no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
In her poem, "Home," Warsan Shire, a Kenyan-born Somali poet now living in London, explores the emotional geography of being forced from one's home. She describes the urgency and devastation of having no choice but to escape.
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
Shire's words reveal the trauma of the stolen homeland: eating newspaper to survive, savage violence, and enduring the indignity of hateful rhetoric and abuse after reaching the shores of a new home.
no one leaves home
until home is a sweaty voice
in your ear saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i don't know what i've become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here
As we live into our Advent turning-a new orientation away from self-we must turn toward something. Repentance always leads us closer to the heart of God, and turning toward our neighbor allows us to know God more deeply, and in new ways. In turning toward the refugee as our neighbor, we are participating in clearing a path for justice, a path of welcome, a path of hope.
A video of Warsaw Shire's "Home":
Please note the full poem contains references to traumatic incidents and cites hate speech.
The Episcopal Church partners with the federal government to resettle thousands of refugees each year through Episcopal Migration Ministries. Our diocesan budget includes annual support for their local affiliate, Kentucky Refugee Ministries. The Episcopal Church began its ministry to refugees with port chaplains in the late 1800s, and developed resettlement programs to aid European refugees in the lead up to WWII. Our formal partnership to assist the US in resettlement work began in 1980 and continues today.
Learn more about the work Episcopal Migration Ministries does on our behalf here:
WHAT YOUR GIFT CAN DO
$25 provides a blanket for a refugee child
$50 provides a monthly bus pass for an adult seeking work
$75 provides groceries for a family's first week in Kentucky
$100 assists with medications for a sick mother
$150 assists with a heating bill for a 1-bedroom apartment
$500 assists with rent for a family's new apartment
$1,000 assists a family if someone gets ill and can't work
$2,500 co-sponsors a new family for 3-months
