You can welcome people who are fleeing for their lives

World Refugee Day, June 20, is a day designated by the United Nations to celebrate the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home countries to escape conflict or persecution. It also helps raise awareness of the rights, needs and dreams of refugees, helping to mobilize political will and resources so refugees can not only survive but thrive.

While the Sunday nearest June 20 is often observed as National Indigenous Day of Prayer, for several years our diocese has encouraged parishes to choose another Sunday in the month before World Refugee Day to highlight the important work of refugee resettlement. Our first Refugee Sunday was proclaimed by Bishop Asbil in 2021. Since 2024, Refugee Sunday has gone nation-wide, with the invitation now coming from the Primate’s office. Alongside Hope (formerly PWRDF), which provides support to the 15 Canadian dioceses that are Sponsorship Agreement Holders with the federal government, has compiled resources for parishes that wish to observe a Refugee Sunday at www.alongsidehope.org/refugee-sunday.

For more than three decades, our diocese has partnered with the Anglican United Refugee Alliance (AURA) to resettle refugees. AURA and the diocese are joint signatories of a sponsorship agreement with the federal government, allowing us to sponsor some 80 or so persons per year, providing them with practical and emotional support during their first 12 months in Canada. AURA staff work tirelessly to match parishes with refugee cases and to prepare parishes and volunteers for the work involved in welcoming and supporting refugees in that first year, all while navigating the labyrinth of federal regulations and paperwork on our behalf. AURA staff also represent us in meetings with other Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) and in the network of Anglican SAHs supported by Alongside Hope.

Even parishes that have limited financial or volunteer capacity can play an important role in refugee sponsorship as “support parishes.” In such cases, AURA staff connect parishes with local community groups and/or family members of the refugees to be sponsored, who contribute all or much of the financial and practical support. The parish holds and disburses the funds for the sponsorship and can get involved in other ways as it’s able. With the current federal government “pause” on all private refugee sponsorships except those done by Sponsorship Agreement Holders, this is an important way our parishes can step up to help welcome people who are fleeing for their lives.

The numbers of people worldwide forcibly displaced due to conflict, violence and persecution have increased rapidly every year since 2012, to a record high of 122.6 million in 2024. This figure includes more than 43 million refugees. More than two-thirds of them are hosted in neighbouring countries, many of which are also low- and middle-income countries. For many of these refugees, resettlement in another country is their only long-term hope to survive and thrive. Sadly, this increase in need has coincided with a rise in xenophobic rhetoric that blames immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers for social issues such as a lack of housing – which owes more to decades of domestic policy decisions than to incoming refugees.

Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people are reminded to treat strangers and foreigners as the native-born among them. As followers of Jesus, who himself was a refugee as a child in Egypt, we are called to welcome the stranger as if welcoming Christ himself. This includes rejecting language that dehumanizes anyone, especially those fleeing from horrors most of us here in Canada can only imagine. Rather, we can recognize the gifts and talents refugees bring to our communities and find ways to support them. As we help them rebuild their lives, they in turn help build up our communities.

Please consider setting aside a Sunday this month to pray for and celebrate refugees. If your parish is not already involved, consider reaching out to our ministry partners at AURA to find out how you can be part of the ministry of refugee resettlement in the Diocese of Toronto.