Dave Andrews’ Speech on the Steps of St John’s Cathedral 08/02/2016

I would like to honour the traditional owners of this land past and present whose representatives have publicly welcomed asylum seekers.

We are here today to take a stand for Sanctuary.

Sanctuary is when people of good faith, in times of turmoil, open up a sacred space to protect and support vulnerable people in their community.

Typically Sanctuary is declared when vulnerable people are in danger from the very authorities that are tasked by society to protect them from danger.

Provision of Sanctuary is the last resort, when all other efforts of negotiate-ion have failed, to be true to our convictions, and put people above politics

Sanctuary is an ancient tradition in many world religions. In the Christian tradition, Sanctuary has been declared to protect people of other religions from persecution by the Christian community; Sanctuary has been declared to protect runaway slaves, escaping from the brutal bondage that was legally sanctioned by society; and Sanctuary has been declared to protect refugees, fleeing from the trauma of war, seeking the safety of asylum, only to find the prospect of state-sanctioned abuse in indefinite detention.

Today we join with an order of nuns, (whom Philip Adams calls the last radicals left in Australia), four other cathedrals, forty-four Anglican, Catholic, Uniting, Baptist and Salvation Army churches, state and territory leaders from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory and other congregations around the world in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands, in declaring Sanctuary for asylum seekers facing indefinite detention or deportation.

This is a symbolic action, that takes a sacred place, like the Cathedral, and makes it a symbol of resistance against the inhuman treat of asylum seekers. But it is more than symbolic – it is strategic – and can be effective. In 2007, Iranian refugee Shahla Valadi was granted asylum in Norway after spending seven years in church sanctuary after the initial denial of asylum.

Today I call on you, to take a stand with me, for Sanctuary with the Very Reverend Doctor Peter Catt and the congregation of St John’s; to render them any assistance we can; and to join them in calmly-but-resolutely, nonviolently resisting any attempt by the Border Security Force to remove any asylum seeker who seeks the Sanctuary of this sacred place.

We say to our fellow Australians:

Let us rise up against systemic abuse in our name.
Let us rise up against state sanctioned brutality as policy.
Let us rise up against sovereignty at the expense of humanity.

Let this be a turning point in our history when, as a nation,
we choose no longer to take the road much traveled – that callous closed-minded road of calculating cruelty that leads only to despair;
but instead we choose to take the road less traveled – that kind open-hearted road of generous hospitality which is the only hope for any of us.

We say to those seeking asylum in Australia:

We will accept you.
We will respect you.
We will protect you.

In this sacred space,
we will embrace you, open our arms to make space for you,
we will wrap our arms around you, to comfort you and keep you safe.

We know it will be hard. But we will do it neverthless.
For it is most important to do it, when it is most difficult to do.