The London Legal Walk supports over 100 organisations in London and the South East each year, helping them provide more free and pro bono legal advice.
Barbara Kentish, well known to Westminster Justice & Peace as our former Fieldworker, is one of the trustees of the Notre Dame Refugee Centre and she will be joining other walkers from the Centre on Tuesday 28th June to raise funds to maintain their frontline free legal advice services.
They are walking with the Lord Chief Justice and thousands of lawyers to raise funds to ensure that there is access to justice for all.
The team is: Shaku Williams, Ines Ignasse, Alice Chalkey, Alice Goeh, Brian Mitchell, Pascal Boidin, Richard Kuhn, Anne-Lise Gaillac, Benjamin Dieu, Elliot Dieu, Barbara Kentish, Vera O’Shea, Viv Parker, Rebecca Kirk, Philippe Lespinard, Hubert Bonnet-Eymard, Etienne Rougier, Nadine Carle-Edgar, Violaine Oustry and Elizabeth Millar.
Barbara writes:
Our centre, which opens onto Leicester Square, was started by the French Church 20 years ago and does a great job in getting refugees their papers. The advice team somehow cuts through lots of Home Office red tape to get Leave to Remain for 100s of people. As one person said, there are lots of small charities offering help to refugees, but not if they are in Rwanda!
Get ready for the Season of Creation, 1st September – 4th October, with this webinar from the international Laudato Si’ Movement to launch the Season of Creation Celebration Guide.
This year’s theme is ‘Listen to the Voice of Creation’
Speakers:
Bino Makhalanyane, Youth Coordinator at Anglican Environmental Network of Southern Africa
Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Facilitator for Latin America of the Anglican Alliance
Christina Leaño, Associate Director of Laudato Si’ Movement
Rachel Mander, Strategy Development Officer at A Rocha International
Patricia Mungcal, Co-Chair for ACT Alliance Community of Practice for Youth Participation
Rev Sikawu Makubalo, General Secretary for Church Unity Commission
Rev Dr Chad Rimmer, Program Executive for Identity, Communion and Formation for the Lutheran World Federation
Rev Rachel Mash, Provincial Canon for the Environment in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa
Suzi Moreira, Coordinator of Eco-Conversion Programs for Laudato Si’ Movement
These prayers were said today outside the Home Office on Marsham Street, London.
We pray for the thousands of men, women and children, known and unknown, who set out to seek safety and a better life in Europe, but who were drowned in the Mediterranean, the Aegean Sea or the English Channel, or whose lives were cut short when they met with hostility or violence. O Lord hear our prayer, Response And let our cry come unto you.
We pray today for all those fleeing the brutal war on Ukrainian cities. May they speedily find places of safety and security in our country and in our hearts. O Lord hear our prayer, Response And let our cry come unto you.
We pray for all those seeking sanctuary in the UK who depend on the UK adhering to the European Convention for Human Rights, and pray that our government will respect the agreement that we helped to draw up over 70 years ago. O Lord hear our prayer Response And let our cry come unto you.
We pray for the former residents of the camp in Calais and for those who remain there. We pray for protection of all people in refugee camps and the communities they build. O Lord hear our prayer Response And let our cry come unto you.
We pray for the refugees arriving in the UK and ending up in the former military barracks and camps, or those placed in detention at arrival. We pray for their mental and physical wellbeing and for their right to decent housing. O Lord hear our prayer Response
For the comfort of all who have lost loved ones in the course of fleeing from their home country, or who have had to experience the trauma of watching others die. O Lord hear our prayer Response
For a resolution to the conflicts which are forcing so many to flee in desperation and we pray in particular for the people of Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia, Congo and Sudan. O Lord hear our prayer Response
We pray for the staff and volunteers from the Rescue Ships, and the Alarm Phone. We think on the people serving on board of the See Eye, the reception teams on the Greek and Italian islands. O Lord hear our prayer Response
We pray for the continuing humanity of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and the UK Border Force, who refuse, despite government orders, to ignore the plight of those at risk of drowning at sea. O Lord hear our prayer Response
We pray for the continuing humanity of the Civil Service Unions, who resist the proposals to send those seeking sanctuary to holding centres in Rwanda. O Lord hear our prayer, Response
For an end to the arms trade and militarism that aggravate and sponsor these conflicts. O Lord hear our prayer Response
For an end to the economic exploitation of people, and the earth which causes poverty and displacement. Oh Lord hear our prayer Response
For the strength and resilience of all citizens to resist unjust immigration laws and to support one another in this struggle. Oh Lord hear our prayer Response
In thanksgiving for the efforts of all who are working to rescue and welcome refugees arriving in Europe and for all who struggle for justice. Oh Lord hear our prayer Response
Next Prayer Vigil
Monday 18th July, 12.30-1.30pm: Prayer Vigil outside the Home Office with Westminster Justice & Peace and London Catholic Worker to pray for migrants seeking safe passage to the UK. Contact Barbara Kentish (J & P) barbarakentish@talktalk.net
As members of the Together With Refugees coalition, Westminster Justice & Peace and Caritas Westminster invite you to join us at Saturday’s demonstration ‘We Demand Better’ organised by the TUC.
