St Paul's, Bakery Hill and Christ Church Cathedral in #Ballarat have united to join the Sanctuary Movement to respond to the needs of refugees in Australia

On Sunday 7  February.  Father Constantine Osuchukwu of Saint Paul's Anglican Church on historic Bakery Hill, #Ballarat, announced that he would be consulting with Saint Paul's Parish Council and office-bearers within the parish with a view to establishing Saint Paul's as a place of Sanctuary for refugees.

Yesterday, Sunday 14 February, Father Constantine announced that St Paul's is to become a place of Sanctuary for refugees in conjunction with Christ Church Cathedral, Ballarat.

The joint Sanctuary of both churches with the support of their respective congregations is a most practical application.  While St Paul's heart is in the right place, it is not well equipped to provide shelter to refugees on an ongoing basis.  St Paul's has no accommodation, for instance, and limited food preparation facilities.  However, Christ Church Cathedral has better practical facilities at its disposal.

The joint Sanctuary decision makes quite practical sense based on the combined energies of both congregations. 

A big thank you to the Anglican Bishop of Ballarat, Garry Weatherill, and to Father Constantine.

 St Paul's - Bakery Hill

Christ Church Cathedral - Ballarat

PLEASE PRACTISE PRAYER CARE! - Negotiations are expected to bring the Nigerian girls home.

Picture from here

Saint Paul's at Bakery Hill has a special interest in Nigeria. Father Constantine, our parish priest, is from Nigeria - and the people of our parish think he is rather special.  Probably because of Father Constantine - who is a chaplain at Federation University and who walks the streets at night speaking to some of Ballarat's poor and homeless - the parish feels a special connection to this particular issue of the missing girls in Nigeria.

A few months ago we held a Sunday afternoon of silence and reflection at St Paul's - with quite a bit of candle-lighting accompanying the prayers!

The article in The Guardian speaks of a possible breakthrough and that the girls may be returned.

Advocacy will be meeting this week and the item will be on the agenda - so please stay tuned to hear details of further silence and reflection times at St Paul's.  If you are on Facebook, please check out our site and 'Like' us.  This will help you to stay in touch with our news and our thoughts.

And please remember, 

Prayer is everywhere - and goes everywhere!  

Please practise PRAYER CARE!

Stories from the community #1 - The collection of a Refugee & Asylum Seeker Archive

Ian Hall is a member of the Christian community at Saint Paul's.  Ian does a lot of stuff on the internet but there is one important contribution he makes and that is his Facebook site, Parliaments of Australia --- Our future.

One of the main feature of this site is that it is intended as an archive of material relating to refugees.  It is a place that people concerned about Australia's public policy and its implementation relating to refugees can access information - information that can initiate letter writing campaigns, action, advocacy.

Please take a look at the links above.
Do you have material appropriate to the Parliaments of Australia --- Our future site?  Ian will be happy to receive material at the following: ihall2057@yahoo.com

It is hoped that this can be the first post in an on-going series of what the individuals who comprise the Christian community at Saint Paul's, Bakery Hill do in terms of carrying out in daily life the two commandments of Jesus - Love God: Love your neighbour.