Building community behind the doors of despair

CAMPSFIELD , Yarls Wood, Oakington, Harmondsworth, Dover, and so the list goes on. All names that have a familiar ring to them. All places which see thousands of people who have sought, or are seeking, asylum passing through their doors each year.

For most of them those doors speak of a sense of despair. Some of them have fled from threats of physical violence, or even violence itself; others have been brought here months or years before to work as prostitutes; others have just wanted a better life for themselves and their families. All of them have different stories to tell – some true, some false, some partly true because the pain of telling the whole truth is too great to bear. Yet for most of them a journey into those centres is a prelude to being deported. No wonder then that hope is often in very short supply.

Depending on the Centre, most of them will stay only a matter of days. Campsfield is not unusual in that respect. There the average stay is about a week, so, in a Centre with accommodation for 184 people 8,000 or more individuals pass through its gates each year.

All of which adds up to a tremendous challenge for the Religious Affairs Managers as they seek to provide chaplaincy to those from a multitude of different faiths. It is a challenge emotionally, institutionally and theologically. Emotionally as you meet the pain, as well as the common humanity and the joy of those you minister to. Institutionally as you try to build community in a place where a rapidly changing population is one of the given facts of life. Theologically as you wrestle with the God who is present in the dark places as well as the green valleys of life. What is the Gospel for those who are seeing so many of their hopes destroyed?

Even a few weeks ago I was only aware of those questions as they related to Campsfield and, to a lesser extent, to the new accommodation centre the Government seems to be determined to build near Bicester. Since then I have accepted an invitation to act as a link between the Bishops of the Church of England and those involved in Chaplaincy (both Anglicans, other Churches, and other faiths) and so I am seeing a lot more of the centres from the inside.

From the visits I have done, and the conversations I have had, I have been very impressed with what is being done, often with fairly slender resources. Despite the sense of being in a constant state of flux there is some degree of community. There is time to spend talking with people. They are being treated as human beings and not just as numbers. Worship is often vibrant and can involve well over 50% of those being accommodated in the Centres. The Chaplains are a special group of people. Please pray for them, and for me, as I seek to support them in some small way in their difficult and demanding role.