Who is my Neighbour?
Reading the Bible “missionally” in light of the Global Refugee Crisis
By Charlotte Olhausen

– “30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30:31)

● Aim of talk: In light of the refugee crisis, to stand in solidarity with people seeking refuge across the world through engagement with the biblical scripture, through prayer and through action. This talk aims to teach us why it is of such importance that Christians engage with the migrant crisis.

What you will need for the talk:
● A Bible
● Powerpoint with pictures and the readings (optional)
● 6 people to do the readings – perhaps three children and three adults/teenagers.
● A stand up flip sheet chart and two coloured pens to outline Tearfund’s theory of poverty (optional)
● Tearfund’s theory of poverty (optional) http://tilz.tearfund.org/en/themes/church/tearfunds_faith-based_approach/)

Opening Activity:
What is poverty?
● When you hear the word poverty, what sort of words spring to mind? People can give their responses to be put up on the flipchart – in our experience these are often a mixture of material and physical things with perhaps one or two non-physical things. Is poverty just about the amount of ‘stuff’ we possess?
● The World Bank did a study some years ago called Voices of the Poor, interviewing many living in poverty according to the World Bank criteria about what poverty meant for them. Their answers used words like isolated, alone, helpless, no voice, full of fear, useless, worthless, rubbish, ashamed.
● These are words that describe feelings and relationships – there is something about poverty that is grounded in relationships that are currently unhealthy, unequal and unjust – and so poverty alleviation needs to look at restoring of relationships in a holistic way, with God, self, others and the environment. When we speak about this restoration of relationships we are referring to all people – rich, poor and in-between. All of our lifestyles and choices perpetuate the current system that keeps the majority of the world poor. All of us need to be reconnected to God and to each other.

Introduction:

As Christians, we turn to the biblical text for wisdom and guidance during a time of crisis e.g. during a time of illness, when we need encouragement to help another etc. So, why wouldn’t we do the same in light of the global refugee crisis?
Much of Jesus’ ministry is aimed at the “other” or the most vulnerable members of society…coupled with our own Christian story of exile and the fact that Jesus himself was a refugee…makes for a pretty solid reason to really utilise the scripture as a tool to engage with the migrant crisis, right?

Statistics:

● The migrant crisis is a global issue with people currently fleeing conflict in countries such as Myanmar, Syria, Iraq, Iran, South Sudan and Yemen. The wars in Syria and Iraq alone have caused millions to flee their homes to escape violence, poverty and persecution.
● UN statistic: 12.3 million people have fled their homes since fighting broke out in Syria in 2011. 6.6 million are internally displaced with up to 13.5 million people within Syria needing humanitarian assistance.
● How do you feel after hearing these statistics – what is your initial response? Each number that makes up a statistic is a person, infinitely loved by the Almighty God.

1. Our Christian faith is built upon the story of the people fleeing from Egypt.

-Check out this short video for an overview of the Exodus story

Reader: Deuteronomy 26:7-9 “7 Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. 8 So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,with great terror and with signs and wonders. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

This is also the Story of God’s people – displacement and vulnerability are part of the Church’s DNA and Church’s story e.g. exile of the early Church. There are many parallels to be drawn between the Exodus story of Moses leading God’s people out of Egypt and the refugees fleeing conflict and insecurity today.

Not only do I have the right to a flourishing life, everyone does. We should all experience this quality of life. Flourishing is not about accumulating wealth and keeping up with the Jones’. It is about having Enough and living a life of contentment with Enough. Now is the time we need to take up the call to better our relationships with those suffering across the globe so that they may experience a better quality of life. – For Jesus came that we may have this sort of life and have it “to the full” (John 10:10).

2. The Parable of the Good Samaritan/love of neighbour/Jesus identification with human suffering
● In society there tends to be a suspicion/fear surrounding those from distant cultures, or the “other”, as we often perceive them to be.

Reader: Deuteronomy 1:16 – 16 And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. 17 Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.”

● What does this passage tell us? It tells us two things: firstly, it is not our place to judge others – ultimately this is God’s job. Secondly, although it is a natural part of our being human to notice the differences between ourselves and others, we should always be willing to challenge any preconceptions and prejudices that can arise from this initial ‘noticing’ so that it does not build barriers in our hearts and in our interactions with others.
● What else does the Bible say about how we should respond to the stranger/the other/the foreigner? Take the parable of the Good Samaritan…

Reader: Luke 10:25-37 25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

● In fact, throughout the Bible we see that Jesus’ ministry focuses on the love of the poor and vulnerable, namely the foreigner, the widow and the child.
● Martin Luther King Junior said ‘On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.’ So as we focus on those who are vulnerable, we don’t just look to meet their immediate need, but we look to why they are vulnerable and seek to change the root causes and not just the symptoms of the problem.

