At long last a church has found compassion

[polksaladallie]

The Uniting Church is offering to look after asylum seeker children without parents living on Christmas Island.

About 30 children on the island are about to be sent to Nauru, the church says.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison appears to have rejected the church's idea.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/21818119/uniting-church-offers-to-take-child-asylum-seekers-on-ch...

Has any church done anything before this?  Do they practise what they preach?

[lakeland27]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

The Uniting Church is offering to look after asylum seeker children without parents living on Christmas Island.

About 30 children on the island are about to be sent to Nauru, the church says.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison appears to have rejected the church's idea.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/21818119/uniting-church-offers-to-take-child-asylum-seekers-on-ch...

Has any church done anything before this?  Do they practise what they preach?

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 now that they have (hopefully) cleaned out their cupboard of dirty secrets , the church may finally be considered safe enough to entrust these children to. lets hope so

[boris1gary]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

The Uniting Church is offering to look after asylum seeker children without parents living on Christmas Island.

About 30 children on the island are about to be sent to Nauru, the church says.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison appears to have rejected the church's idea.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/21818119/uniting-church-offers-to-take-child-asylum-seekers-on-ch...

Has any church done anything before this?  Do they practise what they preach?

---

Lets hope they don't start getting death threats like Julian Burnside does as an advocate for asylum seekers.

[lakeland27]

with some of the facts about the detention centres emerging its no wonder the church feel the need to act. the revelations from some of the Salvation Arny workers among others being aired on Dateline it seems overdue  http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/601816/n/The-Inside-Story

[boris1gary]

Below is from the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce - which is made up of a few different churches - including Anglican, Catholic, Assyrian, Baptist, Churches of Christ, Ecumenical, Lutheran, Quaker, Salvation Army and the Uniting Church. I havn't been able to find anything from the likes of Hillsong. It would be interesting to hear of any others.

http://www.australianchurchesrefugeetaskforce.com.au/why-churches-care-about-asylum-seekers/

The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce believes that:

• people do not generally flee their home, their family, friends and community and undertake perilous journeys without very good reason;
• asylum seekers who arrive on our shores should be welcomed and offered appropriate care in the community (once initial health, security and identity checks have been done) while their protection claims are assessed;
• that asylum seekers (consistent with their human rights and Australia’s obligations under international law) should have their claims for protection processed in a fair, transparent and timely manner and that they should have access to review of their case should protection be denied;
• asylum seekers and refugees should be able to find hope and restoration from the despair and persecution from which they have fled;
• Australia’s policies relating to asylum seekers should be driven by bipartisan commitments to a humanitarian response focussed on protection needs, meeting our obligations as a signatory to the Refugees Convention and other international treaties and covenants and working productively in our region over the long-term to ensure that people in neighbouring countries feel safe, can see a future for themselves and are treated justly as their claims for refugee status are assessed;
• asylum seekers who arrive by boat should not be used for political point scoring;
• punishing a vulnerable group of people (asylum seekers) in order to send a message to another group of  people (people smugglers and other asylum seekers) is abusive;
• government policies should not deliberately expose people to harm;

[cherry*135]

An Australian church has at last found compassion. Churches in other countries take an active part in resettling refugees..assisting with housing, furniture, visiting them frequently to help with any issues they may be having and supporting them in general .

[lloydslights]

"Children" are not necessarily the cute infants.  17 year old young men would be classed as "children" too.

A little too worrying all round for me.

DEB

[boris1gary]

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@lloydslights wrote:

"Children" are not necessarily the cute infants.  17 year old young men would be classed as "children" too.

A little too worrying all round for me.

DEB

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what exactly do you find worrying?

[silverfaun]

No exceptions. Exceptions would send a clear message to criminal smugglers to fill their boats with young adults, pre teens and younger.

It will be rejected as Minister Morrison has iterated many times. 

[boris1gary]

It's wonderful to know that some of our religious people are playing an active role in defending asylum seekers, good on them.

http://www.australianchurchesrefugeetaskforce.com.au/taskforce-stunned-by-immigration-ministers-deci...

PRESS RELEASE : The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce can see no justification for the Immigration Minister’s decision to order the rounding up of asylum seekers in the community. Mr. Morrison says there are more than a thousand people in the community who have had their claims rejected and that it’s time for them to go home.

Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce Deputy Chair, Sister Suzette Clark, said, “The minister fails to point out that among that number are people who have yet to exhaust the full appeal process in the courts. It also includes people who are stateless, so there is no country to which they can be deported.”

“These people have no home!” she said.

The minister’s statement is causing deep distress among asylum seekers, with many fearing they could be rounded up at any time and placed in indefinite detention.