Michael Jensen has written a moving article on leaving the bodies of asylum seekers in the ocean recently off Christmas Island. It was originally published at Sydney Anglicans and then republished on the ABC Drum website. (I just had a quick read of some of the many negative comments on the ABC version of the article… that just compounds the sadness!!)
Here is a snippet:
I am simply sad about the loss of this boat. These are people who I don’t know. But there’s something about these unwanted, stateless, desperate unburied people, who died beyond the borders of any state and with no-one to care for them, that moves me.
‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ said Cain, as he fled from Abel and denied responsibility. The corpses floating off Christmas Island cry out from the sea… Surely the answer to the question is ‘yes: I am my brother’s keeper’.
Christian Service of Commemoration for Those Lost at Sea
Michael has also organised a commemoration service for this Sunday. Here are the details from the Facebook Event:
Christian Service of Commemoration for Those Lost at Sea
Sunday 23 June 2013.
2-3pm at St Barnabas Anglican Church, Broadway
A service to commemorate the asylum seekers lost at sea this week; our brothers, unknown to us, but known to God.
“The gospel of the resurrection tells us […] that their bodies are not beyond the God who made their bodies. They are not beyond the scope of the one who promises that at the final day there will be what theology calls a general resurrection of the dead. All human beings are united at least in this destiny. It tells us that ‘our’ dead are not just those who belong to the community that defines me ethnically. All human beings are ‘our’ dead. They, whoever they are, are ‘our’ people. They are ‘known unto God’; and thus, worthy of our respect as fellow bearers of his image.” – Michael Jensen