08/08/2013
Volunteers and staff took part in the National Justice and
Peace Network Annual Conference 'Breaking Open The Word' in Derbyshire. It was
quite a journey...
We were
invited to run a workshop from JRS and decided to offer one on Gospel Based
Attitudes to Welcoming Refugees. A lot of
advance planning was needed, which helped structure our contributions. The workshop was led by Liliane and Br Joe,
two of our volunteers at the JRS day centre, who were able to share their
personal experience of accompanying refugees and making an asylum application
in the UK.
Liliane
was so nervous in advance that she was shaking, but she was happy while
facilitating the workshop. None of the
participants would have known she was so nervous in advance! Most of the
participants were already interested in the topic and were in fact already
accompanying refugees themselves.
"It was very encouraging to see their involvement. They wanted affirmation and hope from the workshop",
says Liliane, who was encouraged herself by their response to her story.
The
workshop was able to share hope, while pointing out how perilous the asylum
process can be for people going through it, and participants left renewed in
their will to act positively; some wanting to engage local parishes in
awareness raising, or wanting to volunteer in local projects.
The
workshop took place in a wider context of the conference which invited those
present to reconsider, through worship and through the input of Megan McKenna,
to hear the Gospel afresh and to live it out every day.
The
conference was a fantastic experience, though we ended on a bittersweet note of
losing the bag full of crafts made by refugees in Kenya at Derby station. We hope whoever has them now enjoys them
fully! Unfortunately the bag lost is the
one we normally use at the day centre to collect sandwiches donated by Pret a
Manger... Oops!