Reader: Matthew 25: 34-39: 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 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, 36 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.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

● In the Bible there are constant reminders of God’s presence with us in our suffering. How? It is through his spirit that God is here with us. It is also through his spirit that we are convicted to stand with those suffering. By His Spirit we draw upon God’s infinite reserves of compassion and we allow them to flow through us and through our Christian witness.
● If we do not respond to the suffering of others, this inaction in turn, denies our love for God.

3. Jesus as a Refugee Child

Reader: Matthew 2:13-14: 13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,

● Jesus can identify with refugees because he was a refugee himself. Jesus acts as a model of hope in the suffering of the refugees. If we are willing to accept Jesus the refugee into our lives, then surely this same acceptance applies to those fleeing in need of our help.
● This involves the reforming of the language we associate to refugees, the way we view them with our eyes and ultimately how we choose to respond to them. By doing this we can reverse the effects of self-absorption or self-prioritising as we are called as the people of God to stand in solidarity with others.

Looking forward:

By looking at the scripture through a missional lens we can see that it is very much part of our calling as Christians to help and engage with the “other”, the foreigner, the poor. As a Church community, we must not turn a blind eye to this. In doing so, we are blessed.

● Give: This can be done by donating to the cause or it can involve giving your time. Bishops’ Appeal is providing grants for people who wish to gain a qualification in TEFL and use this skill to volunteer with migrants and refugees. For more information email: bishopsappeal@ireland.anglican.org

● Act: Add your name to the Register of Pledges run by the Irish Red Cross to join in providing integrated support to refugees and migrants. Once registered, you can pledge offers of accommodation, goods and services http://registerofpledges.redcross.ie/#/ Speak up for those who are vulnerable and scapegoated. Be a voice that offers an alternative way of seeing the world than the dividing and fearmongering view of ‘us and them’.

● Pray: a major way we can help is through prayer. Especially when we come together

● Some links to give you more information on the migrant crisis and ways to get involved:
– https://www.redcross.ie/
– http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/Irish_Refugee_Protection_Programme_(IRPP)
– http://www.tearfund.ie/get_involved/churches/

Powerpoint Slides for Readings: Reading the Bible _missionally_ Talk

Click here for Appeal Letter: +Patrick Rooke Bishops Appeal Harvest Letter

Focus on Cyprus

This week, during World Refugee Week, the Anglican Alliance is showcasing examples where Anglican and Episcopal churches around the world are responding to refugees with practical assistance, welcoming refugees in to their communities and discovering mutual enrichment through this engagement.

Food: The International Language

Last month in Cyprus a new initiative began at St Barnabas Church, Limassol within the Diocese of Cyprus & the Gulf to help, enable and encourage migrants and refugees living in the area to integrate more effectively, whilst making them feel valued and welcomed. The initiative was thought up by Revd Christine Goldsmith and Claire Loizides, an ecumenical partner who heads up the St Catherine’s Catholic Agapi migrant centre in Limassol. The initiative involves migrants, refugees, members of St Barnabas congregation and St Catherine’s Catholic church coming together to teach each other how to cook each other’s national dishes. Funding has been granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s fund to enable this idea to become a reality.

The first session involved three Egyptian ladies teaching others gathered how to make one of their traditional dishes. Seventeen ladies joined in from 10 different nationalities including Syrian, Afghani, Egyptian, Filipino, Columbian, Italian, and not forgetting English and Welsh!

Refugees from across Cyprus from Pafos, Limassol and Kofinou camp joined in the fun. Despite the language barriers everyone enjoyed themselves and were able to communicate through the food as well as the laughter and smiles.

One member of St Barnabas Church who joined in the sessions said, “It has been a wonderful fun filled morning and a great pleasure to spend time with these special ladies, as well as tasting such amazing food.”

It is hoped these classes will continue and grow so that many more may join over the coming months.

Anglicans from the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf have been supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Cyprus for a number of years in practical and imaginative ways within the local context in Cyprus. Volunteers from across Cyprus have given time and resources to work as part of the team of volunteers at Kofinou refugee camp, along with volunteers from other organisations. Together they have established a volunteers distribution centre where donations can be organised and processed and so that welcome packs and toiletries, clothing, and items for children, along with other necessary items, can be distributed to those in need.

Other ways in which the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf has responded is to distribute Christmas shoeboxes with presents to the camp residents, and to collect donations of books in Arabic and Farsi to provide books for children to receive education in their own language and to give alternative activities for adult readers

Focus on Jordan

 

In Jordan the local church is working to respond to the practical needs of refugees with disabilities living in the refugee camps.

 

The Holy Land Institute for Deaf and Deaf-blind Children has been working with children with disabilities in Jordan for over 50 years after its foundation by the Episcopal Church in Jordan.

The Holy Land Institute has been an “early responder” in Za’atari refugee camp in the north of Jordan, where 80,000 refugees now live, having been involved with assisting refugees with disabilities and their families since the formation of the camp in 2012.

