UK Churches Prepare to Welcome Afghan Refugees

Churches in the United Kingdom have stated that they are set to welcome refugees from Afghanistan. Likewise, they are ready to assist them in settling in a new country after they fled the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The Welcome Churches network in the UK therefore seeks donations towards its Emergency Afghan Fund. This fund will provide assistance to the Afghan families that will be evacuated to the UK.

Dr Krish Kandiah is in charge of the fund. He told Christian Today that "Churches around the UK are responding with the love of Christ to the needs of the Afghan refugees.’’

"Families have had to flee a war zone with only what they could carry and they are in need of our love and support as they enter the UK and become neighbours in our communities,’’ he added.

Also, Kandiah stated three ways the churches in the UK can assist.

"Firstly pray, secondly join the Welcome Churches network so your church can be trained and prepared to help practically, and thirdly give so we can quickly get practical help to the people that need it," he said. 

The Diocese of Chelmsford said it is prepared to help the refugees across its parishes. In 2015, the Diocese accommodated 250 refugees who were escaping the Syrian conflict. With the recent challenge in Afghanistan, the diocese said its resettlement plan will now be "widened and reshaped to work alongside partners in providing the care, love and support to which the gospel calls us."

The Bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, and the Diocese's Refugee Coordinator, Rev Canon Gareth Jones, are requesting prayers for Afghanistan and the people who are supporting the refugees.

"As pictures of the catastrophic impact of the crisis in Afghanistan fill our TV screens, the human cost in lives devastated seems too much to comprehend. And many of us are left wondering what we can do to help in the face of such great tragedy," they said. 

"As a diocese committed to serving Christ in the downtrodden, persecuted and oppressed, and to witnessing to the transforming presence of Christ in the midst of the seemingly impossible, we continue to stand ready to do all that we can to serve and support refugees in our parishes across East London and Essex, and those communities seeking to walk alongside displaced people.

"Our Refugee Engagement Team is ready and resourced to support parishes in welcoming and supporting Afghan refugees over the coming months and years, and to building on the life changing work already done since 2015.

"Please join us in praying for the people of Afghanistan, together with all those engaged in efforts to bring peace, security and support for those in need," they added.

The Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, also asked people to pray and support the refugees financially.

"Whether we should or should not have intervened in Afghanistan 20 years ago is a matter for debate, but leaving this way is causing a humanitarian disaster. Please pray. Please give. And let's be ready to receive the refugees who will be displaced by the tragic events before us," he said.