Refugee response at St James's

Part of our response to the needs of refugees is our Saturday International Group which began on Saturday 3 December, and meets each Saturday morning 8-11am. So afr we have have welcomed 48 guests, with a total of 155 attendances. Guests have come from 24 different countries, and their circumstances differ widely. Our Working Group especially has been on a steep learning curve about the issues and processes our guests face.

We are not however a Support or Advice Agency. That requires accreditations. We have a ‘signposting’ leaflet about such agencies and want of course to be helpful. Most importantly -

• We are seeking simply to provide ‘a place of welcome, hospitality and sanctuary’, with
  
• a good meal and relaxed atmosphere in which all can ‘be themselves’: no officialdom.
• We began small, which we think has been good, and helped set what the friendly atmosphere we want to maintain while, as we also hope, we grow.
• Our guests come to us by invitation: in the first weeks this was equally through our own networks and from the similar (Sunday) Group at St Martin in the Fields.
• We are now developing our Group’s links with West London Day Centre, Notre Dame de France in Leicester Square, Red Cross, Praxis and others through whom guests may also receive our invitation.

Our volunteers …
Thank you to all who have volunteered and are now part of our Saturday teams. Most of our volunteers have attended a briefing / training session. The rotas for February and March each have 21 names. Thanks are due especially to our kitchen crew, led by Julia Chalkley. But we are all in this very much together, volunteers - and guests as well, a number of whom are very keen to help. Thanks too to all SJP staffs, whose support is important in many ways. From the start Lucy, or in her absence Lindsay, has been with us. Ruth, our SJP Pastoral Assistant, is now one of us, and active with partnership links and volunteer rotas. Please hold those we seek to welcome, and our gathering, in your prayers.

At our Open Meeting in June 2016 it was agreed that

1. All present wanted to explore further SJP’s Response to Refugees
   
2. researching current needs and how we may join in meeting them
3. recognising and promoting, encouraging and supporting ways that individuals may
4. be involved
5. especially whether SJP might respond with hospitality, as it does with the Winter
6. Shelter
7. other means, such as contribution by SJP to London Churches Refugee Fund

There has been a particular focus since then on 3, and the result is our International Group. As many readers will know, people of St James’s community have been and are engaged with Refugee Response in other ways, outstandingly Puck de Raadt with her support in many ways for asylum seekers.