Australia has it’s own situation with boat people. Australia’s Royal Navy intercepts boats full off would-be immigrants and refugees to Australia off that nation’s coasts and detains them in refugee centers. However, Australia has farmed these centers to other island nations in the vicinity of Australia. There are detention centers on Christmas Island, Manus Island and Nauru. Some refugees have been detained for long periods of detention. The folks detained are both adults and children.
Many Australians, secular and religious, protest the successive Australian governments’ detention of these immigrants and refugees. The dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in Bendigo Victoria Australia became involved in protesting the detentions a few years back. The Very Revd John Roundhill has sponsored the display of sculptures to bring notice to the ongoing plight of the folks detained in the off-shore detention centers. The sculptures are of three crucified refugees.
The sculptures are a man, a pregnant woman and a child. The sculptures are the work of Revd John Tansey, a minister in the Uniting Church in Melbourne. The sculptures are on loan to the Cathedral for the duration of the display. The sculptures are named for the three off-shore detention centers; Christmas Island, Manus Island and Nauru.
The congregation at St Paul’s are active with their dean in the immigrant and refugee cause. The dean reports that many of the congregants were immigrants and refugees.
The photo and facts for this story were gathered from the Anglican Communion News Service. Other facts are from Wikipedia.