Archbishop Richard’s Holy Week & Easter message to JRS UK

Transcript:

I’m Archbishop Richard Moth, and I’m the Archbishop of Westminster.

The real highlight today has been the opportunity to hear the stories of those who come as refugee friends. Refugee friends: a rather beautiful way of speaking about those whom we serve here at JRS UK – who find hope and life in all that’s done here at JRS UK.

You know, for a number of them, very sadly, the amount of time it’s taking to get paperwork done is getting longer and longer. And still through all of that, JRS UK is there to be with them on that journey and to hear about the great value of that for them is impressive and moving.

At the root of the call of the Gospel to welcome the stranger is that recognition of the value of the human person. That comes from recognising that God is present in everyone. If we lose touch of that, then people become numbers; they become statistics. We lose sight of the value of that human person for who they are, and then we lose their dignity. So that welcome: it’s a key part of the Gospel. I mean, Jesus says we’re going to be judged on it.

Making that welcome available to all is absolutely key: JRS UK lives that out so clearly, and is a sign to the society in which we live. It just strikes me today with this visit that if more people could realise just what JRS UK is about, the impact that would have on our wider society would be extraordinary, because we’re living out the Gospel here.

If you think of what we’re going to be celebrating very soon now, on Easter Day, we find Mary and the women waiting at the tomb. That sense of expectation of the coming of the Lord in his Resurrection, and then going out to share that news with others, that’s a wonderful moment in the Easter story. The women going to the apostles and saying, ‘Look, the Lord has risen!’

Listening to some of the stories today about the experiences of women finding themselves in refugee situations, the vulnerability that they find in hotels or camps or wherever it is that they find themselves living, in a sense that vulnerability ,being open to what the Lord has to say to us, is in itself a powerful image of that Easter day.

I think our response needs to be, in a sense, unchanging. In a way, it must always be the same one. The person standing before me is the image of God. That’s unchanging. I recognise in this person in front of me the presence of God in the world and that’s the place from which I must act. It’s Matthew 25: you were a stranger and I made you welcome.

So many of those who make the journey of the refugee, they find themselves sick, they find themselves without clothes, they find themselves without food, find themselves in detention. So that text from Matthew is so applicable in every sense to those with whom JRS UK journeys.

So we’re about to enter the great week in the church’s year, and in that great week, we see our salvation, and that salvation is about moving from death to life. And for those who find themselves taking the journey of the refugee, it’s a journey we pray, and we hope, from the edges of death to life, and that’s what the Resurrection is about.

Having visited JRS UK today, the work here will be in my prayer in a way it hasn’t been before. I think it’s important for us really today to pray for all those who find themselves taking the journey of the refugee, and to pray that they will find a welcome wherever they go, to pray that they will find a society that will be open to their need, to recognise the difficulty of the journey that they’ve taken, and a society that will find new ways to support them in the ways that they need to re-find their dignity. That would be my prayer for the work of JRS UK this Easter and beyond.

To the JRS UK community:

Thank you all for your wonderful hospitality, thank you for your welcome, thank you for all that you do, and all that you bring here to JRS UK. Thank you for the wonderful lunch, and for the recipe for the chilli sauce!