On a hot sunny afternoon in June around fifty people met at Curborough Community Centre

To meet the Rev Dr Inderjit Bhogal, founder of the City of Sanctuary Movement in the UK and to celebrate the achievement of five Lichfield Churches and the Lichfield mosque on receiving the award of ‘Faith places of Sanctuary’*.  As well as members of the various churches, members and friends of Lichfield District City of Sanctuary were present and refugee friends from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Over a period of nine months representatives of the five churches had met to explore what it  means to be a Faith place of Sanctuary and have committed to the basic principles of the City of Sanctuary movement**

When Alp Tageen Turani of Afghanistan spoke we were reminded not only of the cost of leaving but the constant danger to family and loved ones left behind.  Inderjit spoke of his own experience, arriving as an asylum seeker from Kenya in the late 1970’s with his family; of the huge importance of the word ‘welcome’,backed up by practical action which had led him into the ministry of the church and to presidency of the Methodist Conference. He congratulated the Lichfield churches and the mosque on the award and urged them to continue to work together in a common cause.   The afternoon ended as we mixed and mingled together over tea, strawberries and ice cream.

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*St Chad’s, Wade Street Church, Methodist Church, RC Churches, Quaker Meeting

** 1 All asylum seekers, refugees and migrants should be treated with dignity and respect

2 A fair and effective process to decide whether people need protection should be in

place

3 No-one should be locked up indefinitely or left sick and destitute in our society

4 We should welcome the stranger and help them to integrate