The news site of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland: nourishing and connecting our faith community

#SetThemFree

Thursday December 19

Honouring my curacy pledge six years on because everyone has a right to live in peace and freedom

“The enduring memory I have of the sanctuary training is the sense of unity felt by people of all ages who came together, raising their voices for refugees whose voices were being ignored. The people who participated were from different faith and no faith backgrounds. I remember one young person saying to me, as we sat on the steps of the Cathedral, ‘If church was like this, I would be a part of it!’” says The Rev’d Sue Grimmett from St Andrew’s, Indooroopilly

How the churches’ sanctuary offer shone a light on the detention centre regime, turning the tide for people seeking safety

“While preparing for the hastily organised sanctuary liturgy all those years ago, I vividly remember looking for vigil candles. As I picked up a box of 100 candles in the storage room, I looked at them hoping that enough people would turn up to light them all. Later that day, as more and more people arrived at the vigil, I had to keep bringing additional candles out from storage for people to light. In the end, 1,500 people turned up. I have never been happier to be 500 short of anything in my life,” says The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt

"One well-spoken young man, who gave many interviews to the international media in January, was first detained as a teenager nine years ago. His name is Mehdi Ali and he fled political persecution in Iran. He is a talented guitarist who taught himself to play while in detention" (Peter Branjerdporn, ACSQ Justice Unit)

Set them free

“The immigration detention of tennis world number one Novak Djokovic leading up to the recent Australian Open brought the international spotlight onto the plight of people who have been detained for much, much longer than him,” says the Justice Unit’s Peter Branjerdporn