Our headlines have been full of updates from Calais over the last few weeks, as French authorities have cleared the ‘Jungle’ camp and bussed its ‘residents’ to centres all over the country. Our hearts are breaking all over again, knowing that 7,000 unique stories are merely entering another chapter of uncertainty. But today’s psalm (29) gave us encouragement to cry out to God again for their cause to be heard:
A prayer as Calais’ ‘migrants’ are bussed out (inspired by Psalm 29)
Oh Great Voice of love-fuelled justice –
Word; Truth; and Life –
How can we still be so deaf to your call
after all these months of news from Calais?
Your voice echoes on both sides of the channel.
It shatters complacency and calls leaders to account.
It cuts through convenience
and drowns out the bureaucracy
that endlessly negotiates
which nation is more responsible
and how many processes must be put in place
before someone in need is finally welcome.
Your voice splinters through false divides
in vulnerability
that say boys are fine,
or over 13s are safe enough.
And it penetrates the dissembling attempts
to question the age of a child
in order to keep them out.
Your voice whispers devastatingly loud
this thundering truth
into the silence of 130 million
French and English hearts –
Enough!
Each one of these 7,000 is my beloved,
and 1,500 of them are children,
and you have room,
so MAKE A WAY.
Surely now we must hear your call?
As we watch these ‘migrants’
move on again,
adding another chapter of trauma
to thousands of desperate life stories,
but still
– even after all these months and miles –
finding nothing nearer to ‘home’.
Oh Great Voice of love-fuelled justice –
Word; Truth; and Life –
How can we still be so deaf to your call
as bus loads of people leave Calais behind?