From Dr Christopher Rigg
Sir, - Bishop Rowell's report on the search for doctrinal
agreement with the non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches (Comment, 14 November) was
timely. The same issue told of the plight of refugees between North
Africa and Italy. Please keep up news from the Middle Eastern
Churches.
Outside our village is a reception centre for new refugees. They
find their way in, mostly to while away their afternoons in the
village park. A few find their way into the churches, where we now
have a supply of Bibles and Testaments in Middle Eastern
languages.
Over the past years, they have been arriving from Eritrea, where
the Christian minority is viewed with suspicion since independence
from Ethiopia. There has been a trickle of persecuted Christians
from Iran, some of whom joined our Anglican chaplaincy
congregation. Now there is a stream from Syria, where there has
been a tradition of religious tolerance.
Most are Sunni, a few are Christian, and recently Iraqi Kurds
have started to arrive. They are all dazed and bewildered from the
violence, and the cost and hazards of a long uncertain journey to
Western Europe, looking for peace in a strange environment with a
foreign language. Even recently, I met a refugee from Saidnaya,
near Maaloula, with its Convent of Our Lady, probably constructed
in the sixth century and a place of pilgrimage and peace, not just
for Christians.
Many want to continue their journey to Britain, despite the
increasing xenophobia and the ever tighter immigration checks. They
certainly cannot be labelled economic migrants. If they get through
the frontier net, make them welcome in your communities and in your
churches. Any difference in doctrine or belief is not a concern.
Pray with them that peace, salaam, may return to their
once beautiful countries.
CHRISTOPHER RIGG
Langhoven 57, 6721 SL Bennekom
Netherlands