Peter Marsden, right, with host Gerald Gresham Cooke
Peter Marsden of Concordis speaking at St Mary’s, Petworth, for the PACT (Petworth Area Churches Together) spring talk
It was a brilliant event with well over 100 attending to hear a serious and sound subject: ‘Mass migration: an appropriate response’ by Peter Marsden of Concordis International, a peace building and reconciliation agency working mostly in Africa.
His main points were that we must beware of being swayed by fear (“Help – we are being overwhelmed”) on the one hand, and guilt (“We must be kind to everyone”) on the other.
As Christians we need to exercise both compassion and wisdom. We can address grass roots issues to prevent the necessity of migration. (Hence the work of Concordis) and also exercise compassion to those migrants already here.
Gerald Gresham Cooke