London Churches Refugee Fund

Once again, the London Churches Refugee Fund will be holding our annual carol singing at Oxford Circus tube station (underground and out of the elements). Not only is this always huge fun, it is our biggest single fundraising event of the year. Will you come and join us, to sing, play an instrument, hold a collecting bucket or hand out flyers? The more the merrier - quite literally!

The date this year is Friday 30th November. The whole event is from 3pm to 8pm but you can come for whatever part of that suits you. Roughly speaking we divide it into three slots, from 3pm-4.30, then 4.30-6pm, and 6-8pm. To help us with the planning, if you can, please email Maggie Hindley m@maggiehindley.org to let her know which slot you can do. If not, feel free just to turn up anyway...

Thank you so much for your help and support - and be sure to tell your friends!

Those who dream - Christian Responses to Migration in Europe

October 27th 2018 at Union Chapel, Islington

A full day (10-4.30) conference run by Union Chapel, with a terrific list of speakers:

Claude Moraes MEP - Labour Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee.

Dorottya Nagy - Professor of Missiology, Protestant University of Amsterdam

Alfredo Abad - President Evangelical Church of Spain and Secretary of

the Comisión de Ayuda al Refugiado

Vasileios Th. Meichanetsidis Apostoli, Archdiocese of Greece

Heather Roy - Secretary General, Eurodiaconia

Jerry Kramer - Vicar General of Zanzibar

Tsaurayi Mapfeka - Methodist Church of Zimbabwe

Simon Jones - Director of Ministerial Formation and Training, Spurgeon's College

Danny Sriskandarajah - General Secretary, Civicus

Nadine Daniel – National Refugee Coordinator, Church of England

Jenny Brown - Christian Aid

Tatiana Garavita - Society of Friends

Click on the link for more details.

Our 2018 Annual Speaker Meeting takes place on Wednesday 19th September with Guest Speaker Sarah Teather, Director of Jesuit Refugee Service UK. There will also be a chance as usual to learn about the work of the Fund and to hear from some of those who have been assisted by the agencies that your donations help to support.

The meeting is at 6.30pm at Kensington United Reformed Church, Allen Street, London W8 6BL, with refreshments from 6pm. (Nearest tube is High Street Kensington, 4 minutes walk from the Church)

It always helps if we have some idea of numbers, so if you are interested in coming along you can optionally let us know by emailing info@help4refugees.co.uk. Many thanks.

The next meeting of the London Churches Refugee Network, our sister organisation, is on Weds 27th June (6-8 pm) at Trinity House, off Borough High Street. As previously announced, the speaker is Marian Kemple Hardy, Campaigns Manager for Refugee Action, who will present their latest campaign, "Stand Up for Asylum". For more details see the flyer.

At the June meeting of the London Churches Refugee NETWORK (on 27th June), Mariam Kemple Hardy, Head of Campaigns at Refugee Action, will speak about Refugee Action's campaign to get the Home Office to review and overhaul the asylum process which is such a challenge to people with genuine claims. Please note in your diaries now! Details nearer the time.