May 28, 2008 Bloemfontein, South Africa…Ansel Oliver/ANN
Seventh-day Adventist churches in South Africa are opening their doors to serve as refugee centers while calling for an end to xenophobic attacks around the country in recent weeks.
More than 30 churches are working with government officials to aid refugees, many of them undocumented and from the neighboring country of Zimbabwe.
Reports indicate that 40 people have died and thousands have been displaced from their homes. Church leaders stressed that attacks are coming from a “small, un-orchestrated criminal element.”
Yesterday, the Adventist Church in South Africa released a statement deploring the violence:
“The Adventist Church strongly calls for a deeper understanding of and greater respect for human rights and non-discrimination, to meet crying human needs, and to work for reconciliation between national, ethnic and religious communities,” the statement said. “The Seventh-day Adventist Church rejects the use of violence, in any form, as a method for conflict resolution.
“The Christian ministry of reconciliation will and must contribute to the restoration of human dignity, equality, and unity through the grace of God in which human beings see each other as members of one common family, the family of God,” the statement said.
In the past few years, South Africa has received millions of immigrants, both legal and undocumented. “I guess some people feel their jobs are threatened,” said Andre Brink, communication director for the Adventist Church's Southern Africa-Indian Ocean region.
The situation is playing out now in rural townships, church leaders said. Last Sabbath, guest preacher Paul Charles quit halfway through his sermon while about 70 refugees streamed into the sanctuary, overwhelming the 120-member congregation. About 80 percent were Adventist refugees from Zimbabwe, said Charles, who serves as the communication director for the Adventist Church in Southern Africa.
“On Saturday morning we decided to open our churches,” Charles said in reference to a renewed threat against refugees issued Friday night. “They have a warm place to stay. The church, working together with ADRA, is housing these people until there is some peace and calm,” he said.
The threat also affected the church's Helderberg College near Cape Town. School officials found housing that night for off-campus international students. Charles said about one-third of the school's students are from other countries.
ADRA dispatched a truck supplied with food and blankets yesterday from its office in Bloemfontein.
Charles said the government has provided transport for refugees to go back to Zimbabwe but most refuse to go.
“Even though there's a crisis here and their lives are at stake, in spite of these conditions, there's more hope here than in Zimbabwe now,” he said.
Church leaders said an Adventist youth group is planning a June 7 march against xenophobia near Cape Town.
