Following the recent calls by faith leaders from across a range of faiths, the Church of England has released a letter it had written to the Prime Minister asking him for further action on allowing in more refugees from Syria into the United Kingdom.
The letter has been released and picked up by the Guardian newspaper and urges the Prime Minister to take a, “meaningful and substantial response to the scale of human suffering we see daily”.
The letter also acknowledges the steps taken by the Prime Minister to support refugees in countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey where millions of Syrians have been displaced to and also highlights the public offer made by the Prime Minister of 20,000 refugees being resettled into the UK over the next 5 years. However, bishops urged the Prime Minister to rethink the numbers and to increase the figure to 50,000. Allied to this, the Church added that it would use its vast asset base and provide accommodation and shelter to refugees so that the burden would not have to be picked up primarily by Government.
The letter also asked for moral leadership and that the Government respond prior to a meeting this week of the College of Bishops where they will discuss the ongoing issue.
The release of the letter will cause some embarrassment to the Government given that so many leading figures in the Church of England have signed it and given that the Prime Minister has placed a form of ‘compassionate’ Conservatism within the heart of his recent speech at the Conservative Party conference.
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