As I write this, the town of Thetford in Norwich has experienced its third night of violence originating from anti-immigrations protests. There are of course a range of views on migration; I suspect most people would accept there is a need for regulation of who comes into the country. It is certainly not for me to lecture others on what that number should be or the policies needed to enforce it. However, as a Christian priest what I can and should do is to remind us of what has always been the Christian response to the stranger and alien. This is rooted in the history and tradition of the people of Israel that they had been exiled and had become migrants, albeit something that did cause tension even in Old Testament times. I worry that asylum seekers are being housed in places where they can receive no support, becoming someone else’s problem. It is also not right that protests against asylum hostels turn violent; it is evil when crowds turn on the asylum seekers themselves by attacking houses where s are living to try and force them out. I find it particularly sickening when some try and dress up their prejudices as supporting Christian values. Jesus’s summary of the law stands as a rebuke to this; “You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength… and you shall love your neighbour as yourself“.
Rev David Poyner