On World Refugee Day we are urged to remember the millions of people who have been forced from their homes and homelands, out into a world that is unfamiliar, frightening and dangerous. This year we are especially asked to consider the impact on families who must care for each other despite having left behind every source of comfort and security. Under these desperate pressures families can find themselves pulled apart, creating deep suffering that doesn’t just hurt now, but wounds generations to come.
Providing sanctuary to the stranger has always been a core Christian value. Every day churches around the world care for people who have been forced into becoming ”˜strangers’. They offer a welcome to people who have been robbed of their homes, their societies and their cultures.