Welcoming the stranger: refuge, sanctuary and faith in a divided time

Among the oldest and most universal of all religious commands is a simple one: welcome the stranger. The refugee, the traveller, the destitute and the displaced have a claim on the conscience of every faith. In a divided age, when the tone of public debate about migrants and the needy has hardened, that ancient tradition is being tested — and, many would say, is worth recovering. This is a reflection on the shared inheritance of welcome, and on how faith communities can live it out with both compassion and wisdom.

An ancient, shared command

The call to hospitality runs deep across every tradition:

• In the Hebrew scriptures: "Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
• In Christianity: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" — and the memory that the Holy Family themselves fled as refugees.
• In Islam: a profound ethic of hospitality and protection of the traveller, and the founding story of the Hijra — the Prophet's own migration — and the welcome the people of Medina gave to those who arrived with nothing.
• In Sikhism: the langar and the gurdwara, open to all who come, of any background.
• In Hinduism: Atithi Devo Bhava — "the guest is as God."

Welcoming the stranger is not a modern add-on to faith. It sits close to its heart.

A tradition under strain

It would be dishonest not to name the tension. Migration is among the most contested issues in public life, and faith communities feel it — not least because they contain people who hold a wide range of sincere and differing views.

This article does not take a position on immigration policy. That is a matter for democratic debate and for individual conscience, and people of deep faith disagree about it in good faith. What the shared tradition speaks to is something more fundamental and less partisan: the dignity of the person, and the duty of welcome and care toward the stranger and the needy who are actually in front of us. The policy questions belong to citizens and governments; the person at the door belongs to all of us.

Refuge and sanctuary, renewed

The idea of sanctuary — a place of safety and welcome — is itself ancient; for centuries, places of worship were literal places of refuge. Today that instinct lives on in communities that choose, quietly and practically, to be places of welcome for those who have fled danger or fallen on hard times.

What welcome looks like in practice

For a faith community, welcome is usually practical and pastoral rather than political:

• Hospitality — a genuine welcome, a shared meal, friendship, and a place to belong for people who are often isolated and afraid.
• Practical support — English classes, befriending, help navigating unfamiliar systems, and warm signposting to qualified advice (immigration advice is regulated — point people to accredited advisers rather than guessing).
• Community Sponsorship — a lawful government scheme through which faith and community groups can directly welcome and resettle a refugee family, supporting them with housing, integration and English toward self-sufficiency. It's a concrete, well-trodden route (organisations like Reset exist to help groups do it).
• Standing with the needy more widely — the destitute, the asylum seeker with no recourse to public funds, the migrant with no one — which connects to the wider faith response to poverty and hardship.

Doing it wisely

Compassion works best with wisdom:

• Serve unconditionally — freely, to all, with no strings and no expectation of religious conformity.
• Safeguard well — many you welcome will have experienced trauma; care and appropriate safeguarding matter.
• Know the limits of your expertise — signpost to qualified, regulated immigration and legal advice rather than offering it yourself.
• Stay within the law on campaigning — a charity may support and speak up for its beneficiaries, but political activity has limits (see speaking in a polarised climate).
• Hold your community together across difference — welcome is not partisanship, and a wise leader keeps the focus on the person and the shared tradition rather than the political fight.
• Get the foundations right as projects grow — structure, funding and governance — part of living out the common good, and something faith communities have always done.

The bottom line

In a polarised society, the faith tradition of welcoming the stranger is not a political programme but a way of seeing: the person before you is not a category or a threat, but a neighbour, a guest, someone of infinite worth. Recovering that ancient inheritance — offered freely, practised wisely, and kept within the law — may prove one of faith's most needed gifts to a divided age.

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This article is general reflection and information, not advice — and takes no position on immigration policy. Immigration and asylum advice is regulated; direct people to qualified advisers. For help with the governance and finances of welcome and support projects, get in touch.

Sources (June 2026):

• GOV.UK — Community Sponsorship: guidance for prospective sponsors (how faith and community groups can resettle a refugee family) — https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-full-community-sponsorship/community-sponsorship-guidance-for-prospective-sponsors
• Reset Communities for Refugees — support for community sponsorship groups — https://www.resetuk.org/