Some parishes in the diocese have been sponsoring refugees since 1979, when the Southeast Asian boat people so desperately needed help. For a few parishes in our diocese, this was the beginning of a commitment to refugees and a “revolving door” process – welcoming and caring for an individual or family, seeing them become settled and independent and starting the paperwork for another sponsorship. Other churches have become involved in refugee sponsorship more recently. At any point in time, approximately twenty parishes in the diocese are involved with a refugee family. In recent years churches have seen refugee sponsorship as a way of building bridges between denominations and between faiths. Many of our sponsoring churches are members of ecumenical or interfaith groups.
The ecumenical experiences have been very positive. Individual differences between the churches seem unimportant when the group focuses on the plight of refugees. Anglican, Baptist, Christian Reform, Gospel, Mennonite, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and United churches have come together and found that they have so much in common – on one occasion they even agreed that they were all Christian! The interfaith group in London has worked with the Muslim community, as many of the refugees in the world today are Muslim.
Ottawa Recognizes 25 Years of Refugee Sponsorship in Huron GET STORY Reflections of Long-time Sponsor PLEASE READ REFLECTIONS