Sanctuary & the Reign of Christ

 

Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary,

 pure and holy, tried and true 
And with thanksgiving,

 I'll be a living, sanctuary, oh for you

More Voices 18 

 Sanctuary

a place of refuge or safety.

"people automatically sought a sanctuary in time of trouble"

synonyms:

refuge, haven, harbor, port in a storm, oasis, shelter, retreat, hideaway

 On this Reign of Christ Sunday a small congregation in the Hague, Netherlands, will gather to worship. This might sound like a yawner (sorry folks) but the worship at Bethel  has garnered international attention because of a unique situation. For the past four weeks the congregation has been conducting round-the-clock religious services to protect an Armenian refugee family from deportation. 

By law, police officers in The Netherlands are not allowed to enter places of worship during religious services. So, 300 clergy from around the country have volunteered to "tag team"  presiding at services to prevent officials from arresting the Tamrazyan family, who have been in The Netherlands for nine years. “By giving hospitality to this family, we could give them time and place to [demonstrate] to the secretary of state the … urgency of their situation,” Theo Hettema, chairman of the General Council of Protestant Ministers says.

 

The situation is complicated, as immigration problems often are, but the decision to provide sanctuary for this family gives time for an appeal. As temporarily newsworthy as this might be there is a strong tradition of providing sanctuary in places of worship which can be found in the Hebrew scriptures and down through the centuries. From the fourth to the seventeenth century English law protected fugitives who found sanctuary in churches.

 Several United Churches have provided a haven for vulnerable individuals and families convinced that return to their homelands will put them in peril. From 2006 to 2008 a Winnipeg UCC housed a Pakistani family which was eventually granted the right to stay to Canada. It required an immense amount of effort on the part of volunteers from several congregations and the broader community.

It fascinates me that many essentially secular jurisdictions still have laws or traditions which allow for sanctuary and that police respect the sanctity of places of worship. We hear the horror stories of people being snatched and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the supposedly Christian United States. On this American Thanksgiving weekend an immigrant who sought refuge from deportation in a North Carolina church, staying there for 11 months, was arrested after arriving at an appointment with immigration officials.

We can pray on this day which celebrates the upside down reign of the Servant King that congregations such as Bethel will have both the discernment and stamina to live by their faith convictions.

What do you think about this notion of sanctuary? Do you applaud the Dutch congregation, or are you dubious?