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GOD in EXILE Towards a Shared Spirituality with Refugees

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GOD in EXILE Towards a Shared Spirituality with Refugees GOD IN EXILE Towards a shared spirituality with refugees Jesuit Refugee Service 160 GOD IN EXILE Towards a shared spirituality with refugees Jesuit Refugee Service 1 Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international Catholic organization with a mission to accompany, serve and plead the cause of refugees and forcibly displaced people. Se up by the Society of Jesus in 1980 and now at work in over 50 countries, the priority of JRS is to accompany refugees whose needs are more urgent or forgotten. © Jesuit Refugee Service, October 2005 ISBN: 88-88126-02-3 Editorial team: Pablo Alonso SJ, Jacques Haers SJ, Elías López SJ, Lluís Magriñà SJ, Danielle Vella Production: Stefano Maero Cover design: Stefano Maero Cover photo: Amaya Valcárcel/JRS Biblical quotes in this book have been taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Copies of this book and CD are available from: Jesuit Refugee Service C.P. 6139, 00195 Roma Prati, Italy Tel.: +39 – 06.68.97.73.86 Fax: +39 – 06.68.80.64.18 Email: [email protected] JRS website: http://www.jrs.net 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreward 5 Introduction 9 Chapter 1 ‘FOR GOD HAS ALSO LOST A SON’ 15 A biblical perspective Chapter 2 BREAKING BREAD TOGETHER 29 Accompanying refugees Chapter 3 RESTORING HUMAN DIGNITY 59 Serving refugees Chapter 4 GOD’S WORK HAS NO BORDERS 87 Defending the cause of refugees Chapter 5 STRONG ENOUGH OR WEAK ENOUGH? 121 Spirituality matters Appendix 1 IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA 140 Appendix 2 GLOSSARY OF IGNATIAN TERMS 149 3 Don Doll SJ/JRS 4 FOREWARD God in Exile: Towards a Shared Spirituality with Refugees is intended for people involved in the mission of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) and others who serve refugees and people on the move. It is the fruit of endeavours to meet a felt need in JRS, that of giving expression to the rich spirituality underlying the journey in exile and the specific JRS response. To this end, we have sought to combine experience and reflection by sharing the insights of lay people, priests and religious who have belonged to JRS over the years, both refugees themselves and others who chose to accompany them in their exile. We provide our readers with a background of the JRS mandate and Ignatian spirituality as well as with the tools of guided biblical meditation and Ignatian discernment. The book draws on and de- velops previous reflections made within JRS, especially those com- piled in Everybody’s Challenge: Essential Documents of Jesuit Refugee Service 1980-2000 (Rome, 2000). The introduction by Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus is followed by a biblical perspective of exile, to root our reflections in the heart of our tradition. The main part of the book (chapters 2, 3, 4) is a compilation of contri- butions divided according to the pillars of the mission of JRS: to ac- company and serve refugees and to defend their rights. For each of these three pillars we offer reflections by refugees and JRS workers; a biblical contemplation as an invitation to prayer; and an article which draws on the principles of Ignatian spirituality. To make the book more user-friendly, each contribution is marked by a symbol denoting whether it is: a reflection written by a refugee; a reflection written by a JRS worker; a biblical contemplation; a reflection on Ignatian spirituality. 5 Chapter 5 presents a synthesis on Ignatian spirituality in a refugee context. It draws on experiences of the four successive Jesuit interna- tional directors of JRS since 1980: Michael Campbell-Johnston, Di- eter Scholz, Mark Raper, and Lluís Magriñà. The book also includes a double appendix: inspiration drawn from Ignatius of Loyola’s life for people on the move and a glossary of relevant Ignatian terms. French and Spanish translations of the material are available in a CD distributed with this book. The CD also features the autobiography of St Ignatius in English, French and Spanish; the above-mentioned JRS publication Everybody’s Challenge in English; Preparing for Easter, scriptural reflections for Lent from JRS Europe workers (1999) in Eng- lish, and other Lenten reflections and prayers in English and Spanish. We hope this book will bring about insight and spiritual growth in the journey of refugees and displaced people and those who accom- pany them. Pablo Alonso SJ Jacques Haers SJ Elías López SJ Lluís Magriñà SJ Danielle Vella Editorial Committee 6 Don Doll SJ/JRS 7 Allied Newspapers Ltd 8 INTRODUCTION To accompany refugees is to affirm that