Churches can add three practical actions to their annual focus on prayer for refugees and people seeking asylum this upcoming Refugee Sunday 4 July 2021. 

As Refugee Sunday draws near, Anglicans in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia are being invited to especially remember refugees in their prayers, but also to consider taking action to support refugees in one of three ways.

Despite the closing of borders and travel restrictions in many countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the global refugee crisis continues to grow with more than 82 million people currently displaced, both within and beyond borders: due to wars, violence and persecution.

The United Nations reports that currently 86% of all refugees are hosted in countries that immediately neighbour conflict zones.

Christian World Service(CWS) offers Aotearoa New Zealand churches both a new set of worship resources and three practical ways to step in support of Refugee Sunday this year. The CWS set of ecumenical resources helps parishes reflect on the urgency of refugee’s needs through prayers, stories, poems and background information designed for use in worship. These resources can be downloaded in PDF here.

The second response CWS encourages church communities to consider is to take part in Operation Refugee, a challenge to fundraise for Christian refugee support organisations in countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, where millions of displaced people now live.

Operation Refugee offers three main ways to take up the refugee supporter challenge while also experiencing a taste of one daily reality displaced people face:

1. Call for sponsors as you spend a week living on refugee camp rations

2. Take up the sponsored walk challenge, which recognises the many miles often walked by people fleeing from harm across regions or borders

3. Hold a refugee supporters’ fundraiser banquet to celebrate and learn about the culture and traditions of a former refugee community in your town

Funds raised for Operation Refugee will go to the Middle East Council of Churches’ Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees to help Syrian, Palestinian and other refugees with food, education and medical care in Jordan and Lebanon.

To join the challenge, go to the Operation Refugee website or for more details, or contact CWS Operation Refugee organiser Eric Park

Operation Refugee launched for 2021 earlier this week and runs until 24 October this year.