Welcoming the Farsi community
What is it and what happened?
Our ministry for mainly Iranian Christian asylum seekers just happened. In late 2015, three or four Iranian Christian asylum seekers wandered into our church. The trickle turned into a flood and by mid-2020, we had welcomed over two hundred and baptised over one hundred. Nearly all of them were traumatised by their experience in Iran – rejecting Islam, converting to Christianity, being found out to be apostates, having to flee Iran in terror and often enduring horrific journeys. They had lost everything: family and friends, jobs, careers, homes – all gone. And arriving in the UK, they would then face a hostile Home Office.
Contact: Colin Hardicre
St James & Emmanuel
Our response was to set up our Farsi Group with the aim of showing them the unconditional love and kindness of God. We taught about Christianity in both Farsi and English and offered support in any ways that we could. There were a lot of them but only a few of us and at times we were close to being overwhelmed. But we can claim to have made a difference to a lot of broken lives and some truly wonderful people.
What does it seem we did well?
We certainly offered a warm, loving welcome in our church which surprised them. In Iran, they were not used to that to seeing happy, smiling faces in a place of worship. The kindness, the love and the freedom made a very big impression.
Where it was possible, some of our congregation took people into their homes for meals and, in a few cases cases, allowed them to stay for weeks or even months.
Where we could, we provided pastoral support in opening bank accounts, getting doctors’ appointments etc.
Our teaching was clearly very effective. Sometimes disenchanted Muslims came along and they often converted as the Holy Spirit touched them. In one remarkable case, we allowed one such women to take Holy Communion and she came back to her seat as a Christian.
Where we have probably seen the most success is in supporting asylum claims when we were satisfied the claims were sincere. We developed robust systems to assess claimants and then produced letters of support for submission to the Home Office and Tribunals, as well as appearing in person to give evidence in court when necessary. Of the claims which have been resolved, 98% have resulted in the claims being allowed and the claimant being granted a visa.
What did we not do so well?
We did not manage to foster integration as we would have hoped. There has been some – and it is good – but we experienced serious obstacles. First of all, most of our Group live at some distance from our church and so integration opportunities are limited. Secondly, only a few of our group speak even basic English. So, on entering church, they naturally want to sit with their Farsi speaking friends rather than well-meaning British church members.
We haven’t seen the retention that we would have liked. It’s not that it has been bad, just that we maybe expected better. Of the two hundred plus who have come to us, we are still in contact at one level or another with about 40% of them. Many of the 60% who have drifted away did so for good reasons, such as going to live with members of extended family, taking up a job or to get married. It’s perfectly possible that some of the rest just cynically walked away as soon as they got a visa. We have no problem with that. Living out the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:40 when he says ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’, we just pray that we have been obedient. It’s not for us to pressure them to stay at our church. They were welcomed, they were loved, they were treated kindly, they were supported and they have heard the Gospel. The rest is up to Jesus.
There is a desperate need for accommodation and pastoral support, especially when an asylum seeker is granted leave to stay. The joy that somebody feels on being granted a visa soon evaporates when they are evicted from Home Office accommodation and have to find somewhere safe and decent to live. Some of our people responded wonderfully to meet this need but it is nowhere near enough and a better solution is needed.
What does the future look like?
One thing seems likely. Per capita, Christianity is growing faster in Iran than in any other country in the world and a lot of new believers are winding up in the UK. As more convert in Iran, get exposed and are forced to flee, no doubt even more asylum seekers will be coming through our church doors. It would be good to be ready for them.