A call to hospitality not hostility
As followers of Jesus we can model a ‘bigger imagination’ in the conversation about migration and asylum
Christians called to embody “hospitality not hostility” towards migrants in statement from mission leaders
Dr Harvey Kwiyani
Acts 11 Project leader
Andy Roberts MBE
Church Mission Society CEO
The new CEO of Church Mission Society (CMS) Andy Roberts MBE and Dr Harvey Kwiyani, director for the Acts 11 Centre for Global Witness and Human Migration have issued a joint call for Christians to practise “hospitality not hostility” towards migrating people.
Andy Roberts said: “As a mission organisation, we are keenly aware that God has long worked through people on the move,” adding, “Instead of giving into hatred, we should be looking for the hand of God in this moment.”
Dr Harvey Kwiyani said, “We live in an age of migration. This is an opportunity to lead with faith, to counter fear with compassion and to demonstrate a gospel-shaped response that embraces hospitality above hostility.”
The Call to Hospitality not Hostility statement
Humanity beyond the headlines
Migration is back in the headlines due to ongoing and impending protests. In turn, these protests are often galvanised by fearful or sensationalist headlines. Within the European Union and the United States of America, there is a rise in anti-migration rhetoric and sentiments. Social media feeds are full of anger and fear.
“How we respond to this moment will reveal whether we are echoing society’s anxieties or embodying the heart of Christ.”
There are many valid causes for concern, exposing deeper systemic failures: unsafe housing, slow asylum processes, under-resourced communities and divisive political narratives.
But amid the shouting and violence, one truth risks being lost: the humanity that we all share.
Considerations for Christians
For Christians, moments like these cause us to reconsider how we live faithfully at the intersection of national politics and our deeper calling to follow Christ as a pilgrim people, sojourners on the earth.
How we respond to this moment will reveal whether we are echoing society’s anxieties or embodying the heart of Christ.
Migration in memory
In the 1980s, Mozambique was torn apart by a brutal civil war. Violence forced hundreds of thousands of Mozambicans across the border into Malawi. They arrived traumatised, hungry and desperate for safety.
Originally from Malawi, Dr Kwiyani remembers how communities responded. Families shared food, however scarce. Schools made space for displaced children. Churches offered shelter, prayer and encouragement.
“Christians are called to embody a spirit of hospitality – not out of surplus, but out of faithfulness.”
This spirit of hospitality was not rooted in wealth or comfort. Most Malawian families live close to poverty. Instead, it was grounded in the spirit of umunthu – that profound African conviction that “I am because we are.” Often known as ubuntu, it insists that our humanity is shared, that to deny dignity to another is to diminish our own.
In welcoming Mozambican refugees, Malawians were not just showing kindness; they were affirming their own humanity, living out the truth that the well-being of one is tied to the well-being of all.
Understanding ubuntu
This is a lesson our world urgently needs today. In countries like the UK, migrants’ humanity is overshadowed by arguments about borders, costs and control. Yet the reality is this: the vast majority of the world’s displaced people are not in wealthy nations but in poorer countries. Uganda hosts more than 1.5 million refugees; Pakistan and Iran have sheltered millions from Afghanistan; Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey carry the enormous weight of welcoming those fleeing Syria.
“When we turn people away, we wound not only them but ourselves.”
This reality should give Christians in wealthier nations pause. If those with the least are able to carry the greatest weight, how much more should those with greater resources embrace the call to hospitality?
The gospel reminds us that our identity is not secured by defending ourselves against others but by recognising Christ in the face of the stranger. Abraham welcomed strangers at his tent. Israel was commanded to remember its own history as migrants and to care for the foreigner. Jesus himself began life fleeing violence in search of safety in Egypt.
Christians are called to embody a spirit of hospitality – not out of surplus, but out of faithfulness. When we welcome the stranger, we strengthen the bonds that make us human. When we turn people away, we wound not only them but ourselves.
“This is an opportunity to lead with faith, to counter fear with compassion.”
But ubuntu challenges us to go deeper than welcome. It calls us to ask why people are displaced. We must be honest: many Western governments continue to profit from the global arms trade and economic exploitation of other parts of the world. It is not enough to welcome refugees at our borders if our economies simultaneously profit from the conditions that drive them out of their homes. Christian witness demands that we not only open our doors but also raise our voices against policies and practices that perpetuate any form of violence, military or economic.
The choice for Christians
Rather than being trapped in the false choice between “helping locals” or “helping migrants,” followers of Jesus can model a bigger imagination. We can show through word and deed that God’s kingdom is not a zero-sum game. Extending hospitality to the stranger does not mean neglecting those already here. True hospitality seeks the flourishing of all – the asylum seeker, the long-term resident, the neighbour who feels overlooked.
This is an opportunity to lead with faith, to counter fear with compassion and to demonstrate a gospel-shaped response that embraces hospitality above hostility. Above all, it is a chance to point to Jesus himself – the child who fled to Egypt, the teacher who welcomed outsiders, the Saviour who broke down dividing walls to create one new humanity (Ephesians 2:14–16).
We pray for peace this week.
Dr Harvey Kwiyani
Acts 11 Project Leader
Andy Roberts MBE
CEO of Church Mission Society
Dr Kwiyani’s new book, Decolonising Mission, is out now from SCM Press.