The wider context in Jordan, as of April 2017, is that 733,210 refugees have been registered in Jordan with UNHCR, with the large majority arriving from Syria (657,621 refugees) and the next largest group from Iraq (62,445 refugees). UNHCR data places Jordan as hosting the second largest number of refugees globally, relative to the size of its population, with 89 refugees for every 1000 inhabitants.

The Holy Land Institute, together with four other organisations making up the Disability Network, runs a disability centre in the camp to provide hearing tests, hearing aids, eye tests and glasses for refugees. The organisations in the network complement each other to provide assistance to cover a range of impairments that cause visual, hearing, physical/mobility and intellectual disabilities, as well as neurological and medical issues.

Since work commenced at the centre more than 3,000 children have received help, together with young and elderly people with hearing, visual or mental disabilities. Each day, 75 children come into the centre to receive help with hearing devices, therapy, education and even just support and friendship from Holy Land Institute staff and the centre’s 14 volunteers.  Specialist staff from the network of Jordanian disability-specific organisations regularly visit the camp.

Isobel Owen, Programme Officer at the Anglican Alliance, and Janice Proud, its Relief Manager, visited the centre in Za’atari refugee camp in April 2017.

Reflecting on the experience, Isobel said: “Within a context of great need, the Holy Land Institute and the Network have responded to the most vulnerable, regardless of faith or nationality, and have brought their expertise and skills in to close a gap in service provision in the camp.”

 

 

 

This year during World Refugee Week, the Anglican Alliance has joined other Christian bodies to make a common statement on respecting the dignity and rights of refugees.

The Anglican Alliance joined a group of 20 Christian organisations in issuing a statement to mark World Refugee Day. The statement celebrates solidarity and learning, and calls for more shared responsibility the refugee response.
Read the full statement here:
Refugees: An opportunity to grow together

The Christian Bible tells the story of two men, Peter and Cornelius, utterly divided by religious belief and culture, who in encountering each other discovered a truth about God’s common will for them that neither had previously grasped. They learnt that the Holy Spirit brings down walls and unites those who might think that they have nothing in common.

All around the world, women, men, and children are forced by violence, persecution, natural and human-caused disasters, famine, and other factors, to leave their homelands. Their desire to escape suffering is stronger than the barriers erected to block their way. The opposition by some countries to the migration of forcibly displaced people will not keep those who undergo unbearable suffering from leaving their homes.

Wealthy countries cannot evade their responsibility for the wounds inflicted on our planet – environmental disasters, the arms trade, developmental inequality – that drive forced migration and human trafficking. While it is true that the arrival of migrants in more developed countries can present real and significant challenges, it can also be an opportunity for openness and change. Pope Francis poses this question to us: “How can we experience these changes not as obstacles to genuine development, but rather as opportunities for genuine human, social and spiritual growth?” Societies that find the courage and the vision to go beyond the fear of foreigners and migrants soon discover the riches that migrants bring with them, and always have.

If we, as a human family, insist on only ever seeing refugees as a burden, we deprive ourselves of the opportunities for solidarity that are also always opportunities for mutual learning, mutual enrichment, and mutual growth.

It is not enough for Christians to profess to love Christ: belief is authentic only if it is expressed in loving action. We are one Body of Christ, undivided. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “It is only through Jesus Christ that we are brothers and sisters of one another…. Through Christ our mutual belonging is real, integral, and for all time.” If we are one body, we are knitted into a solidarity that defines us and makes demands of us.

Signs of solidarity can be multiplied beyond the borders of religion and culture. Meeting believers of other persuasions encourages us to deepen our knowledge of our own faith, and in our encounter with our refugee brothers and sisters, God speaks to us and blesses us as He did Cornelius and Peter.

In every genuine encounter, an exchange of gifts takes place. Sharing with others what we have and own, we discover that all is given freely by God. At the same time, in welcoming those whom we encounter, we meet the God who is always already present with the vulnerable, at the peripheries, and in the other.

Increasingly around the world we witness the building of walls to keep out the displaced: not just physical walls, but also walls of fear, prejudice, hatred, and ideology. Let us all, as one human family, strive to build bridges of solidarity rather than walls of division. Our refugee sisters and brothers present us with opportunities for mutual enrichment and flourishing: it is God who brings us together.

With the development of new international frameworks – Global Compacts on Migrants and on Refugees – in 2018, States should not only ensure a more effective responsibility-sharing in response to large movements, but they should also accept the opportunity to recognize and highlight the significant contributions that refugees and migrants make in their host communities.

ACT Alliance

Alboan

Anglican Alliance

Caritas Internationalis

Catholic Charities USA

Community of Sant’Egidio

Dominicans for Justice and Peace

Entreculturas

International Union of Superior Generals (UISG)

Franciscans International

Jesuit Refugee Service

Lutheran World Federation

Pax Christi International

Scalabrinian Missionaries

Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN)

Talitha Kum – Worldwide Network of Religious Life against Trafficking in Persons

Union of Superior Generals (USG)

Vivat International

Voices of Faith

World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO)

World Refugee Day, 20th June 2017