Media reports on our project
Other resources
The national Church of England has put together a Toolkit to help you to prepare for welcoming refugees. It brings together practical information about community sponsorship, prayer and advocacy, plus links to other information such as safeguarding. You can read their announcement about this here, and download the whole Toolkit here.
Another way to help is to register to welcome Ukrainian refugees with a new organisation called the Sanctuary Foundation. It encourages individuals and churches to register to offer support - meeting refugees at the airport, befriending them, and helping them to access local services and support as they settle in or near your church. Once you’ve registered, they’ll be in touch to let you know how you can help, when help is needed.
Pray for Ukraine
Christians across the globe have been praying for the conflict in Ukraine since the invasion began. Here are some prayers you could use:
- use this prayer for Ukraine from the chaplain of St Nicholas, Helsinki, which supported refugees from Ukraine;
- use this prayer from Christian Aid on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion;
- ask churchgoers to light candles to pray for peace and for those bereaved, injured, displaced and frightened;
- post photos of your prayers and candles on social media channels with the hashtag #WePrayForUkraine;
- organise an act of witness with your church or local community. This could involve wearing blue and yellow, holding a moment of silence, or holding up blue and yellow hearts as an act of solidarity.
Prayer resources
You can find some liturgical resources to use when praying for peace here. Among them is this Collect:
Collect
Almighty God,
from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed:
kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all, the true love of peace
and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom
those who take counsel for the nations of the earth
that in tranquillity your kingdom may go forward,
till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen
Other resources
Prayer 24:7 have released a prayer for the crisis, available online, and downloadable in PDF and PowerPoint formats, in English and Spanish.
EngageWorship have released a five-part prayer online and in PowerPoint format, and also provide links to 5 Ukrainian hymns.
Donations for Ukraine
If you would like to make a donation to help those who are caught up in the conflict in Ukraine, or who are fleeing from it as refugees, here are some helpful places to start looking:
- Red Cross Ukrainian crisis appeal;
- Ukrainian Institute website;
- Unicef appeal for Ukraine;
- Christian Aid appeal for Ukraine;
- USPG emergency appeal for Ukraine;
- Disasters Emergency Committee appeal (an alliance of many charities); or
- Hope Now, a Southampton-based charity that works in Ukraine.
Some of our churches have already been helping out, and you can read about their efforts below:
Resources to use with children
The BBC has created series of animated short films, Seeking Refuge, about young refugees who have starred a new life in the UK, which might be suitable for Upper KS2 and KS3. These have also been turned into a series of picture books.
The Christian Aid game “Safe Place Ludo” is a good resource to help children of primary school age explore issues raised by the refugee crisis. Christian Aid has also created a number of Prayer Space resources, exploring themes such as peace making and children alone.
Oxfam has a series of teaching resources called Stand with Refugees aimed at KS2 – 3. There is also a good set of CAFOD Refugee resources, including a short film and simulation activity where children can follow a refugee family through various dangers and crisis points.
Picture News have made their Ukraine resources free to all schools, you can sign in here to download them.