Wednesday 2nd November 2005
How do you minister to the spiritual needs of hundreds of men who are about to be deported back against their will to their country of origin? Rebecca Paveley spoke to Father Seraphim Vänttinen-Newton, the Orthodox chaplain at Campsfield House, a removal centre in Oxfordshire.
Campsfield House still looks like the young offenders institution it once was: heavily guarded and barbed wired, it is now the temporary home to hundreds of men, who have been refused asylum in the UK and are waiting to be deported out of the country.
Its very existence has become, for many on the outside, a focus for political protest. Protests by the detainees inside, and a recent suicide, have made national news.
But its chaplain, Father Seraphim, says the media portrayal of life inside Campsfield is far from the reality. ‘It is not a depressing place,’ he says. ‘Visitors constantly express their surprise at how different it is from media reports.
‘The job is absolutely exhausting and demanding but it is inspiring. There is no doubt that when two or three are gathered together here, then we feel Christ in the midst of us.
‘People come in here and they are fed, clothed and watered, all very well, but many go on to find they are in their desert. But it is in the desert that they find God, and they find God here, there is no doubt about it.’
On the day I spend at Campsfield, there are 184 men inside. The atmosphere inside is quiet, orderly. Detainees, all men, most of them young, smile and shake hands as we pass.
Campsfield is no longer a detention centre but a centre for removal – where most men just spend a few days on their way to a flight back home.
The average stay inside is now just three or four days. ‘What we are doing now is airport chaplaincy’, says Father Seraphim.
He and his 11 assistant chaplains have a legal obligation to meet the religious needs of detainees, who have a right to worship and a right of access ministers of their religion.
Campsfield boasts a Christian chapel, a Muslim prayer room and a multi-faith room. The biggest intakes of detainees are Christian or Muslim – the third largest religion represented is Sikh.
The pastoral needs of detainees are enormous. Father Seraphim says: ‘Often I’ll be walking round and will see someone who looks as if they are about to collapse in tears. I’ll grab hold of them and just about get them into a room and the door shut behind us and they will be crying. At one point I lost so many handkerchiefs my wife was annoyed with me!
‘Many of the detainees are economic migrants, and I'm amazed at their courage, what they go through to get here.’
I ask if he finds himself being drawn into the individual cases of those to whose needs he is ministering.
‘There is the occasional case where I will stick my neck out when I feel an injustice has been done. There was an Iraqi Kurd, whose family had been allowed to stay, he had been gang raped in prison and tried to kill himself, and was about to be sent back. It was an extreme case where I did interfere, I spoke to the lawyer and she had the case reviewed. But I have to be very careful. And you have to remember, lying is the lingua franca here, many of these detainees have paid huge amounts of money to get over here and are desperate to stay.
‘Lots of detainees come in here and see me and say, you are a man of God, you should get me out of here and I say no, that isn’t my job, that's your lawyer’s job. My job is to try to deepen your relationship with God.’
Life inside is focussed on sport, education, religion and the library. ‘It is very monastic – almost Benedictine, apart from the physical work,’ he says.
A short walk around the detention centre shows how much the chaplaincy is in demand. Father Seraphim is stopped every few paces either by a detainee, wanting to talk to him, or another staff member, coming up with a problem. Several minutes are spent discussing what time exactly Ramadan starts, so the chef can work out that day’s meals.
Father Seraphim has been working inside Campsfield for several years, first as a visiting chaplain, before becoming full time.
Though brought up in the Anglican Church, he was accepted into the Orthodox church after marriage to his Finnish wife.
He had a formative experience in Greece as an Oxford undergraduate on his way to Mount Athos and was later received into the Russian Orthodox Church in Oxford.
He worked for nearly 30 years as an English as a Foreign Language teacher, and still teaches part-time on the University of Oxford foreign service programme, teaching foreign diplomats. But it is undoubtedly Campsfield which takes up most of his time and energy. He is clearly angered by the way the centre is used by many on the outside, particularly the press.
‘Life in here isn’t the way it is portrayed. There are tragic cases, but there is also some hope,’ he says.