This year Refugee Week is from 14th to the 20th June and the theme is  ‘Walking together‘.

Events for this year are:

Flags of Welcome,  #Chesterflagsofwelcome

Recently we have seen the effects of inequalities in our society but also how interconnected we all are. We have seen how coming together, with all our individual differences, can create a ‘bigger us’, can empower us all to move forward and do amazing things.

In the spirit of ‘walking together’ we invite you to show your support for those fleeing from violence and persecution by ‘planting’ one of our free flags at our unique public art installation which will be in Chester Cathedral gardens.  We will be in the  gardens with over 1000 flags to be ‘planted’ from  Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th June between 12-5pm. Please come and join us and be part of creating the path of ‘welcome to Chester’ and watch it will grow over the 4 days.

If anyone is unable to attend the event in person but would like us to ‘plant’ a flag on their behalf, please email (address on contact page) or ‘like’ our instagram page with the flags which will be posted the week before Refugee Week

This event will also be part of the ‘Great Walk Together’ organised by Refugee Week and the Jo Cox Foundation:

https://www.greatgettogether.org/chester_flags_of_welcome

Midnight Traveller, Film

In 2015 Afghan film director, Hassan Fazili, made a documentary film ‘Peace’. Its main subject was killed by the Taliban and Fazili found himself with a bounty on his head. He, with his filmmaker wife and two young daughters, were forced to leave their home. Using their mobile phone, this film documents the family’s journey through Turkey, Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary. In Fazil’s own words “We wanted the audience to be closer to our happiness, unhappiness, dreams and feelings…. We wanted the viewer to feel that they are by our side during the film, to laugh and cry with us, to feel homeless and confused with us so they would not just watch us from a distance.” (Filmmaker Magazine, January 2019).This is the personal, family story behind the headlines.

The film will be shown at Storehouse Cinema, Chester, on Sunday 20th June at 1.15pm. It will be introduced by a member of our group. Tickets via Storehouse website:

https://www.storyhouse.com/?s=midnight+traveller

If you have a lottery ticket, there are a number of free tickets available for the 19th and 20th June via this website (click on the North West on the map) :

https://www.weticketit.com/cinemaweekend/index.php

The tickets can be claimed from 15th June.

Cathedral Service

For Refugee Week, Chester Cathedral has invited Inderjit Bhopal, co-founder of the National City of Sanctuary movement, as guest speaker at the Sunday service. This service is at 10am on Sunday 20th June, booking is required via Chester Cathedral website for those wishing to attend.

We look forward to welcoming you at one or more of these events.