Church leaders urge politicians to take the Pledge

THE METHODIST CHURCH
THE BAPTIST UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN
THE UNITED REFORMED CHURCH

National Church leaders are calling on politicians to commit to responsible campaigning on issues of asylum and immigration, and to act to end the detention of children and families within the asylum system.

The leaders of the Methodist Church in Britain, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church are asking politicians to take the Sanctuary Pledge, which is an initiative of the Citizens for Sanctuary Campaign.

The Revd David Gamble, President of the British Methodist Conference, said, “Politicians must resist the temptation to use asylum as a political football in their election campaigns. We strongly support the Sanctuary Pledge campaign’s call for politicians to campaign responsibly, and not to demean those fleeing persecution and seeking sanctuary in Britain. I hope people will ask candidates standing for election to sign the Sanctuary Pledge.”

The pledge is a commitment to campaign positively and sensitively, helping the public to understand why it is important to offer a safe haven to people fleeing persecution. It also asks politicians to support policies that will end the forced detention of children and families, and to promote awareness of the UK’s long heritage of providing a safe haven for people seeking sanctuary.

The Revd John Marsh, Moderator of the United Reformed Church, said, “By taking this pledge, political candidates will show that they are serious about offering sanctuary to those who cannot find safety in their homelands. As Christians, we are called to love our neighbours as ourselves, and the Citizens for Sanctuary campaign encourages us to do just that.”

“We are particularly concerned about the detention of children and young people in the asylum system,” continued the Revd Jonathan Edwards, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. “There is overwhelming evidence that holding children in detention centres is damaging to their physical and emotional wellbeing. Children are particularly vulnerable, and no matter where they are from, we all have a duty to protect them from harm. We encourage politicians from all parties will sign the pledge and commit to ending the detention of children.”

Source: Methodist News Service 04.03.2010

Christmas Message from the Methodist President

In his Christmas Message, the Revd Stephen Poxon, President of the Methodist Conference, calls for Christmas to be a time of hospitality towards strangers. Stephen highlights the work of local churches amongst asylum seekers and refugees and asks us to consider how welcome we make others feel.

Stephen says; ‘This must be at the heart of who we are as church communities. We must become people who continually offer that hospitable space, within ourselves as well as our buildings, for God’s love and grace that others may come among us and encounter Immanuel.’

The full text follows:
A night of hospitality

Christmas is the season of parties, family meals and special occasions with friends but it can be exhausting if you are the host all the time. As we listen to the Christmas story once again this year we hear that it was a night of hospitality – but who is the host?

The supernumeraries and their spouses and widows of the North Lancashire District are invited for a Christmas lunch each year. They are so grateful and often say things like ‘ it’s so good of you to host us’ but in honesty all we do is provide the space, the food and drink and then it just happens! That may be how the innkeeper rationalised offering the stable area with a manger to the holy family. As the host we’ll never know if it was out of warm generosity or just a business transaction that resulted in them being pushed out of the way.

In Britain 100,000’s of people come among us year by year from around the world. Many are migrant workers from eastern Europe, bringing their culture, faith and skills whilst others are people fleeing from persecution, war, seeking a better life for their children as asylum seekers and refugees. Time and again we hear that people want to come among us because of our hospitality; of our tolerance; our openness. How welcome do we make others feel?

Many churches are doing remarkable work among asylum seekers and refugees, with the homeless and others who feel on the edge of society. Yet there can often be a fear within us about those who are different and perhaps we might be tempted to want to push them out of the way, into the stable. As we see the landscape of our communities changing with the rich variety of people from across the world we must continue to discover ways to embrace and make everyone welcome, for each is a child of God, created in his own image. For when we meet any one we are meeting the Christ.

There was another hospitality that holy night. In a young frightened girl there is the hospitality of Mary whose willingness to receive the gift of God brings to birth the salvation of the world. We cannot begin to understand the fear, the shame, the bewilderment tinged with anticipation and even hope. Yet out of her ‘yes’ God became human and lived among us in Jesus…….and since then there have been countless people who have said ‘yes’ to God…to welcome Christ into their lives…so he may find a resting place, a birthing place to continue God’s living presence within the world.

This must be at the heart of who we are as church communities. We must become people who continually offer that hospitable space, within ourselves as well as our buildings, for God’s love and grace that others may come among us and encounter Immanuel. We need to welcome all but especially discover ways to welcome the young, many who like Mary are frightened and trying to make sense out of what is happening to them and the world they inhabit.

Yet there is a further host on that holy night. Here is God hosting his own party, the birth of His son, His own coming among us. God, Immanuel, becoming human and living among us in Jesus.

In some of the carol services this year we will find everyone singing the soprano line with no descant and little harmony. We live in a world where there is little harmony with people at war, where people in Britain struggle with the beginnings of recession, where in the wider world there is an increasing poverty gap, people suffering from cholera, AIDS, hunger and countless injustices. As we hear again the song of the angels we catch a glimpse of creation in harmony with the Creator…as a child is born….God come among us.

God the eternal host is giving us a glimpse of eternity, of His Kingdom, where all are one and at peace and in harmony seen in the poverty of shepherds and the riches of magi; in the powerlessness of the secular authority of Herod and in the glory of the vulnerability of the weak and frightened. And in this moment, this holy, eternal moment we hear the eternal host welcome us….


‘To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.’


The message will also be available online as an audio file. Visit http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.webradio.

New President's Inaugural Address

You will have gathered that my aim to blog while away at the Methodist Conference didn't work so, now that I have returned, I have much to catch up on.

Very important, and first on the list, is our new President's inaugural address, even if I am a little late in posting it:-

NEWS RELEASE

5 July 2008

Inaugural address by Revd Stephen Poxon, new President of the Methodist Conference

The new President of the Methodist Conference, the Revd Stephen Poxon, has called on the Church to celebrate God’s grace and transform the world. Speaking on the opening day of the 2008 Methodist Conference in Scarborough, Stephen invited the Church to “begin to grapple with how this wonderful grace of God might transform the world.”

Stephen also spoke passionately on the situation in Zimbabwe: “We look in horror and sorrow at what has been happening in Zimbabwe. How slow as a nation we have been to condemn Mugabe and his regime, and only now are people waking up to the violence and genocide? We must continue to find ways to express our solidarity with all those who struggle for justice, freedom and peace."

Stephen also offered his “thoughts and prayers to our friends in the Anglican communion” on the eve of the Lambeth Conference. The five-year-old Anglican-Methodist Covenant will be discussed by both the Methodist Conference and the Church of England’s General Synod.

In his address, which marks the start of his year of office, Stephen recalled how he and his wife Myrtle arrived as a young couple in Jamaica to work with a church there. He said that the love showed by the people there did much to shape both of them, and gave examples of other acts of extraordinary kindness shown by people who had little or nothing for themselves.

Following the 2007 decision by Sheffield to become the UK’s first “city of sanctuary,” Stephen called for more places to follow that example by recognising “the contribution of asylum seekers and refugees to the city of Sheffield, and committing ‘to offering hospitality to people who come here in need of safety from persecution.’”

Stephen spoke about hospitality as a key example of grace, and expressed regret that the Church has not been more hospitable in the past towards people who moved to Britain. But he celebrated the modern examples of church work with asylum seekers and how Methodist churches are being hospitable to their communities, to children and young people and to other faiths. As Chair of the Methodist North Lancashire District, Stephen has seen many examples of churches working with the large Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities there.

Stephen is married with four children. His wife, Deacon Myrtle Poxon, was Vice President of the Methodist Conference in 2004-5, and they are the first married couple to have held both posts.