Thursday 22 December 2022

A Poem For The King

 Six months ago. Bishops in the House of Lords sent an open letter to The Times, saying

"Many [refugees] are desperate people fleeing unspeakable horrors. Many are Iranians, Eritreans and Sudanese citizens, who have an asylum grant rate of at least 88 per cent. These are people Jesus had in mind as he said when we offer hospitality to a stranger, we do it for him. They are the vulnerable that the Old Testament calls us to value. We cannot offer asylum to everyone, but we must not outsource our ethical responsibilities, or discard international law — which protects the right to claim asylum.

We must end the evil trafficking; many churches are involved in fighting this evil. This needs global co-operation across every level of society. To reduce dangerous journeys to the UK we need safe routes: the church will continue to advocate for them. But deportations — and the potential forced return of asylum seekers to their home countries — are not the way. This immoral policy shames Britain."

Sadly the Government seems to take no notice. I actually heard a Tory MP being interviewed on Radio 4 this week, who complained "There are too many people preaching from pulpits at the moment" [excuse me, what else do you do with a pulpit? use it to store chutney, keep back copies of Gardeners' World, recycle it into a coffee table...]  The Rwanda plan is appalling

 A week ago, the annual Royal Carol Service was held at Westminster Abbey [Princesses Katherine and Charlotte both in magenta coats!] The King had a selected the following poem to be read by actress Dame Kristen Scott Thomas. It was written about 10 years ago by Anglican priest-poet, Malcolm Guite.
REFUGEE
We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,
Or cosy in a crib 
beside the font,
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want.
For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world.
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.
If this is our King's choice of poem for this year's Royal Carols, I think his Mum would have been proud of him. And I look forward to his speech on Christmas Day!

16 comments:

  1. I hope our king will be able to add his weight to the growing pressure on the government to end this inhumane treatment of refugees. I feel that we are in danger of becoming a nation of people traffickers ourselves by paying Rawanda to take them off our hands.
    Oh, and our pulpits WERE recycled into coffee tables when our church was reordered 20 or more years ago!

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    1. I hope he will too. Pleased to hear that redundant pulpits got recycled!

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  2. I have no problems with giving all the help we can to genuine refugees, however I draw the line at treating the invaders turning up daily on South Coast beaches as refugees - they are economic migrants who are trying to game the system instead of using any of the available legal means of entering this country.

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    1. I struggle to work out how people who are fleeing war etc and arrive here with nothing will be able to fulfil the "legal requirements".

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    2. The UK has a long tradition of welcoming refugees - Hugenot French protestants, Jewish Germans, Ugandan Asians expelled by Idi Amin etc. However, recent governments from Blair onward have, through their escapades in the Middle East, created significant refugee populations that they have failed to address save for some token resettlement offers for families. The current South Coast invaders represent a significantly different population - a genuine refugee is likely to hold onto whatever documentation that they have as many would want to return if possible, and many will comprise family units. By contrast these invaders destroy their documentation in order to frustrate any repatriation attempts, they are overwhelmingly young males and not families, and have had access to funds to pay people traffickers in a way that I suspect genuine refugees fleeing war or disaster could not have had.

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    3. Thank you Will for these clarifications

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  3. I still just can't believe the whole Rwanda scheme came about. It seemed like a joke, a bad one at that or something from a Dystopian novel. It came when Boris was in trouble so it seemed like it was a distraction strategy.
    To think it's going to happen....
    Kxx

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  4. I have read about the Rwanda plan, perhaps more shocking than our government building fences along our southern border. I doubt people migrate if they have economic security, no one wants to leave their homes unnecessarily, they are driven by desperate poverty and gross inequities as much as persecution. Ok, time to step away from my (metaphorical) pulpit! Blessings to you, Angela, and Bob.

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    1. Christmas blessings to you to Celie. May this season be full of love and joy, and the new year blessed with peace and hope

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  5. What a beautiful poem, it brought tears to my eyes. I feel that so many of the problems affecting the developed world now, are a result of our years of coldheartedness towards those in any kind of want, while we spent on trivialities that we don't need. When we help those in trouble, we actually help ourselves in the long run.

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  6. Christmas blessings to you and Bob. I am also looking forward to the Kings speech. You should
    Receive my Christmas card soon. Greetings from eastern Canada. Judi

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    1. Thank you Judi, it just arrived - beautifully made, with such kind words inside. May you and your loved ones have a blessed Christmas ❤️

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  7. I'm leading our Christmas Eve service at church - no sermon or homily, just some poems & a story. This, I think, will be part of that service! Thank you for sharing.

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    1. I hope it goes well. Thank you for another year of inspirational blogging!

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