This week is Refugee Week, a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
As churches, we want to see a world and a society which welcomes the stranger, treating asylum seekers and refugees with dignity and decency. This week, we’re encouraging you to pray, get involved, and take action as part of Refugee Week, to help to create a world where everyone is treated with love and compassion.
We’ve collated this list of resources and events to get you started. Think we’ve missed something important? Let us know by sharing the resource or event with us on Twitter.
CTBI Bible Study Series
Join Churches Together in Britain and Ireland for a series of online Bible Studies to explore resource, God with Us. The studies will take place over three sessions.
God with Us is an anthology of Bible studies, prayers, reflections, poems, hymns and song suggestions, activities for youth groups and other ways to include worship and prayer on the theme of refugees and migration.
Refugee Week site
This year the theme of Refugee Week is ‘We Cannot Walk Alone.’ Their website brings together a collection of events, resources, and information about the week. Why not have a look through and see if you’d like to join an event or read a resource?
Some of our favourite events for the week include this online workshop with artist Olivier Kugler exploring the influence of migration on the UK, this seminar with refugee women about their roles in politics, and a conference from Canterbury Cathedral based around the themes of migration and refugees.
All We Can Church and Prayer Resources
All We Can, the Methodist relief and development agency, have put together prayer resources, service materials, and responses to the recent fire in the Rohyingya camps in Bangladesh. You can use these resources to direct your prayer, worship, and services to stand in solidarity with the 79.5 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes.
Churches’ Refugee Network (CRN)
CRN encourages Churches in Britain and Ireland to proactively engage in issues linked to asylum, refugees and migration. The network consists of a growing number of Church-related organisations who share a commitment to support and advocate for refugees, both those overseas and those who have come to the UK.
Why not check out the network to see how you and your church might get involved in Refugee Week and beyond?
URC Youth Trialogue on the Hostile Environment
JPIT’s interim Team Leader, Simeon Mitchell, appeared on an episode of the United Reformed Church’s Youth Trialogue series in May 2021. He discussed migration, the hostile environment, and what churches can do to take action with the panel.
Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe: Day of Intercession
The Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) have put together a pack of resources for an annual Day of Intercession in memory of those who have lost their lives at the borders of the EU. The pack includes information, intercessions, and ideas for services and prayers.
Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe
Church of Scotland worship resources
The Faith Impact Forum of the Church of Scotland, alongside the Sanctuary Sunday Writers Group, have put together a series of worship and service resources for Sanctuary Sunday, which this year coincides with World Refugee Day.
Celebrating Sanctuary Sunday is an opportunity to express our prayers and solidarity, but also to raise awareness again of our Christian calling to welcome the stranger and do this openly and proudly.
Jubilee Plus Refugee Network
The Jubilee+ Refugee Network brings together expertise and experience of those involved in working with refugees in Britain today. Their vision is to see churches increasingly playing a major role in welcoming, loving, and supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, through practical action and as a voice for justice.
JPIT’s Steve Tinning will be contributing to a prayer event for Jubilee+ during the week. Keep an eye out on the website for the details!
Webinar: Women on the Frontlines
On World Refugee Day, the International Dialogue Centre are hosting a webinar: Women on the Frontlines: The Importance of the Empowerment of Female Refugees and Migrants for a Socially Inclusive Europe. The event will aim to address the challenges female refugees currently face with regards to their social inclusion.
The webinar will take place on Monday 21st June 2021 at 1pm BST.
