Catch up on the LCRF Annual Lecture 2025
- associatepriest0
- Jun 20
- 2 min read
St Pancras Church was pleased to host London Churches Refugee Fund Annual Lecture last night (19 June 2025) with it guest speaker Rt. Revd. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Bishop of Dover and the Bishop in Canterbury.
Bishop Rose spoke passionately about the power of community and of communities as places where all can belong with and belong to each other. She posed the question to those present, how they could work together for the thriving and flourishing of all. And she challenged all, especially Christians and churches, to be 'intentionally courageous advocates for the weakest and those in need of sanctuary'.
Are we surprised, Bishop Rose asked rhetorically, that those in places torn apart by war or those who are hungry or experiencing poverty or the adverse effects of climate change, move away from their homes in search of security and a better life; wouldn't we (and, historically, didn't the English and West Europeans do that, when it suited)?
Encouraging her audience to be careful to guard against language that provokes fear of strangers, Bishop Rose spoke too of how every person is, for Christians, brother and sister and of how seeing, in Canterbury Cathedral, boards showing the names of over 500 people whose lives are known to have been lost while trying to cross the Channel, reminded her (and can remind us too) that each and every one was someone's brother, sister, child, parent. 'Feel and Weep', she implored the audience, for they are our neighbours.
'Speak up', 'speak out', ask yourself 'If they are by brother and my sister, what can I give up to make their lives a little better?', 'what could we do? - share our homes?', 'people not numbers', 'not our world but God's, there to be shared'. Being a superpower is not found in having weapons or the power to fire them at the press of a button, but in recognising everyone's humanity and building community together and for all.
You can watch the whole evening including Bishop Rose delivering her message here:
The programme for the evening, which gives details of other speakers too, was:
6.35pm Welcome from The London Churches Refugee Fund (LCRF) – Bethan Lant (Trustee LCRF)
6.37pm Opening Prayer – Revd Phil Barnard (London Regional Team Leader & Patron LCRF)
6.39pm Introduction to Speaker – Simon Loveitt (Chair – LCRF)
6.40pm “Community as a Superpower” - The Right Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin (Bishop of Dover)
7.10pm Question and Answer
7.20pm Presentation from Freedom from Torture – Felix & Rosie
7.30pm Music 1 – Ahmed Alsir – Sudanese refugee singer
7.40pm Presentation from Waging Peace – Maddy Crowther
7.50pm Music 2 – Ahmed Alsir – Sudanese refugee singer
8.00pm Appeal for support for LCRF – Chris Brice (Trustee LCRF)
8.05pm Closing Prayer – Revd Andrew Prasad (United Reformed Church & Patron LCRF)