“Like oils in an olive press, the pressure of the times can create a pure oil, a purer, deeper sense of what it means to be church,” said Mary Jo Leddy, paraphrasing Augustine’s City of God.

Leddy, founder of Romero House, a ministry to welcome refugees in Toronto, used this quote to illustrate how relationships with refugees can have a revitalizing impact on the Christian church, especially in  communities where this ministry occurs. Leddy spoke recently to a packed room of refugee sponsors, refugees, and church members at First Christian Reformed Church in Toronto.

"The group was gathered for the launch of a new refugee workshop and online toolkit called “Journey with Me” produced by several CRC agencies (Centre for Public Dialogue, World Renew, Diaconal Ministries Canada, and Race Relations) and other refugee ministries."

The interactive 90-minute workshop helps participants imagine the challenges refugees face in Canada today by using true stories of refugees.

Leddy opened the morning by speaking about the change in refugee policy and public attitudes towards refugees in recent years. “What refugees most need is for this country to be good, decent, just,” she said.

"It will take refugees to remind us of who we are called to be as the church.”

She told of the beginning of Romero House, when the neighbours surrounding the house expressed fears that the presence of refugee claimants in the neighbourhood would raise crime rates and decrease property values. But when the neighbours and Romero House residents began to come together around potlucks and helping one another, the neighbourhood became more close-knit than before the refugees moved in.

“Not only did it take a neighbourhood to welcome refugees,” said Leddy, “but it took refugees to make a neighbourhood.”

Similarly, Leddy said, it will take refugees to remind us of “who we are called to be as the church.”

During the meeting, the 80 attendees participated in the Journey with Me workshop, facilitated by Jeanette Romkema of The Lighthouse and Humberto Lopes of the CRC’s Office of Race Relations.

Part of the workshop sent participants into Scripture to learn about what the Bible has to say about welcoming the stranger. Referring to 1 John 4:18, which talks of perfect love driving out fear, Jean Kooger, a member of Covenant CRC in St.Catharines,  observed, “It strikes me that in our culture of fear towards refugees and immigrants, this verse is telling us that love is the opposite of that fear.”

Jean and her husband John have been active in refugee sponsorship through World Renew for 35 years.

Nell DeBoer, a member of Willowdale CRC, said, “I well remember when we came to Canada and what that felt like.” She shared the story of her family’s arrival in Lindsey, Ontario from the Netherlands and “how much it meant” when someone offered her father a job, and the local United church welcomed them with used skates for the children.

Another of the workshop participants was Michelle Brock, who works for Hope for the Sold, an organization that fights against human trafficking. “The longer I do this work, the more I see the connections between human trafficking and so many other issues like refugees,” she said.

As the group talked about how to put what they had learned into practice, Victoria Shipmaker, a member of Spring Garden Baptist Church in Toronto, said, “Part of my role is to remember this when I go to vote.”

"Journey with Me" will also launch at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 28 at Vancouver First CRC

– Danielle Rowaan 
Centre for Public Dialogue