Candles for Refugees
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (right) and religious leaders, along with the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi take part in the Candle-Lighting Ceremony at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, 14 December 2023. (Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC)
Dec. 14, 2023
Religious leaders participated in a candlelight ceremony at the Global Refugee Forum on 14 December, bringing a spiritual touch to the world’s largest international gathering on refugees, which took place from 13-15 December in Geneva.His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew reflected that Christians are commanded to love their neighbors.
“We make this humble address today to draw attention to the continuous needless loss of our brothers and sisters, our fellow human beings, the other, the refugee,” he said. “We must call to attention not the symptom, that is the displacement of peoples, but the root causes, and they are many.”
The patriarch urged looking beyond the terminology. “…let us look beyond the colour of their skin, the creed or faith they adhere to; and let us see the eyes of God’s human creation, transforming these crises to an opportunity for building bridges, for practicing solidarity, for changing hearts,” he said.
Filippo Grandi, commissioner of the UN Refugee Agency, said that the faith-based communities have a very important role in responding to the growing crisis of refugees, displaced prepare, and people on the move.
“You are helping us transform the way we speak about this from negative to positive, from talking about them at best as numbers and at worst as enemies, and instead talk about them as people who can bring gifts to the communities that open their doors to all of them,” he said. “I would say even more than that—we look into their eyes,” he said.
"You have to help all of us, all of humanity, look into the eyes of these people, recognize them as human beings and ensure that they know that the people receiving them look into their eyes not only with compassion but with love,” said Grandi
The multi-faith community sends a powerful message, concluded Grandi. "Thanks for committing your own communities to this endeavor which is so difficult today in a world so full of violence, hatred, hate speech, and terrible things like this,” he said. “You are the most powerful and the most effective antidote to these negative trends.”
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