The Church of England must not repeat its lack of welcome to the Windrush generation when thousands of Hong Kong Chinese people move to the UK in what could be the largest planned migration for decades, say clergy of Chinese heritage.Many of those who arrived in the UK from the Caribbean in the 1950s and 60s were discouraged from attending or even turned away from Anglican churches. Last year, Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, spoke of his shame at the C of E’s record of racism.“We don’t want the church to repeat its mistakes by neglecting the needs and desires of people coming here from Hong Kong,” said Reverend Mark Nam, a Bristol-based curate of Chinese heritage. “I’ve read many harrowing testimonies [of the Windrush generation]. We want the C of E to be ready and welcoming to everyone this time. We need to learn from history.”The Home Office earlier this year received 34,300 applications for a new visa for people in Hong Kong seeking residency in the UK in just two months. More than a million people with British national overseas (BNO) status could arrive in the UK in the next five years, according to official estimates.The UK government has said people with BNO status and their immediate families can apply for entry visas valid for up to five years, and eventually apply for citizenship. The programme was launched in response to Beijing imposing a harsh new national security law in the former British colony.About 600 UK churches of different denominations have signed up to be “Hong Kong Ready”, committing to welcoming Christians from Hong Kong into their church communities. One in 10 of new arrivals is estimated to be Christian.Later this year the C of E’s committee for minority ethnic Anglican concerns (CMEAC) will host a conference on how parishes can welcome people arriving from Hong Kong.On Monday a support group for C of E clergy of east Asian heritage is being launched with a eucharist service at Southwark Cathedral, presided over by Canon Andrew Zihni, who was born and grew up in Hong Kong. The Teahouse has been set up to create connections between the 0.2% of paid clergy who are of Chinese or east Asian descent and “to empower them at all levels of the church”, said Nam.Born in Newport, south Wales, Nam spent much of his childhood in Hong Kong. When his family returned to Wales when Nam was a teenager, he experienced racist abuse at a school where he was the only pupil of Chinese heritage.“When the Black Lives Matter movement kicked off last year, I was asking, ‘Where are the east Asian voices in the church?’ We were invisible. None of us knew of each other’s existence,” he said.He was also concerned about the sharp increase in hate crime against east Asian communities last year after the Covid pandemic took hold, fuelled by former US president Donald Trump’s repeated references to the “Chinese plague”.Rogers Govender, the dean of Manchester and chair of CMEAC, welcomed the launch of the Teahouse. “Finding ways to support networks and communities of Chinese heritage and east Asian clergy and laity has been identified as one of our key objectives,” he said.
The parish priest of Keyham has said he would like his church to do more to support mental health work in the community.Five people, including a three-year-old girl, were killed in a mass shooting in the Plymouth suburb on Thursday, before the 22-year-old gunman, Jake Davison, turned the gun on himself.Father David Way led prayers for the victims: Maxine Davison, Sophie Martyn, Lee Martyn, Stephen Washington and Kate Shepherd during the Sunday service at St Thomas’ Church.He also prayed for peace for their killer, who lived locally and had expressed feelings of anger and extremism on social media.Speaking after the service, Father David said: “At the moment there are a lot of wounded people about, like St Thomas we need to reach out and touch them so as to show God’s love and our love for them.“We want people to know that we are here, particularly at this time I would like to see us helping people with mental health issues.“I would be very interested in talking to any support groups that might like to use our building.”Two candles, lit during Friday night’s vigil for the victims at Plymouth’s North Down Crescent Park, were placed at the front of the church for the service, alongside floral tributes.A special prayer for Keyham, written by the Bishop of Exeter, was read out. The Prayer of St Francis, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, was also sung.Father David said the sentiment of the song was particularly relevant and it was important for people to avoid “a cycle of anger” as they processed what had happened.Ben Otley, a licensed lay worker for the parish, said “I think what has happened highlights the importance of a parish church in a community to support that community.“We have been able to invite people to come and have tea and coffee, to light a candle, we have been here to talk, to be a reassuring presence.”
This Sunday our joint Holy Communion service is at Dunsfold Church when we will have a special celebration.We will commemmorate our patron St Mary at our 10am service. We hope you can join us. The service will be conducted by Reverend Rutton Viccajee.If you can't be with us at church you can join us via Zoom by clicking on the link below.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83490829622?pwd=TlNtRiszUHN3ZjFtYVV0bWRZNzZVZz09Meeting ID: 834 9082 9622</div>Passcode: 386481
Born at Florence while her parents were travelling in Italy in 1820, Florence Nightingale was named after the city of her birth. She was raised mostly at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire. Brought up in the Unitarian Church, she later joined the Church of England but her personal beliefs were far from orthodox and prone to change. Nevertheless she experienced God’s personal presence and sought to follow his promptings. Feeling called by God to some form of service at the age of 16, she decided that she must remain single and soon afterwards rejected a proposal of marriage.In 1844, she came to believe that her calling was to nurse the sick and in 1849 she went to study hospitals in Europe. On 12 May 1850 she recorded in her diary, ‘Today I am thirty – the age Christ began his mission. Now no more childish things. No more love. No more marriage. Now Lord let me think only of Thy Will, what Thou willest me to do.’ Later that year she began nursing training at Alexandria in Egypt and subsequently studied at the Lutheran Deaconess Institute at Kaiserswerth in Germany. In1853 she became superintendent of the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen in London.After the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, Florence used personal contacts in high places to allow her to take 38 nurses to serve at the military hospital at Scutari (Üsküdar) in Turkey and later at Balaklava in the Crimea. Through her tireless efforts to improve both nursing care and simple sanitation, the mortality rate among the sick and wounded was greatly reduced. At night, she would often patrol the wards, carrying a dim lamp, to check that all was well. The legend of ‘the Lady with the Lamp’ was born.After the war she began the first professional nursing training in England at St Thomas’s Hospital in London. Through her efforts the stature of nursing was raised to that of a medical profession with high standards of education and important responsibilities. But under the strain of ceaseless overwork, her own health broke, and she was an invalid for the last part of her life. She received many honours and in 1907 she became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit. She died in London on 13 August 1910, aged 90, and was buried at St Margaret’s, East Wellow in Hampshire. Her tombstone bears the simple inscription, ‘F. N. 1820–1910’.Extract from Saints on Earth: A biographical companion to Common Worship by John H Darch and Stuart K Burns
