other words it is not our responsibility as to what happens to them when they arrive there.
“It’s safe to send them back” (without checking whether it is?)
Asylum seekers are victims, needing help, not criminals to be punished.
Our system becomes inhumane when the citizens know what is going on but society does nothing about it. We have to change our society and our system.
I’ve been around refugees a long time. I do what I can.
Romeo, a young man from Congo, applied to the Bishop of Chelmsford, and we discussed his position with the Immigration authorities. He had been on the run since 1996. He had been tortured and I saw the marks of that torture on his body.
He had been a street child in Libreville. As his mother was a Ghanaian he took ship to Ghana where someone paid his air fare to the UK and he arrived here in 2001 and he moved from hostel to hostel.
In 2005 he was detained for participating in a public demonstration on behalf of asylum seekers. Before his friends could discover where he was to represent him he was taken to court and represented by a barrister who did not know him. His application to remain in the UK was turned down.
From then on he was moved from prison to prison which effected his mental state and he became very angry which in turn did not help him.
He was then sent back to Brazzaville in Congo. When the authorities there discovered he had a Ghanaian mother he was regarded as the responsibility of Ghana and sent him there. Ghana sent him back to London where he was put in Wormwood Scrubs Prison where he still is.
He was offered bail on a surety of £500 but we decided not to pay it as he would have been let out into the community in a mentally unstable state. He is safer in prison.
He is a man, but he has become a parcel passed around the world.
In our prisons there are many prisoners that no one knows where they come from.
Since the terrorist attacks some 900 asylum seekers are in High Security Prisons just because no one knows where they have come from.
Then there is Marion. She comes from Pakistan. She was a Moslem and married but was divorced and lives in the UK with her brother in Walthamstow,
Her case for asylum failed in 2004. In 2005 she became a Christian at Leyton, but she has faced persecution for changing her religion and if she has to go back to Pakistan she will likely die for doing that. The only barrister offered for her appeal is himself a Moslem and is therefore biased against her. She is alone in this world apart from her brother and the Church and without help these 10 years.
One organisation claims that there are over 500.000 asylum seekers in the UK. The authorities are dealing with 16,000 applications a year so it will take 25 years to clear the backlog and the numbers may go on increasing. 75% of the congregations in 4 London Parishes are regarded as illegal immigrants seeking asylum here.
An Independent Asylum Commission is touring the country gathering evidence and building a dossier to produce a report on the problems facing asylum seekers in time for the next General Election.
Our Nation needs to be converted to what is going on in our name by the authorities in the drip, drip, drip of erosion of human rights. Things are wrong!.
Hebrews 13 verses 2 and 3 reminds us
“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated, as if you yourselves were suffering”.
Matthew 25 reminds us that Jesus taught “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 . I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me”
And the Righteous asked “When?” and Jesus replied “ I tell you the truth ,whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me! “
(We do well also to read verses 41 - 46 when Jesus dealt with those who did not help, for that is the destiny facing those who do not help the strangers within our gates).
#########################################
==========================================
held at the Parish Church Saffron Walden on the evening of Sunday October 28 2007, attended by the Mayor, Town Clerk , Mace Bearer, 3 councillors, and a colour party from Carver Barracks in a service conducted by Revd Lee Batson and a congregation from all the churches of about 30.
Including, A verbatim précis report of the sermon preached by the Revd Robert Wiggs Advisor for Asylum and Refugees to the Bishop of Chelmsford.
Readings included
###############
The Preamble to the UN Charter read by the Mayor Councillor Sarfraz Anjum
The Scriptures: Leviticus 19 v 33-34, Hebrews 13 v 2 -3, Matthew 25 vv 31-40 (NIV) read by John Maddams of the Baptist Church
The Message from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon read by Kathryn Fiddock CTSW lay representative from St Mary‘s Parish Church, for Churches Together in Saffron Walden
Prayers were led by Revd Murray George, Minister of the United Reformed Church
Notices were given by Canon Michael Swindlehurst of Saffron Walden United Nations Association.
Hymns were
=========
“For the Healing of the Nations”
“Lord of all power I give you my will”
“God is love let heaven adore Him”
A retiring collection was received for the United Nation’s High Commission for Refugees
==============================================
Notes of the sermon preached by Revd Robert Wiggs Advisor for Asylum and Refugees to the Bishop of Chelmsford
==============================================
The Geneva Convention, signed up to in 1951, states “A refugee is someone who has a well founded fear of persecution”
Some politicians now consider it to be out of date--meaning it is inconvenient.
Our society, us, need Conversion.
I was a Parish Priest from 1980 - 1999 in parishes at Stratford, East Ham and Grays in struggling churches in struggling communities.
At East Ham in the mid 1980’s we experienced the arrival of shivering Africans, loyal Anglicans from Africa, who turned up on our church doorsteps.
We gave them clothes, friendship and support. They gave us a great sense of the meaning of our Bible Stories which came alive in them. We were converted in our own story too
Our Church Council was brought up like a jolt to reality and actually offered these asylum seekers our church buildings as places of sanctuary. We went to the High Court on their behalf to plead for them. One woman was about to be transported back to certain death and we pleaded for her and she still lives in Epping where she is working as a social worker.
At Grays our religion had meant something in the 1950’s but it meant nothing in the 1990’s.
