The Bishop of Coventry raised a question of forgiveness and responsibility in the government response to the continued imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran on 15th November 2021, during a debate on what action the government was taking to facilitate her release and return to the UK:
The Lord Bishop of Coventry: My Lords, what does the Minister think Governments on both sides might have to learn from a simple prayer that was once prayed on this day in Coventry, after the destruction of the city? It is a simple prayer but a brave one; it simply says: “Father, forgive.” It does not try to forgive the other side, or even to absolve the other side from responsibility, but it does say that, somewhere along the line, both sides, in whatever proportion, need to accept that a very deep hole has been dug and suffering people have fallen into it. In this case, there is a suffering woman at the bottom of the hole, and her husband and child. Can we not do more to accept that there is something we have a responsibility for?
Continue reading “Bishop of Coventry urges government to consider responsibility in the captivity of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe”
On 7th January 2020 Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, repeated a Government statement on Middle East security. The Bishop of Leeds, Rt Revd Nick Baines, asked a follow-up question:
On 23rd January 2019 the Bishop of Coventry received written answers to two questions about the treatment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe:
The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, on a slightly different tack, given that those seeking asylum seem to be mainly Iranians, and the number of Iranians seeking asylum in the past two years has been steadily reducing, is work being done to discern whether this is an increase in number or a transfer of route? Is work being done to understand the dynamics of exactly what is going on? 
On 17th, 20th & 21st December 2018 the Bishop of Leeds, Rt Revd Nick Baines, received written answers to three questions about US sanctions on Iran and migration from Iran. 
On 19th December 2017 the Bishop of St Albans, Rt Revd Alan Smith, received a written answer to a question about the imprisonment in Iran of Christian convert and missionary Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh:
The Church of England in Parliament 
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