Movement Magazine Issue 156

JULIA
NiCK
Julia Chabasiwicz is a student in Leeds. For her, taking
action has strengthened her faith.
Nick is a student in Sheffield, and was co-chair of the
SCM group there.
I would be lying
if I said that
faith inspired
my action. It
is seeing the
impact that
my action has
on myself and
others that
strengthens my
faith.
I came to the UK to study two years
ago. It was a time of thrill, adventure
and challenges. Due to me being
raised in a very Catholic country, my
spiritual life had been largely driven by
guilt and ritual, and I was exhausted
with the constant feeling of shame. I
felt that my faith could not progress
if I did not abandon it for a while,
distance myself from it and then make
conscious choices about my religion.
I immersed in the new, exciting
environment and tried to meet as
many people with different opinions
and values as I could.
At that time, one of the very few stable
points in my life was volunteering for
Student Action for Refugees. Every
Saturday, I would take part in threehour
long English language classes for
refugees and asylum seekers. Getting
to know these people and their
stories, and trying to help them in the
best way I could, was a challenging
and humbling experience, yet it
gave me a sense of satisfaction and
inner peace. At the time I wasn’t
attending church regularly, but I’d
always show up to STAR with a
church-like discipline, regardless
of my mood, university deadlines
or hangover. It became my
bottom-line moral standard, almost
like saying to myself ‘you can do
anything, UNLESS it makes you skip
volunteering’.
At some point of the second term, I
started feeling ready for accepting
faith again and coming back to the
Church. It so happened that my local
church, All Hallows’, was a very open
place, strongly oriented towards social
justice and action. The services were
paired with leading a community payas-you-feel
café and various events
and campaigns. I came to one service
out of curiosity, and stayed.
Jesus’s words ‘whatever you did for
one of the least of these brothers
and sisters of mine, you did for me’
are usually presented as an argument
for helping other people. However,
I would lie if I said that faith inspired
my action. I was volunteering simply
because I felt that was right. Only the
light I saw in the people I was working
with reminded me of Jesus and the
inner peace and joy that faith may
bring to a person. It was seeing the
impact the action had on myself and
on others that inspired me to believe
and continues to strengthen my faith.
‘Faith by itself, if it does not have
works, is dead.’ James 2:17
I found this verse when I was a young
Christian, and nothing in the bible has
influenced me more. I had felt that for
all our talk of Christian love, the brutal
reality is that loving someone and
doing nothing isn’t useful to the person
in need. Our love for others needs to
be active, it needs to be practical, it
needs to meet people where they are
at to be a useful sort of love. Often it
needs to challenge injustice to make
sure that the person in need doesn’t
have to be in need again. The verse
confirmed everything I had begun to
believe – that our faith requires works,
and this is love in action.
I started to practice this when I was
at University. I became co-chair of
the campus Amnesty International
society, helping to raise awareness
on a variety of issues, from the death
penalty to LGBT+ rights in Russia.
It was when I started to learn more
about the issues that asylum seekers
face that I really felt I was putting my
faith in action. Those who are refused
asylum can be left in limbo for years,
not granted permission to remain in
the UK but often not deported because
their home country is too unsafe.
They are not offered any money or
housing and are not allowed to work,
instead having to rely on charities and
community groups for housing and
support. This policy purposely denies
people the opportunity to contribute
and make their life better, punishing
people that have tried to escape one
hardship by forcing another upon
them. The current system is, in no
uncertain terms, evil. I have never
been so angry at anything else in my
life.
Challenging this system is a way of
speaking out against injustice, and
helping refused asylum seekers I
think is love in action. I volunteered
for a charity that supports asylum
seekers monetarily, and I tried to
point them towards local services
where they could find more fulfilment.
I volunteered for a group of
lawyers who helped make
appeals. Eventually I set up a
group that helps to campaign for
scholarships for asylum seekers
at the University of Sheffield,
which was a policy the University
eventually adopted. Love is active,
it’s often hard, but as Christians, it
is our duty to try and have love in
action.
Our love for others
needs to be active, it
needs to be practical,
it needs to meet
people where they
are at to be a useful
sort of love.
Often it needs to
challenge injustice
to make sure that
the person in need
doesn’t have to be in
need again.
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