SEVEN people from across the Diocese of Salisbury have shared their very personal stories of movement and migration, describing what it feels like to belong in their new community.
All seven, whose journeys of movement include travelling from the United States, Chile, Nigeria and other parts of the UK, including Northern Ireland, serve and work in churches in the diocese.
In what is now a much more mobile society, most people have travelled and migrated in some way from the place where they were born, but regardless of where people have come from, the local church offers a place of belonging for everyone, says Bishop Andrew Rumsey.
Bishop Andrew’s video concludes the series of seven stories, which are being released this week on the diocese’s social media channels. His physical journey to Wiltshire is one of the shorter journeys to feature.
He said: “Journeys are made up of choices, decisions, needs and thoughtful people who have made decisions about me. Doors have opened and closed according to the people around me.
“While I feel at home in England, I’m aware those with a shorter story here don’t always feel they belong or are so at home. One of the reasons for this, is that wherever we find we belong, it is easy to think that place belongs to us. The question of belonging is at the heart of so much of our news at the moment.
“The old word parish is a great word, it means a community of strangers, a community who are on their way somewhere. That is a pretty good manifesto for the local church in our time – to make a community of those particularly who might not yet feel they belong but will find their place in Christ.”
Beatriz, who is training to be a priest, left Chile after suffering trauma and abuse. She grew up under the authoritarian and repressive regime of General Pinochet.
“I needed to move – not just across borders, but towards healing, towards safety, the chance to live a full life. Movement doesn’t end when you cross a border. Belonging is the most difficult word of all – for me it’s often felt like trying to hold water in my hands. For a long time, I searched for belonging in people, in roles and places, but I’ve come to understand true belonging comes when you are seen, valued and loved.”
Belonging for her has been found in her faith – which has allowed her to begin to heal and “to finally arrive, not just in a country, but in my own life.”
Olivia, who has been in the UK for just over a decade, said: “Belonging is created when you make space for others… it’s the choice for you to make someone new feel welcome. My Dad used to say, don’t look through people, really see them, because when you see people, the labels are removed. No matter where you come from or I come from, we have more in common than we think.”
Olatunde moved to Wiltshire from Nigeria with his wife and family. He said: “Belonging is giving people an opportunity – and when you don’t get that opportunity, that’s when you feel that sense of not belonging.”
Revd Lydia is a priest in Dorset, who moved from Tennessee to Purbeck after meeting her husband. She said: “Nobody wants to leave their home; it’s a big thing to come to a different country. “
She said despite now having two passports, and loving both the US and Dorset, she knew that her “real citizenship is as a Christian” and that wherever she travelled, that reassured her she had a home.