A parallel of biblical proportions

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This article was published 24/12/2015 (3601 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Let’s begin with this: Baby Jesus had to take refuge.

In Matthew 2, verses 13-14, it says: “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’

“So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt.”

Replace King Herod with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or the Islamic State and the humanitarian crisis playing out today in the Middle East is not too dissimilar from the biblical story from 2,000 years ago: Parents fleeing their homeland, seeking safe harbour and a better life for their children.

Jesus had to flee Bethlehem. More than four million refugees are fleeing Syria this year.

A more familiar Christmas verse parallels today’s plight of refugees who have no safe place to go. “And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room at the inn.”

And that is the question Father Eric Giddins is asking his parish this Christmas Eve: Is there any room still left in our inn?

“We’re all keepers of our own inn,” said Giddins, the priest at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church on Portage Avenue. “And that ‘inn’ can mean a lot of different things to different people: it can be your own heart, your own life, your own home or even your own country.

“In the Christmas story, there was no room for Jesus at the inn. And what we’re asking at our parish this Christmas is do we still have room in our inns to welcome people who need our help?”

It’s a timely question — and one that groups around the province have been answering in their own way.

The St. Paul the Apostle and St. John Brebeuf parishes — as are parishes, churches and community groups all over Manitoba — are finding ways to sponsor a Syrian family.

It’s all still in the planning stages, but they’re moving quickly and hope within the next month or so to have everything necessary in place for a family from Syria — like the ones who landed in the city this week — to begin a new life here in Winnipeg.

There will be a home, fully furnished and equipped. There will be logistical support, from transportation to assistance negotiating the complexities of government programs and services. And there will be help with employment, schooling and language training.

The idea, Giddins said, is to not just bring a family of refugees to Canada, but also to give them every opportunity to succeed.

It’s the right thing to do as Canadians, he says.

But it’s also the right thing to do as a country — a study in the Globe and Mail on Tuesday found 50 per cent of privately sponsored immigrants find work in their first year in this country, compared to just 14 per cent of government-assisted refugees.

By year two, it’s 70 per cent of privately sponsored refugees who are working, versus 41.5 per cent of government-assisted refugees. The statistics of those two groups don’t finally converge until years nine and 10, the study found.

Willard Metzger, vice-president of the Canadian Council of Churches, says churches have long been the largest single source of private sponsorships of refugees. And he says Manitoba churches have once again seized on the current plight of the Syrian refugees as an “opportunity” to make a difference.

“The level of support this time around has been very strong and it’s been across denominations,” says Metzger, who is with the Mennonite Church Canada. “And they’re not describing it as a duty or an obligation, but really as an opportunity to provide assistance to some people in need.

“I’m even hearing about instances where churches from different denominations have come together to sponsor a family because their own congregations are too small. It’s bringing whole neighborhoods together.”

Whoever is providing the support, Nikki Calma says it’s critical for newcomers, which she once was.

“There’s a real need for a support system, a network that can help you and support you once you move from a very different country and a very different culture,” says Calma, who immigrated with her parents to Canada from the Philippines in 2009 and is now helping Giddins organize the parish campaign to adopt a Syrian family.

“It can be something as simple as helping someone figure out the bus system and where to get government ID to having someone help you with the health care system if someone gets sick. It’s something that really helped my family and I when we got here.”

Herod, as history would record, felt threatened by a baby born in a Bethlehem manger. Fast forward to today and there are many — not just Donald Trump –who argue the refugees in our midst pose a threat.

And so we close this Christmas Eve with the same question Giddins is asking his parishioners and which people around the province will be asking across the dinner table the next couple of days:

Do we still have room at the inn?

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca