Celebrating refugee week at Irenaeus

By Maureen Knight, chair of the Irenaeus planning group

Here at Irenaeus, we endeavour to live by the code of values passed down to us by our fathers and others, in faith, from Abraham and Sarah to the present day in the documents of Vatican II.

One of most important traditions we adhere to is that of welcoming the stranger to our home. Here our doors are open to all, whatever race, creed, gender, or status. In so doing we have been challenged, our preconceptions torn apart, our eyes and hearts opened, and our minds blown apart with wonder at the beauty and diversity of God’s creation. We have been blessed because now those strangers have now become our friends and our lives enriched by them.

To celebrate Refugee Week, we invited people to join us in a morning of prayer, discussion and sharing over a bowl of soup and a roll, followed by home-made cake.

Fr Chris Thomas opened the morning, speaking of the make-up of his own DNA and how interconnected we all are in our humanity.

Francesca followed with some Godly Play opening our minds to what it is like to leave your home because of circumstances beyond your will or control. What few possessions you could carry and what to leave behind. Also, the trauma of the journey to strange and often alien land such as ours.

Andre from Nigeria, an asylum seeker who is now resident in our country, spoke to us about his heartbreaking journey of a few years, the hopes and difficulties, the pain and loneliness that brought him to this present day. One could only admire his courage and endurance and ask his forgiveness for the difficulties and inhuman laws we in the western world put in his path.

Fr Peter Morgan, who is known to everyone in Merseyside for the immense work he has done on behalf of refugees, both male and female, who like Andre have made this journey to our shores in search of a life everyone on this planet is entitled to, and the difficulties they have faced.

The morning ended with a poem of a murdered trafficked African girl in Italy and a song from us affirming our faith and commitment to the mission entrusted to us.

In this dark time in our country where the values we believe in are not often shared by our government, the most heartwarming and hopeful sign was the amount of people who cared enough to come and join us in this celebration. They were not just spectators but participators in the pain of these strangers to our shores.

‘The darkness shall not prevail; the light of dawn will come.’

Just last week the new graphics have been added to the external hoardings to offer clearer directions and will enhance what is now a major worksite surrounding the former piazza café and shop and garden area. The big digging machinery has been on site for just over a month and we are now able to see the full state of the roof of the building and some of the condition of the steel structure and the damage that water ingress has made to the building. This work of uncovering and stripping out damaged and defective materials will continue until the end of October. We are now having to start to prepare plans for whatever building will replace the former café and gift shop.

I have shared with Archbishop Malcolm and the Diocesan Trustees a basic wish list from the Cathedrals perspective. This includes a new shop and café/restaurant. But would need to also include some form of cathedral welcome desk and place for Information at the street level. Also the possibility of a lift from the ground up to the cathedral level.

Then there are questions such as should the cathedral offices be located within this building? Further requirement for space would require the need for another floor! Then there is the question as to whether the diocese or the cathedral will have any other needs or requirements for the future that we would need to accommodate on this site.

All of this is having to be considered at present weighed alongside the considerable costs that we have already incurred on this site and the future costs of a major rebuilding programme. As we move forwards we hope in the near future to put together a display with photographs of what has been done so far on this site and also with some first attempts of possible plans and layouts for a replacement building.