Coalition member, Care for Calais, along with Stand Up To Racism, are leading a refugee bloc in the TUC demo about the Cost-of-Living Crisis in London, on Saturday 18 June 2022.
When there are social problems in the UK refugees and migrants are often blamed. As the Cost of Living Crisis worsens the government is using racism as way to divide and rule people. We say #AllRefugeesWelcome – we won’t let racism divide us. We need unity in the face of the Cost of Living Crisis. The TUC’s demo offers a great opportunity to show solidarity and unity and promote the rights of refugees.
Let us know if you would like to join us in the ‘Stop the Rwanda plan – All Refugees Welcome’ bloc by emailing Colette Joyce at colettejoyce@rcdow.org.uk or call 07593 434905.
Gather at 10.30am, Portland Place, London, W1B 1, United Kingdom
Refugee Week is a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. This annual event founded in 1998 is held every year around the UN World Refugee Day on 20th June and is a growing global movement.
It will involve a dynamic programme of arts, culture, sports, educational, media and creative campaigns. Refugee Week aims for UK refugees from different backgrounds to connect and share their experiences, perspectives and creative work. Hopefully this will encourage understanding of why people are displaced and the challenges they face when seeking safety. Refugee Week’s vision is for refugees and asylum seekers to be able to live safely within inclusive and resilient communities, where they can continue to make a valuable contribution. This reflects our values that everyone has a right to be safe, and treated fairly with respect and kindness.
Refugee Week is an umbrella festival, and anyone can get involved by holding or joining an event or activity. The events will happen in a variety of spaces ranging from arts festivals, exhibitions and film screenings and museum tours to football tournaments, public talks and activities in schools.
Christian events in London include:
20th June, 12.30-1.30pm: Prayer Vigil outside the Home Office with Westminster Justice & Peace and London Catholic Worker to pray for migrants seeking safe passage to the UK. Contact Barbara Kentish (J & P) barbarakentish@talktalk.net
20th June, 7pm: London Churches Refugee Fund Annual Speaker Meeting. Revd Dr Sam Wells ‘So Many Kinds of Wrong: A Theological Response to the Rwanda Asylum Initiative‘ – St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 4JH. Further details www.lcrf.org.uk Email info@lcrf.org.uk
20th June 2022, 6-8pm: Stories of Welcome. Farm Street Church (‘Arrupe Hall’), 114 Mount Street, London, W1K 3AH. Share and celebrate the stories of how our London churches and parishes are welcoming asylum seekers, migrants and refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Ukraine, Hong Kong and so many other countries.
Speakers will include:
The Right Revd Paul McAleenan (Diocese of Westminster and Lead Bishop for Migrants and Refugees)
The Right Revd Joanne Grenfell (Bishop of Stepney, Diocese of London)
The Bishop of Southwark, The Rt Revd Christopher Chessun
This event is hosted jointly by the Compassionate Communities Team (Diocese of London), the Diocese of Southwark and Caritas Westminster.
London Climate Action week 2022, the largest independent climate change event in Europe, will take place from 25th June to 3rd July and focuses on delivering the promises from COP-26 in this post pandemic era. It will involve a mixture of in-person and virtual events which anyone is free to host and hopes to embrace the diversity of London’s experience and heritage. Events will be a mixture of panel discussions, digital campaigns, announcements from business leaders and much more.
This annual event aims to harness the power of London for global Climate action to help us move towards a net-zero future. It will feature many world leading climate professionals and communities across London and beyond with the hope of finding practical solutions to the climate crisis.
As we recover from COVID-19, we need to embrace a new normal that puts tackling the climate emergency at the heart of everything we do.
The UK’s plans to forcibly deport to Rwanda some of those seeking refuge in our country is shamefully illustrative of what Pope Francis has called the ‘loss of that sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters on which every civil society is based’.
The plan is presented as a humanitarian response to combat people trafficking and smuggling yet the result will compound the suffering of those who are already victims. Crime is defeated by confronting the perpetrators not by punishing victims. This scheme will increase the difficulties of those hoping for a new beginning, and it does nothing to address the problems which cause people to flee their homes.
