Forced migration listening tour
Tim Gee and Tilly Goodwin are travelling around the Yearly Meeting to hear Friends' thoughts on refugees and asylum seekers
Quakers around the country have been sharing their thoughts on refugees and asylum seekers with two staff members of Friends House who are presently engaged on a ‘Forced Migration Listening Tour’.
Tim Gee, who has been involved with Tilly Goodwin in the project, described the work being done by Friends as a ‘scoping exercise’.
He said: ‘Our aim at the moment is “threshing” and listening to the views of Friends. We need to consider how best to move forward and develop a centrally managed programme. Many Friends have expressed a concern that the Society needs to speak out politically at a national level about injustice.’
He added: ‘I have been inspired by the work that Quakers are doing at a local level with refugees and asylum seekers.
‘I have seen how ordinary people can make extraordinary things happen when they do what love requires of them. I look forward to what happens when we all act together.’
The tour visited Leeds, Sheffield, Wakefield, Doncaster, Llangollen, the Northern Friends Peace Board and Coventry in February and March. There will be sessions in Friends House in London on 1 April, Oxford on 7 April and Bristol on 9 April.
Friends will be marking Refugee Week, 19-25 June, with a variety of events at Friends House and at Meetings throughout Britain.
