蜜芽传媒

On Friday, a small group of us from the Diocese of Southwark, including our Bishop, travelled over to the refugee camp in Calais to deliver a number of native language Bibles that I had been asked for by some of the Christians living over there. We spend most of the day listening to the stories of people who鈥檝e been escaping all manner of horrors in their place of birth, from poverty to barrel bombs. But this time, it the witness of Kurdish Christians that shocked me most, and in particular the accounts of torture than a number of them had received at the hands of their own security services. Some from Iran, some from Iraq and Syria, their English wasn鈥檛 terribly good, but their scars and their tears were eloquent enough. One man spoke of having had his mouth sown up, another of being shackled in a dungeon unable to stand or sit, another of how his brothers had all been hung 鈥� their crime: that of conversion to Christianity.

A number of people questioned why we were taking Bibles, and not clothing or food. And the short answer was that Bibles was what they鈥檇 asked for. But the reason they had asked for Bibles in their own language was that this book represented to them an expression of freedom that was unavailable back home. 鈥淢an does not live by bread alone鈥� said Jesus famously. And that saying surely has a secular equivalent 鈥� we need bread, but so too do we need freedom. And freedom of religion is the canary in the cage of an open society 鈥� when that is restricted, other restrictions inevitably follow.

As I talked to these Kurdish men, and as they pressed my hands onto their wounds, I remembered a powerful sermon I once heard at St Paul鈥檚 cathedral: 鈥淚f Christianity became illegal in this country鈥� the preacher said 鈥渨ould there be enough evidence to convict you of it?鈥� It was a fierce question.

Yesterday was the feast day of All Saints, a day when Christians remember that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, many of whom have died for their faith under persecution. It鈥檚 only recently that the word 鈥榤artyr鈥� has been associated with suicide bombings and the like. Originally, a martyr was simply someone who witnessed to their faith, even in extreme circumstances of persecution, and even to the point of death. These saints are the heroes of the Christian faith - and they were the rock-stars of the middle-ages. Yes, arguably, the cult of saints got a bit out of control and I understand why it was disparaged during the Reformation. But at its heart, these relics often told an important story about people who had stood up for their right to believe in the face of persecution. And I met some of that same spirit in Calais last week 鈥� men who I would have little hesitation in calling martyrs, even saints. And not because they were especially pious. But rather because they were incredibly brave. And I thank God for their formidable witness to that freedom.

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