Migration is a complex issue, but it is not resolved by delegating our roles and responsibilities to other countries. Our starting point should be the innate dignity of every person, created in the image and likeness of God. Our Christian faith demands that we respond generously to asylum seekers whose dignity must be protected and upheld.
Whether or not the flight to Rwanda takes off today we are now in a new situation. With greater force we insist that asylum seekers are not commodities for profit, nor are they problems to be rejected and deported by government. Instead we should be guided by the four verbs provided by Pope Francis in our approach to migrants and refugees, ‘Welcome, protect, promote and integrate’.
Bishop Paul McAleenan Lead Bishop for Migration Issues
ByBarbara Kentish – former Westminster Justice and Peace Fieldworker
My friend and neighbour, Bruce Kent, died on Wednesday 8th June, aged 92.
Bruce’s witness to peace is well known and has been well documented by national press obituaries. As General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, he was constantly in the public eye, and he initiated the British wing of the international Catholic movement Pax Christi. A member of the International Peace Bureau, he operated on an international platform. His Christian start point led him on a journey of six decades, culminating in a joint award for himself and his wife, Valerie, from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2021, dedicated to
‘Bruce Kent and Dr Valerie Flessati – The Lambeth Cross for Ecumenism – for exceptional, tireless and lifelong dedication to the Christian ecumenical search for peace, both individually and together’
His simple, though not simplistic, Christianity best explains his staggering contribution to public life.
Here I wish to add a few notes about his witness in our corner of London, and particularly in Justice and Peace work. This was a natural forum for Bruce, a frequent presence in local gatherings. He and Valerie began a Justice and Peace group in their Tollington Park parish in North London, where they excelled at practical ways to raise local awareness of global injustices. A fundraiser for the Comboni Sisters’ nursery in Bethany highlighted the Palestinian conflict, while a Remembrance Day service raised awareness of global trouble spots, currently affecting fellow parishioners, while recalling the two world wars. In the community, he supported the Finsbury Park Mosque and the Citizens UK anti-knife crime campaign. Totally hands-on, he supported the ESOL classes I ran for a couple of years at his parish – his duty simply to unlock doors and ensure the heating was on!
More seriously, he confronted the MP of the neighbouring constituency, a nervous David Lammy, on the renewal of Trident. Alas, Mr Lammy’s then post as a minister in the Blair government kept him to his official support of Trident, later recanting, but only when in opposition!
One of Bruce’s constant cries was for better participation of the laity in the running of church matters. He and Valerie served on their Parish Council for many years, supporting the routine tasks, such as bazaars and concerts, as well as promoting justice and peace causes. When A Call to Action, the movement for more collaborative working between laity and clergy emerged, Bruce supported it wholeheartedly, seeing a diocesan pastoral council as a logical step forward and attending many meetings, till the movement hit barriers of inertia and opposition.
He could often demonstrate a lighter touch in his core concerns for peace and anti-militarism, and many will have fun memories of the annual Children’s Peace Walk he helped organize through Central London, where, dressed as Sherlock Holmes, he would encourage children and their parents to ‘Search for Peace’! Likewise, his picnic party games in nearby Finsbury Park generated great merriment.
A fortunate opportunity arose around 11 years ago when a nearby parish closed, making church buildings available. With Fr Joe Ryan and Westminster Justice & Peace, Bruce facilitated the arrival of the London Catholic Worker house of hospitality for refugees in Haringey. It was to draw on the support of many local parishes and individuals, inspiring many to reach out to destitute asylum seekers.
As diocesan Justice and Peace fieldworker, I came across (ill-informed) hostility to his politics quite early: for instance at a deanery meeting one priest told me that ‘Bruce Kent and his boys’ should be demonstrating outside the Pakistani Embassy rather than outside South Africa House, for the right of Christians to practice their religion in safety. South Africa was long since free of apartheid by this time, and Bruce was in fact privately supporting a Pakistani prisoner.
In all of this work, of course, Valerie Flessati was a constant collaborator and initiator of schemes. All were delighted when they jointly received a Lambeth award in 2021 from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The wording quoted above says it all. Bruce worked in partnership with Valerie, for their neighbourhood, their parish and our diocese, which have all benefited from their endeavours.
For Bruce, as for all the Justice and Peace movement, justice was indivisible: whether nuclear weapons, apartheid, freedom of religion, the rights of prisoners, or those of the laity: he embraced all issues, with his amazing energy and intellect. He leaves a huge gap.
All are welcome to join us for prayer and reflection at the next monthly Vigil outside the Home Office, Marsham Street, SW1P 4DF, on Monday 20th June 2022,12.30-1.30pm.
