Ahead of the Church’s Jubilee Year in 2025, Pope Francis has called for us to pay special attention to our sisters and brothers who have been forced to flee their home countries.
On Saturday 12th October 2024 Victoria Firth and Liam Allmark from the Jesuit Refugee Service UK visited Gidea Park to lead a discussion how we can take up this call and how welcoming refugees is a clear manifestation of the Jubilee theme: ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.
The Jesuit Refugee Service is the largest Catholic refugee organisation in the UK, serving hundreds of people from more than eighty countries. Our discussion centred on how this kind of service by the Catholic community is integral to our understanding of liberation and justice at the heart of the Jubilee.
Looking at Pope Francis’ message announcing the Jubilee year, as well as recent developments in the UK, Victoria and Liam set out a range of practical steps that we can take throughout the Jubilee year and beyond such as: volunteering to support refugees; advocating for change; opening our homes to refugees; helping to change the public narrative; extending a welcome into our own parish communities; and creating opportunities for people from different backgrounds to encounter one another.
The discussion finished with a challenge to each of us: how will we walk alongside refugees and bear witness to hope in 2025?