16-22 June 2025 marks refugee week, the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
Fleeing from persecution is not a new phenomenon, it’s been happening for centuries, with some notable examples in the Bible. Remember the awkward epilogue to the nativity story, how Jesus and his parents were refugees from murderous King Herod? Warned in a dream by an angel of the Lord (Matthew 2:13-15), Joseph makes a night time get-away with Mary and the child Jesus to Egypt, where they remain until Herod’s death.
I wonder what it’s like to run for your life under cover of darkness?
I wonder how the ‘Holy Family’ were treated in their temporary country? Were they welcomed with open arms, or viewed as suspicious sojourners and a drain on the local resources?
I can only wonder at these questions, as I’ve grown up in a peaceful country where I am at liberty to be who I am as a Christian and have privileges attached to being a white married middle-class woman. Unlike my father and grandparents, I’ve not directly felt the impact of war, famine, natural disaster or religious persecution in the place I call home.
However, when I listen to the stories of people I sing with as part of Citizens of the World (a choir made up of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and allies), I am truly humbled by their stories of grabbing their children and running from their homes without notice, to flee from advancing militia. Having experienced this trauma, they continue to face daily micro-aggressions in their adopted home, because they look, speak and behave in a different way.
I wonder if this was the case for Joseph, Mary and the growing Jesus?
The beauty of our choir is that, as well as enjoying music together, it’s about creating a supportive community to help people integrate into their adoptive city. This fits with Refugee week’s theme for 2025, ‘Community as a Superpower’. At choir, we celebrate our cultural diversity by learning songs in each other’s languages, share food together, bring clothes to a ‘swap shop’ and joyously mark birthdays. We are forming a community where our collective voice become our superpower.
This is not dissimilar to Messy Church. Through our hospitality, we seek to build Christ-centred communities, the superpower of God’s kingdom, where everyone is welcome. On Friday this week, the BRF Ministries Messy Church team will be headed to High Leigh Conference centre to host the Messy Church conference. With our theme of ‘All Together’, we will welcoming over 160 people from at least 13 different countries, including many Messy Church leaders from the UK. Over the course of the weekend, our hope is that we can learn and experience how to welcome people better from every nation, every generation, regardless of their ability, so that we are equipped to welcome the stranger. We want our community to be a superpower for God’s glory.
Aike Kennett-Brown
BRF Ministries Messy Church Ministry Lead
Andrew Mc Donough (Australian author and illustrator) has kindly made available free downloadable Refugee Week Resources to the Lost Sheep Messy Church Page created for Get Messy! vol. 3.
- The Jesus was a Refugee Story Telling Kit
- The Activity Book (it includes a mini-book activity that is really cool)
- Refugee Week Posters
- Links for purchasing the UK books
The page can be accessed by this link https://www.lostsheep.com.au/messy-church/
If you want to see Citizens of the World choir in action, they are featured on BBC One’s Songs of Praise Sunday 22nd June at 12:00 which celebrates Refugee Week. This episode will be available to view on iPlayer for a year. You can follow us on Instagram citizensworldchoir.
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