The Refugee Crisis: will the Church give, act and speak out?
DURING ELECTION campaigns, vox pops capturing the concerns of people from around the country are broadcast daily on the radio. I fond myself wondering what the results would be if a similar vox pop was done surveying only Church of Ireland members. Would we highlight valid yet very personal concerns as top priority issues, or would the Church look beyond who will serve its needs best and look to who will respond with real urgency to the needs of those most marginalised and least protected by current policies? In short, would we serve God by serving others or would we serve ourselves? The current situation In January 2016, representatives from the Irish Council of Churches alongside representatives from the Bishops’ Conference and from the Islamic community in Ireland met with the Irish Government Task Force for the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) in the Department of Justice. The Government Task Force is made up of a variety of different government departments as well as the Irish Red Cross and the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR. The conversation centred around two key issues for the Government: support for accessing accommodation for refugees and support for messaging and communication about refugees given the danger of Islamophobia after the Paris attacks.
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Lydia Monds
is education advisor to the Bishops' Appeal