The Brighton & Hove Methodist Circuit Refugee Project, was set up in January 2022. It is an integral part of living out our faith. Jesus said, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ [Matthew 25:35]. Three of our members, in liaison with our Circuit Meeting, were inspired to set up the project after seeing the severe impact on some University of Sussex Scholarship students and their families after the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Since that time our project has broadened widely into our local community. Our project steering group is made up of representatives from across our 5 circuit churches, people with a keen interest in these issues.
Our circuit is still at the start of our Sanctuary Church journey. Our current focus is on learning and sharing about the issues involved, attending and running awareness raising events and supporting local sanctuary charities, via fund-raising and food bank donations, toiletries and new, or as new, clothes. With very stretched resources, these specialist organisations offer hospitality and support for our local sanctuary seekers, both refugees and asylum seekers. Mutuality and reciprocity are key values of these organisations, so sanctuary seekers offer and share their skills and experience, which are highly valued and welcomed. Where available, we offer our church spaces for use by local sanctuary charities, enabling us to enjoy amazing international events where our guests become hosts. We also drop donations at a local Anglican church, which is regularly used by sanctuary organisations and our local council / health care providers for specialist sessions to support Brighton & Hove’s sanctuary seeking community.
In March 2023, all 5 Methodist churches in Brighton and Hove achieved Church of Sanctuary status. We are the first UK Circuit of Sanctuary. Rev Dr Inderjit Bhogal preached at our circuit service to celebrate the awards. Inspired by this Methodist Minister who started the City of Sanctuary movement, we highly value the City of Sanctuary’s ability to link up all the local grass roots organisations already specialising in this field, both locally and across the UK. This enables real human connections and stories to build, develop and inspire.
We continue to develop reciprocal human relationships and learn about the issues involved, for example by attending webinars and local events and experiences run by sanctuary organisations. We invite sanctuary charities and people with lived experience into our churches to share their story. Our project co-leads keep up to date with local events via the Brighton & Hove Refugee & Migrant Forum, Sanctuary on Sea and other organisations.
We embed the Circuit Refugee Project in our church communities’ everyday life. For example, Refugee Week is an integral part of our church calendar. Of course we have, now and in the past, always had refugee members in our church circuit community. Our community hubs are an integral part of our church community. We include all our community in the circuit project, the very young, our community hubs, people with busy working lives and our older members.
We share what we are doing within our local community and beyond. We take lots of photos of what we do and share them via our web page, via our weekly church news notes, our circuit quarterly magazine and occasionally local media. We publicise and attend local sanctuary events. For example, in Spring 2023, several of us joined hundreds of local people to welcome Little Amal, a larger-than-life-sized Syrian puppet to Brighton seafront. We give talks and run workshops to encourage and support our own community, and other local organisations, to educate about the issues involved, and for them to consider joining the sanctuary movement. Some members of our congregations have offered accommodation and hospitality to Ukrainian families.
Current focus: every couple of months since Autumn 2023, Jollof Café, run by the Sussex Refugee and Migrant Self Support Group, has run very well attended, sold out, Friday evening events at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church, Brighton. This offers a wonderful shared dining experience. There’s international cuisine at a good price, in a lively atmosphere with people of all ages and backgrounds, from all around the world and the UK. Jollof Café also runs a popular weekly Wednesday lunch club open to all, at another Brighton community hall.
We are planning a Circuit Sponsored Journey for Sanctuary between all 5 churches, to raise funds for the 5 main local charities we support: Voices in Exile, The Network of International Women Brighton & Hove, Thousand 4 £1000, Care4Calais Brighton & Hove and Sanctuary on Sea. We will invite the sanctuary charities to join us on the launch day, Saturday 18 May, when all our churches will be open. To make it inclusive, people can journey as far as they wish. They can walk or they can use bus/car-share, bike or mobility aids. They could just do laps around a church sanctuary (Captain Sir Tom style). Everyone will record mileage and a communal Just Giving Page will go live in mid-April, when the link will be on our webpage. Journeys must be completed by Refugee Week, 17-23 June 2024.
Last November, a reading at Hove Methodist Church was 1 Thessalonians 5, 11 ‘Therefore encourage one another and build one another up’. In line with this, we hold Sanctuary Seekers, our Circuit Refugee Project and sanctuary organisations in our thoughts and prayers. We encourage and support others locally and around the UK to consider joining the sanctuary movement and in turn we are encouraged and supported by hearing others’ stories and experiences. In the context of our city, we support very experienced, if overstretched, local specialist organisations already working in this field. We know, along with other church denominations, that Methodist churches around the UK are getting directly involved in trying to provide a welcoming environment in what can sometimes be very challenging circumstances. We are very aware that asylum seekers and refugees can suddenly be moved on to large scale dispersal accommodation in more remote areas or smaller towns. We encourage any church to get in touch with their local branch of City of Sanctuary UK for further support or to find out about your local sanctuary charities. You might choose to visit just one charity or sample what they offer – whether it be cookery, dining, art, music or an outdoor well-being session or sport. You are likely to receive such inspiration, hospitality and welcome. Our Circuit Refugee Project team is also happy to hear from you. We firmly believe we can all encourage one another and build one another up.
Ruth Samur and Sue Harrington, Co-Leads, Brighton & Hove Methodist Circuit Refugee Project
This article was first published in the Methodist Recorder
Church of Sanctuary Conference
Find out all about the Church of Sanctuary movement at the conference being held by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI), Church of Sanctuary, Churches Refugee Network and City of Sanctuary on 8 June 2024. More details: Church of Sanctuary Conference.
