Admission

The theme we'd selected for the Family Service yesterday was 'helping' and in the course of my talk I thought the subject of the refugee crisis was unavoidable. Our Bishop has asked people in the parishes who'd be willing to give accommodation to a refugee to forward their details to the Barnabas Fund, and given my own somewhat pathetic feelings about this matter I thought I could hardly allow my situation to go without comment. I talked about how I needed a 'safe zone' which could be (more or less) secluded from the world outside, and so I couldn't envisage opening my home to a stranger, no matter how big or small it might be. There were things I could do, however: I could donate to an organisation working with refugees some of the money earned by my old house which is now let, and probably other things too. 'Don't waste time feeling guilty or self-justifying about what you can't do: get on with doing what you can', I suggested. 

I hope the reason the congregation responded so well to this was not because I was effectively absolving them from responsibility. In fact I discovered that a couple of leading members of the church have already registered with Avaaz as potential hosts for a refugee. They will need help from the rest of us, rather than being left isolated. Nevertheless, I can't conscientiously guilt-trip anyone else about doing something I know full well I'm not going to do myself.

However, if I am going to put my money where my mouth is, where might it best be spent? Avaaz is an international campaigning organisation which isn't specifically interested in supporting refugees. The Barnabas Fund, to whom our Bishop directed our attention, very definitely works with Christians only; which is fair enough, but most of the refugees finding their way to Britain aren't going to be Christians, and it dedicates some of its resources to campaigning about the hazards of Islam. I heard a report on Radio 4's Broadcasting House yesterday about a gentleman who has hosted a succession of refugees, but the organisation he mentioned, ASSIST, works only around Sheffield. So I'm still looking.