SANCTUARY, how an inner-city church spilled onto a sidewalk

389pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Johannesburg, 2013

The story of how the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, led by Bishop Paul Verryn, came to offer refuge to over a thousand refugees and illegal immigrants from all over Africa who had nowhere else to go, and how the situation reached crisis point after the xenophobic attacks of 2008.

Paul Verryn, always an outspoken critic of the apartheid regime and with a history of ministering to the poor, had led the Central Methodist Church since 1997. He was suspended by the Methodist Church of South Africa in 2010, apparently on the grounds that he had exceeded his authority.

Christa Kuljian is a freelance writer based in Johannesburg.