This month’s Vigil takes place at the beginning of Refugee Week on UNHCR World Refugee Day.
This year’s theme for World Refugee Day: Whoever. Wherever. Whenever. Everyone has the right to seek safety
We remember:
those who have died trying to reach the UK,
the many victims of the war in Ukraine
those who work with asylum seekers in detention centres, and those who are homeless
those who struggle to inject welcome and humanity into our legislation.
Refugee Week 2022: Stories of Welcome. Monday 20 June, 6.00-8.00pm. Farm Street Church (Arrupe Hall), 114 Mount Street, London, W1K 3AH. Joint event hosted by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster and the Anglican Dioceses of London and Southwark. Join us to hear stories of our churches and parishes across London welcoming refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. Free. Book in advance with Eventbrite.
It is with great sadness, but deep gratitude for his life and gifts, that Bruce Kent’s family announce his death, on 8 June after a short illness. He would have been 93 on 22 June.
At the time of his death Bruce was a Vice-President of CND, a Vice-President of Pax Christi, and Emeritus President of the Movement for the Abolition of War.
After national service in the Royal Tank Regiment and a law degree at Brasenose College, Oxford, Bruce Kent was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Westminster. Between 1958 and 1987 he served in several London parishes, as secretary to Cardinal Heenan, and as the RC Chaplain to the University of London.
It was his Christian faith that brought him to reject nuclear weapons as fundamentally immoral because, even without their use, nuclear deterrence itself depends on a willingness to commit mass murder.
As a leading spokesperson for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980s, Kent became well known as a formidable opponent of Margaret Thatcher’s defence policy at a time when public opposition to the acquisition of Trident, and Cruise missiles, was escalating.
With his warmth and wit, Bruce Kent was a popular speaker with audiences of all ages from primary schools to pensioners’ groups. His commitment to innumerable peace and human rights campaigns over many decades included the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, for the reform of the United Nations, and the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (which came into force in 2021). He was always actively concerned about the welfare of prisoners, especially those maintaining their innocence, and prison reform.
Among his heroes was Franz Jägerstätter, the Austrian farmer who was executed in 1943 for refusing to fight in Hitler’s army. As recently as 15 May, Bruce Kent took part in the annual ceremony in Tavistock Square, London, to honour conscientious objectors throughout the world.
He was an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College, and in the past year was awarded the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Cross for Ecumenism.
Bruce Kent is survived by his wife, Valerie Flessati, his sister Rosemary Meakins, sister-in-law Ruth Kent, and their extensive families.
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC said: “I have known Bruce Kent since my student days in the early seventies when he was Catholic Chaplain to London University. He was a huge influence on my life and his commitment to peace and human rights was inspirational. He wanted a more compassionate and inclusive Church and a more decent and just society. He lived out his faith in everything he did – for the marginalised and the poor – and he gave his all with such a great sense of fun. He was one of the finest human beings I have ever met.”
Malcolm McMahon op, Archbishop of Liverpool, and President of Pax Christi England & Wales said: “Peacemakers across the world will saddened to hear of the death of Bruce Kent who made a lasting contribution to the peace movement within the Christian churches and much farther afield. Bruce became well known and influential in his national role in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and with Pax Christi, the international Catholic Peace Movement. His clarity of thought and deep Christian faith brought light and direction to many people wrestling with the complex arguments around war and peace. Personally, I’ll miss him for being a wonderfully warm human being. May he now rest in the Peace of Christ to which he dedicated his life.”
Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, and President of the Movement for the Abolition of War gave the following tribute: “For more than fifty years Bruce was an utterly determined advocate for peace, and a relentless campaigner against the idiocy of nuclear weapons. He never let up and was forever optimistic and inspiring, even at the most difficult of times.”
Reiner Braun, Executive Director of the International Peace Bureau said: “It is seldom we call someone a ‘peace hero’ because, as peace activists we are generally against such terms. But Bruce was one of these historical peace figures with his deep, lifelong, emotional and argumentative engagement for peace. We are doing everything to continue the work in his spirit.”
Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament: “Bruce Kent transformed the scope and confidence of the anti-nuclear movement beyond all recognition. His leadership of CND in the 1980s was the embodiment of integrity, creativity and sheer determination. Bruce’s razor-sharp intellect, together with his humour, tireless work, intolerance of flannel, and total commitment to his faith and principles, made him a leader of our movement beyond compare. He will be much missed.”
Bruce, together with his wife, Valerie, was a stalwart activist for Justice & Peace in the Diocese of Westminster, attending many events locally as well as nationally and giving encouragement to many other Catholics. He will be sorely missed – Colette Joyce
Diocese of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission 