Tullamore Presbyterian church honoured for role in welcoming asylum seekers

TULLAMORE Presbyterian Church has been conferred with the “Church of Sanctuary” status for its pioneering work in creating a culture of welcome, safety and inclusion for refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants.

Tullamore is only the fifth church in the Republic to achieve this status and is the first Presbyterian church.

The status was formally conferred on the church at a packed service on Sunday morning last which was attended by local church members as well as by representatives of the Catholic, Methodist and Church of Ireland communities in the area.

Retired Irish Times journalist, Andy Pollak, who is a board member of “Places of Sanctuary Ireland”, was the guest speaker and he formally presented the official certificate to Rev. William Hayes.

Rev. Hayes outlined the background to the church's involvement with refugees and asylum seekerswhich he said stretched back to 2013.

At that time the church was invited by then councillor, Molly Buckley, who was present in the congregation at Sunday's Service with her husband Jim, to help integrate Afghan refugees into the community.

That work by the church in association with other churches and groups and individuals had expanded to embrace people from may nationalities, most recently Ukrainian refugees feeling the Russian invasion of their country.

Describing the work as a “connected, joined up community effort” Rev. Hayes extended thanks to all those individuals and groups involved.

Earlier in the service he preached on the theme of “no room at the inn”, based on a reading from Luke's Gospel.

In a wide ranging address, Andy Pollak said that status being conferred on Tullamore was “richly deserved considering itswork with Afghan Hazar refugees and providing a Welcome Centre for people from Russia, China, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Nigeria, Malawi, Brazil, India, Romania and many other countries.”

He noted there were 22 nationalities and ethnicities among the 44 parents of toddlers in the church's Busy Bees group some years ago which told its own powerful and poignant story.

Other churches in Ireland which have the status include Christchurch Cathedral, Methodist Centenary Church and St Stephen's Green Unitarian Church in Dublin.

Mr Pollak revealed the Catholic Church in Clane in neighbouring Co. Kildare will receive the status in the coming week.

“As somebody with a Czech refugee father and an Irish Presbyterian mother it is a real joy to be able to present Tullamore Presbyterian Church with this certificate and to welcome you into the Sanctuary family,” he stressed.

Added the speaker: “This marks only the beginning of your Sanctuary work. As we have seen from the events in Dublin's East Wall over the past fortnight there is a huge need for good-hearted people in this country to reach out a hand of friendship to the poor, lonely, often frightened people from overseas who have come to Ireland seeking work or sanctaury, not least to prevent the kind of fear-inspired far-right reaction that we saw among a few people in that deprived Dublin community.”

“As Dublin Central Mission says in its pioneering 'Welcome the Stranger' project: We as a church desire to be a place of welcome, love and support to those who have found themselves in our city.”

Though a welcoming rather than an advocacy group, Mr Pollak said “Places of Sanctuary Ireland” was strongly opposed to the Direct Provision system.

“In the words of an Afghan asylum seeker I shared a platform with a few years ago: Direct Provision is like an open prison because people accommodated in these centres live in them without knowing exactly when they will come out and be able to live like normal, free people. A prisoner in a jail cell knows exactly that if he/ she is sentenced to five years, once that time elapses they will be released. For asylum seekers there is no end in sigh – they live in limbo.”

Mr Pollak said the Government had pledged to get rid of what he termed this “wretched and misery-creating system” by 2024 but he predicted that was highly unlikely due to the influx of so many refugees in the past year, over 60,000 of them fleeing war in Ukraine.

“Places of Sanctuary Ireland” is a network of 12 groups across the country whose primary aim to create a culture of welcome for refugees, asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants, seeking sanctuary from war and persecution.

Founded in 2015 as part of an international movement, it creates opportunities for Irish people to meet newcomers to the country, to hear their stories and help them find a new home.

It is a fast growing movement with several offshoots: Universities of Sanctuary, Schools of Sanctuary, Sanctuary Ambassadors and Churches of Sanctuary.

In the Republic the most successful stream has been “Universities of Sanctuary” and there are now seven in the State.

Mr Pollak explained that to become “Churches of Sanctuary”, churches must undertake a programme of activities based on three main principles: to learn what it means to be seeking sanctuary in this turbulent world, to take action to embed concepts of welcome, safety and inclusion and to share this vision and the good practice with wider society.