We were converted to children by the children who threw stones at the church and broke the windows’ for they had nothing better to do. We opened a Youth Club for them.
We were converted to the plight of the homeless by a tramp, who came as a stranger to the vicarage begging, We took him in and made him into a friend. In 8 years I buried 15 such strangers who had become my friends.
So we were ready when the refugees from Kosovo arrived, we were prepared to give them sanctuary and care. We provided accommodation and clothing and we persuaded the supermarkets to accept vouchers from them for food.
The Church had to learn to change.
Our whole British society has to learn to change.
In the 1950’s we could happily talk of “wogs” and “spados” referring to Africans and the handicapped. That is no longer acceptable talk. That much we have changed. Apartheid was overthrown by a victory of language. The Jubilee Campaign began to change our attitude to international poverty and world trading inequalities.
Climate change is the big topic today, which a small number of greatly concerned scientists have been worried about for years, and now it has reached the top of international agendas and millions are demanding change.
We have to have a similar change, a similar conversion, to the matter of asylum seekers.
In the Chelmsford suburb in which I now live a decision had been made to change a certain house into a hostel for homeless asylum seekers.
This caused a great public outcry, as it would change the character of the community. Rumours spread and were taken up by the local news papers that this was going to be a hostel for paedophiles .
The mayor led a petition campaign against it. The local MP wrote a letter saying he was not prepared to support in his constituency a hostel for sex offenders.
These were just for homeless strangers, aliens here who had fled from their countries in fear of their lives, seeking our protection and justice.
I spent half an hour on the phone talking to this MP until he promised to do his best to help. So one small victory was won.
In politics lying comes with the territory. Some lies are traditional, part of diplomacy covering up what is secret. The modern lie is to ignore the truth which is already in the public domain but is inconvenient to accept.
It also deals with what the public could know, but the politicians do not want them to know. Often the information is available in the public domain but the will is lacking to do what is right.
Adolf Eichman who signed the death warrants of thousands of people was asked afterwards how he could do such a thing to real living people and his reply was that it was “office talk”, part of the administration. “We did not deal with people but with numbers and statistics which had to be eliminated.”
Today it is the same in modern Britain. Faceless bureaucrats have their own jargon to avoid reality.
“We send them back to the places they really want to be” ( Maybe, but not at present for they will be arrested and shot on arrival) .
“Our policy is Fair“. (but to whom?)
“It is not our government’s policy to send them to their deaths” In other words it is not our responsibility as to what happens to them when they arrive there.
“It’s safe to send them back” (without checking whether it is?)
Asylum seekers are victims, needing help, not criminals to be punished.
Our system becomes inhumane when the citizens know what is going on but society does nothing about it. We have to change our society and our system.
I’ve been around refugees a long time. I do what I can.
Romeo, a young man from Congo, applied to the Bishop of Chelmsford, and we discussed his position with the Immigration authorities. He had been on the run since 1996. He had been tortured and I saw the marks of that torture on his body.
He had been a street child in Libreville. As his mother was a Ghanaian he took ship to Ghana where someone paid his air fare to the UK and he arrived here in 2001 and he moved from hostel to hostel.
In 2005 he was detained for participating in a public demonstration on behalf of asylum seekers. Before his friends could discover where he was to represent him he was taken to court and represented by a barrister who did not know him. His application to remain in the UK was turned down.
From then on he was moved from prison to prison which effected his mental state and he became very angry which in turn did not help him.
He was then sent back to Brazzaville in Congo. When the authorities there discovered he had a Ghanaian mother he was regarded as the responsibility of Ghana and sent him there. Ghana sent him back to London where he was put in Wormwood Scrubs Prison where he still is.
He was offered bail on a surety of £500 but we decided not to pay it as he would have been let out into the community in a mentally unstable state. He is safer in prison.
He is a man, but he has become a parcel passed around the world.
In our prisons there are many prisoners that no one knows where they come from.
Since the terrorist attacks some 900 asylum seekers are in High Security Prisons just because no one knows where they have come from.
Then there is Marion. She comes from Pakistan. She was a Moslem and married but was divorced and lives in the UK with her brother in Walthamstow,
Her case for asylum failed in 2004. In 2005 she became a Christian at Leyton, but she has faced persecution for changing her religion and if she has to go back to Pakistan she will likely die for doing that. The only barrister offered for her appeal is himself a Moslem and is therefore biased against her. She is alone in this world apart from her brother and the Church and without help these 10 years.
One organisation claims that there are over 500.000 asylum seekers in the UK. The authorities are dealing with 16,000 applications a year so it will take 25 years to clear the backlog and the numbers may go on increasing. 75% of the congregations in 4 London Parishes are regarded as illegal immigrants seeking asylum here.
An Independent Asylum Commission is touring the country gathering evidence and building a dossier to produce a report on the problems facing asylum seekers in time for the next General Election.
Our Nation needs to be converted to what is going on in our name by the authorities in the drip, drip, drip of erosion of human rights. Things are wrong!.
Hebrews 13 verses 2 and 3 reminds us
“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated, as if you yourselves were suffering”.
Matthew 25 reminds us that Jesus taught “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 . I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me”
And the Righteous asked “When?” and Jesus replied “ I tell you the truth ,whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me! “
(We do well also to read verses 41 - 46 when Jesus dealt with those who did not help, for that is the destiny facing those who do not help the strangers within our gates).
#########################################