Welcoming theStranger: A Call toCompassion
CAPS News 2025
alberto
CAPS activist Alberto reports on a networking meeting convened by The London Churches Refugee Fund.
At CAPS we are called to walk alongside those brothers and sisters living with HIV, in greatest need. Within our PositiveFaith community, currently, those in most urgent need of support are asylum seekers.
Many are surviving on less than £7 a day, if they receive any financial support at all. Far from their homelands, separated from family and friends, they face a future filled with fear and uncertainty. Some are seeking asylum for the first time. Many have had their claims rejected and are struggling with what comes next. Still others have finally been granted refugee status, only to find themselves navigating a new country with limited resources, little community, and often no clear path forward.
As a charity originally created to offer pastoral care to people affected by HIV and AIDS, we strive to support anyone in need. But the scale and complexity of the challenges faced by asylum seekers has, at times, felt overwhelming. Trying to understand the asylum system, its rules, its timelines, its constant changes, can leave one feeling frustrated, isolated and alone.
In February, I represented CAPS at an event organised by the London Churches Refugee Fund (LCRF). There, I met other organisations and church communities working with asylum seekers. What I found was deeply and profoundly moving and unexpectedly encouraging.
The people offering support weren’t large institutions or specialists, they were ordinary Christians, just like us. They were people who one Sunday noticed someone new sitting in the pews, someone who looked lost or frightened, someone who needed more than a warm greeting. Then they realised: We can do more.
And they did. I met Christians who serve hot meals several days a week to asylum seekers in their area. One group organises football games to create moments of joy and connection. Another matches homeless individuals with others who have a spare room and the heart to share it. There’s a sewing group where clothes are mended and friendships are stitched together. These are everyday Christians, parents, retirees, students, who decided that kindness requires action.
I was inspired by the work of the Notre Dame Refugee Centre which began with a group of parishioners actively listening to the pain and frustration of asylum seekers in their midst. Out of those conversations, a charity was born that now provides legal support, help with accommodation, mental health services, and pastoral care. A true ministry of presence and practical love.
I left with a feeling I hadn’t expected: hope. Real hope. Hope rooted in the knowledge that, despite all the hardship and injustice in the world, there are Good Samaritans everywhere. They’re being moved by the Holy Spirit, putting the Beatitudes into action, and transforming lives one act of love at a time.
As a Christian charity, devoted to the care and wellbeing of our members, we, too are being called. We are invited to widen the circle of compassion, to stretch our understanding of who is our “neighbour”, and to remember that, in the words of Jesus, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these... you did for me.”
We are doing our best. Like those communities I met, we know we can do more. With faith, prayer, and each other - we will.