God is present in human history, even its most tragic episodes. In companionship with Jesus Christ and serving his mission in the midst of refugees, JRS can be an effective sign of God’s love and reconciliation. JRS Charter As JRS celebrates 25 years of existence, it is a good time for all of us who are somehow or other involved, to explore ways of improving the serv- ice we offer to refugees and other displaced people across the world. Firstly, 25 years is a good moment to thank the Lord for all that has been done. Much has been achieved in a relatively short time and today we can say that even in worldly terms, JRS is a ‘success’; its services enjoy widespread credibility and are ever in demand. Since its humble beginnings in Asia Pacific, JRS is now present in more than 57 countries spread across 10 regions, and still it is available to go elsewhere should the need arise. The development of JRS parallels an explosive growth in the size of the world’s displaced population as millions of people are uprooted from their homes. Population flows are no longer a sporadic phenomenon in response to occasional manmade or natural catastrophes; they are fast becoming – indeed perhaps they have already become – part of global structures, they are a feature of the world as we know it today. Since JRS was set up, the profile and needs of the world’s displaced people have undergone several changes. There is no typical refugee, just as there is no classic, formulated response. JRS workers implement a vast range of services depending on the needs of those they serve and on prevalent circumstances. Underpinning these diverse efforts and unit- ing them into one unique mission is the inspiration of Fr Pedro Arrupe, who launched JRS as a spiritual and practical response to refugees’ needs, and the consequent JRS mandate, summed up in General Congre- gation 34: There are over 45 million refugees and displaced persons in today’s world, 80% of whom are women and children... The Jesuit Refugee Service accompanies many of these brothers and sisters of ours, serving them as compan- ions, advocating their cause in an uncaring world. 9 Over the years, those involved in JRS have asked for clarification of its identity and mission. To accompany, serve and advocate... time and again there have been initiatives to flesh out this mandate, to articulate its meaning in more depth and detail. Such endeavours have always been accompanied by a realisation of the inherently spiritual dimension of work with refugees, a dispossessed people on the move: To join JRS is to embark on a journey of faith accompanied by refugees, was the main conclusion of a JRS meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, in 1995. Many JRS workers have reflected – frequently in groups – on the spiritual meaning and values represented by refugees, what mes- sage they have to share with JRS and the rest of the world. Motivated by awareness that the spirit and tradition which animate JRS need to be handed on, they often recorded their insights to share them with others who would join the mission sooner or later. This gradual, spontaneous search expresses a need voiced several times over by JRS workers from all walks of life. In one example, back in 1997, a JRS internal ‘communications audit’, which sought feed- back on diverse organisational features, revealed a strong cry for greater emphasis on and definition of aspects of the faith, the corner- stone on which JRS is built. God in Exile: Towards a Shared Spirituality with Refugees evolved precisely as a response to this need. It is a com- pilation of reflections from a spiritual perspective shared by people – religious, lay people and refugees – who are part of the JRS mission. It does not pretend to be the final answer in what is essentially a process; rather it is a step in the journey towards discovering, to- gether with refugees, a spirituality arising out of the experience of forced exile and the specific faith-based response of JRS. God is calling us through this people... the journey of JRS started 25 years ago with Fr Arrupe’s appeal to the Society. I am grateful to see how JRS remains faithful to Fr Arrupe’s vision to heed God’s call through the refugees, responding as a pilgrim church and going anywhere for the greater service of God. A value of this book is that it underlines the typi- cally Ignatian nature of the JRS response. Operating in the ever-chang- ing world of displaced people, JRS is called to be forever flexible and open to new challenges, and it has always found direction in Ignatius’ criteria for apostolic work, giving priority to situations of great need, to places where a more universal good may be achieved and to needs 10 unattended to by others.
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