Archbishop of Canterbury gives New Year’s message

CANTERBURY, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 25: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, arrives at the west door to deliver his Christmas Day sermon to the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral on December 25, 2015 in Canterbury, England.  (Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has used his New Year’s Day message to encourage […] Christians to stand against xenophobia, reminding the nation that “Jesus was a refugee – fleeing as a baby with his parents, returning years later to a strange new home”.

He warned Christians across the nation to sympathise with the plight of refugees fleeing the Middle East, cautioning that Britain [as have other nations] has always welcomed the “poor and weak”.

Welby’s New Year message […] broadcast on BBC One on New Year’s Day, also asked [Christians] to use “hospitality and love” to defeat “hatred and extremism”.

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