A Call for Compassion and Unity

Dear Sisters and brothers,

I trust you have all had a good summer. My summer was as good as it was overwhelming as I found myself addressing and engaging in dialogue with hundreds of people across cities in New York and Florida in cathedrals, churches, community halls and mayoral offices. The theme throughout was centred on faith, forgiveness, love and resilience. I am constantly grateful to all those who continue to uphold me in prayer thus enabling me to be surrounded by the strength and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

During the summer, I noted that instead of the usual quiet reflection, some of our politicians have been actively emboldening anti-immigrant protestors within our communities. Cash-strapped councils were (and still are) being encouraged to use what little resources that should be spent in our communities, to fight unnecessary legal battles that in the end see no winners.

The Archbishop of York’s intervention regarding the treatment of those seeking asylum had many shouting that ‘the church should stay out of politics.’ Indeed, I also heard some who were happy to say they were Christians, echoing similar sentiments as well as adding that the story of the Good Samaritan was not about attending to the ‘stranger’ but instead, it was reminding those who walked on by ‘to look after their own.’

As we all get back into the swing of ministry, it is my hope that we (both lay and ordained) will hold front and centre the message of the cross which is one of love, forgiveness and compassion. The issues relating to migration are complex and need addressing at an international level. I am deeply saddened to see some holding political office trying to outdo each other in a bid to grab more votes and headlines. 

If we really care about all of God’s children in the one world that God has created, we must challenge the politicisation of this matter and the push to encourage fear of those who come to our shores. Here in our diocese, the place where the small boats enter, we have an opportunity to show compassion and to say that the fear being stirred up is not in our name.

I fully agree with the need to have secure borders, but that does not give us license to treat other human beings inhumanely. The UK’s flourishing is built on and depends upon those who come to live and work here from their places of origin. Our NHS, for example, would not survive without their contribution. People who seek to come here have the same hopes and dreams for their families as we have for ours; they want their children to be educated; they do not want to be affected detrimentally by climate change; they don’t want to go to bed hungry and have bombs and bullets reigning down on them. They are as human as we are and should not be treated as a political football or simply as statistics.

I trust that as a diocese, we will hold our local and national political leaders’ feet to the fire, encouraging them to speak truthfully about the challenges that we face and not simply blame all the ills of our country on those who enter our country to escape war, famine and persecution, or who simply seek a better life for them and their family; things we would no doubt wish for ourselves were we in the same situation.