Church World Service Prepares to Celebrate World Refugee Day 2005

Congregations and communities worldwide are preparing and planning events throughout June to show hospitality to refugees and asylum seekers all around the globe. The events will take place on 20th June, which has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly as 'World Refugee Day'.

World Refugee Day was established in 2000 with the goal of increasing awareness of the global refugee situation. Almost 18 million refugees across the world have been displaced from their homes because of war or ethnic and religious persecution, waiting for help to return home safely or to be resettled in other nations.

The Church World Service (CWS), a relief and refugee assistance ministry consisting of Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations was founded in 1946, and is also preparing for the observance of the 5th anniversary of 'World Refugee Day'.

The First CWS resource for the celebration includes a call to worship, invocation, relevant scripture references and benediction. The second offers a reflection for World Refugee Day, refugee facts, word about Church World Service, its member denominations and congregations and activities.

Joining with other faith-based and human rights organisations, Church World Service will hold a 'NY Heart Refugees' event in New York, honouring refugees and others who have helped improve the lives of refugees and asylum seekers.

Among the World Refugee Day celebrations planned by CWS is also a festival in Durham, USA, near Duke University on 18th June. It will feature live multicultural music, refugee crafts and international foods, sponsored by the Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas and a joint CWS-Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS).

A worship service for 'World Refuge Day' will be hosted in the chapel of the United Methodist Building in Washington D.C. on 22nd June.

The UK is also preparing hundreds of arts cultural and educational events organised across the country for the UK Refugee Week, which will last from 20th to 26th June, to celebrate the great contribution, and to promote an understanding of why people become refugees.

The theme for Refugee Week this year is Persecution, as part of the current three-year theme of the Global Causes of forced migration and displacement.