BBCSongs of Praise presenter Pam Rhodes
Residents in one port town on the eastern coast of England have been "bewildered" and "overwhelmed" by the number of immigrants to their town, the BBC's flagship Songs of Praise programme was told this week.
Pam Rhodes presented Songs of Praise from Boston in Lincolnshire because it was the town recorded the highest proportion of "leave" votes in the country in the EU referendum.
The town is home to a large Eastern European population, which has massively boosted attendance at St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, but the congregations meet separately and St Mary's now holds three Masses in Polish and two in English every weekend.
Martin Clark/WikiSt Botolph's in Boston, Lincs, also known as The Stump, is thought to be the largest parish church in the country.
The direction of travel was once in reverse. Boston in Massachusets in the United States was named by 17th century emigrants from the town. Now, with the narrative more one of immigrants to Boston, the town has more eastern European immigrants than anywhere else in England and Wales.
"Our first hymn reminds us that whatever might be changing around us, nothing changes the love of God," said Rhodes, introducing In Heavenly Love Abiding from St German's Church, Cardiff.
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However, Father Alex Adkins of St Mary's in Boston, who described his parish as a microcosm of the town, said people had felt "bewildered" and "occasionally overwhelmed" by the sheer numbers that had arrived in a short time.
Neal Mugglestone, of Churches Together in Boston, who voted "out" because he believed it would benefit business, said that as more and more Europeans had arrived in Boston to seek a better life, that had caused tension and this had been heightened since the vote.
"There have been comments on Facebook saying that people are going round to European peoples' doors and saying, 'Would you like us to help you pack?' It shouldn't be like that at all."
He urged the churches in the town to lead the healing and to spread their work had to spread into the European community.
Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols urged people to ask themselves the question of whether they are treating others how they would like to be treated.
ReutersThe Archbishops of York and Canterbury both voted remain.
UKIP counsellor Yvonne Stevens, who attends St Mary's, said: "I feel like a foreigner in my own town. If the sunshine was there all the time, one would assume one was on holiday. Because when you shop on Saturday, the place is full of people with a different tongue to mine, doing their shopping as well." She added: "The amount of immigrants that we have got is excessive. I feel that we have got to draw a line and say, ok, if you've got the skill that we need, then welcome. But we can't en masse just say, in my opinion, carry on coming and swamp us."
The programme also showed a moving reunion between Sally Magnusson and Biniyam, a journalist from Ethiopia who she met while filming the controversial Songs of Praise from the migrant camp in Calais and who expressed then his determinaton to reach the UK.
Sally caught up with him again at Bethel Church's The Sanctuary project in Wales, where the Home Office sends many refugees and asylum seekers. He explained he had been forced to flee Ethopia because of death threats as a result of his work and has been able to claim asylum and the legal right to stay in the UK. He has applied to study nursing.
