Dear friends,
I have never been to Castlemilk but I have been praying for the community for almost 22 years. It started at a Churches Together event here in Dunblane to mark the millennium. We had invited the leaders of some new and exciting church initiatives to speak. In their midst was Eileen Baxendale from Castlemilk Community Church.
Glasgow’s decision to become an asylum dispersal city in 1999 had led to significant numbers of refugees and asylum seekers and their families arriving in Scotland. They were accommodated in the large stock of social housing left vacant by deindustrialisation. These flats were mostly located in communities with high levels of unemployment and deprivation. Tensions were often high in those early years. The newcomers were thought to be receiving preferential treatment, denying local people of housing and services.
Glasgow’s Integration Networks were set up around this time to build connections between new arrivals and members of the local community. Castlemilk Community Church was part of this response. The small Baptist congregation had opened its doors to refugee and asylum seeker families welcoming them to their building and into their community. These families had, of course, arrived with no possessions so a furniture project soon followed. During the week the sanctuary would become a warehouse where people in need, both longstanding local residents and incomers, could collect items for their homes.
Eileen spoke so warmly about the welcome and support their small group was providing to so many people fleeing war and oppression that I felt compelled to ask her how I could help. As my boys were young at the time and as many of these families had children and were having more babies, we decided that I would make a collection of clothes and toys and baby equipment. I shared some of the stories Eileen had told me with my friends and the response was overwhelming. Within days, our garage was full of donations and Eileen was back in Dunblane with her van to collect them.
By the middle of the following week, the garage was filling up again. Word had spread amongst parents at Dunblane Primary and ‘collecting for Castlemilk’ became an ongoing project for our family. Eileen would visit regularly with news of the families and requests for prayer. The threat of deportation hung over some of them, others were separated from their older children denied access to the UK. Although I had never met them, I felt a strong bond, especially with the mothers.
They must have felt the same because when I invited Eileen to my licensing as a Lay Reader in 2008, she responded by saying that some of the refugee families would like to come too. On that unforgettable evening, six mums from the Congo took over the kitchen of St Mary’s Church Hall to cook the most amazing curries for the bring and share ceilidh, whilst one of the dads took a video of the service to send to my parents who were unable to attend.
I hope that by the time you read this magazine, Eileen and some families from Castlemilk will have visited St Mary’s again. The collections have continued over the years, word spreading among parents in Dunblane by word of mouth. During the pandemic there was nothing I could do but pray for the families, but as we emerged from Lockdown last June it occurred to me that the Dunblane Free Page on Facebook would be a good vehicle for raising awareness and that the Rectory garage would be a more central location for storing the donations. Within three days, the garage was full to the gunnels and the new Castlemilk Community Church van was on its way to Dunblane to collect the hundreds of bags and boxes. Almost every day since then, folks have been coming to the door of the Rectory with donations large and small.
When I invited Eileen to come to speak to us about the work of her church among refugees and in the local community, she once more responded by saying that some of the families would like to come too. I hope that they will have enjoyed their time with us and that their visit will have sown seeds of new possibilities for the future. Please pray for them, for Castlemilk Community Church and for all families and communities who are welcoming and supporting refugees and asylum seekers.
At our recent Eco Question Time, it was made clear that Climate Change is one of the causes of the world-wide refugee crisis we are experiencing. Topics of discussion ranged from the global to the local. It is hoped that this will be the case also at our Eco Fest on 11th June when a number of organisations will set up their stalls at St Mary’s in order to provide information and advice to members of our local community on environmental issues. Please pray for this new venture and spread the word in any way you can. One of the aims of our church is to serve our wider community. These events are intended a way to achieve that aim.
With love to you all,
Nerys
