3 March 2026
Dear Prime Minister Albanese,
We are writing to you as a group of Christian female leaders about the Australian women and children stranded in the Roj camp in Syria. In your speech on election night, you promised a kinder and more compassionate government. Many of us are advocates for women and children experiencing domestic and family violence and coercive control. We ask you to show compassion to these women and children.
The children should not be held accountable for the actions of their parents. We are a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, which states that children have the right to survival and development. The reporting on these children suggests that they are in grave danger. We call on the government to provide urgent assistance for the repatriation of these children.
Moreover, we are concerned that some of the women may have been subject to abuse and control. We do not know their full stories. If there has been abuse, justice compels us to do all we can to assist the women. We urge the government to do all it can to assist in their repatriation as well. In any case, all of them as Australian citizens should be repatriated to undergo due process in Australia.
These women and children are not of our faith, but it is our faith which compels us to justice and compassion for them. It is our hope you will likewise uphold these values in your actions.
In hope,
- Dr Lyn M. Kidson, Scholar and Community Leader, West Ryde Community Church
- Rev Dr Megan Powell du Toit, Senior Pastor & Podcaster, Rouse Hill Baptist Church, The WADR Project
- Rev Dr Christine Redwood, Pastor Seaforth Baptist Church
- Rev Jennie Clarke, Lead Pastor, West Ryde Community Church
- Dr Denise Cooper-Clarke, Ethicist, Ethos Centre for Christianity and Society
- Reverend Melissa Lipsett, CEO, Baptist World Aid Australia
- Dr Tamie Davis, Director Angelina Noble Centre
- Dr Tanya Riches, Director of the Masters of Transformational Development, Eastern College, Victoria
- Dr Sureka Goringe, National Director Uniting World
- Rev Dr Melinda Cousins,Director of Ministries Baptist Churches SA & NT
- Mrs Krystyna Kidson, Psychologist, Community Leader
- Rev Dr Karina Kreminski, Minister, Uniting Mission Education
- Mrs Sarah Alarcon, Team leader – youth and young adults ministry NSW ACT Baptist Association
- Mrs Laura Tharion, Lay minister, Anglican
- Dr Sue M. Holdsworth, Researcher Eva Burrows College, University of Divinity
- Reverend Elizabeth Raine, Minister in the Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church in Australia
- Rev Dr Judith Christine Redman, retired minister/zoom worship host, Adamstown Uniting Church
- Ms Elissa Macpherson, Board Director Asia Pacific Baptist Federation
- Jennnifer Pearson, Aged Care Chaplain, RSL LifeCare
- Dr Ruth Sutcliffe, Honorary Research Fellow Australian University of Theology
- Ms Linda Pascal, former Director, Office for Women, and Children’s Policy Department of Social Services
- Dr Katrina Clifford, Director of Student Experience and Registrar, Alphacrucis University College
- Mrs Kylie Polkinghorne, Lay Minister Anglican Church
- Mrs Gillean Smiley, CEO, Langham Partnership Australia
- Dr Nicole Starling, Academic Dean Morling College, Australian College of Theology
- Rev Judy IK Douglas, Lead Minister St James Holt ACT, Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn
- Reverend Gill Varcoe, Priest Anglican Church of Australia
- Ms Naomi Wolfe, University Scholar, University of Divinity
- Reverend Wendy Margaret Gravolin, Vicar Bellerine Gateway Anglican Parish
- Ps Bev Murrill, Founder Kyria Network
- Miss Jan Syme, Retired Anglican Chaplain, Anglicare
- Reverend Dr Eleanor O’Donnell, Director of Anglican Identity AngliSchool
- Revd. Dr. Nikki Coleman, Minister Uniting Church in Australia
- Rev Dr Mary Lewis, Priest in charge Anglican Parish of Kangaroo Island Anglican Church of Australia – Adelaide Diocese
- Dr Irene Petrou, Independent scholar, Independent Academic
- Dr Fleur Creed, Honorary Research Associate, Alphacrucis University
- Mrs Kate Edmondson, Associate Pastor Rouse Hill Baptist Church
- Mrs Jennifer Barker, Founder Fixing Her Eyes
- Rev Monica Mary Therese O’Neil, Founder, Pastoral Supervisor. Practical Theologian. The Anchorage Collective
- Rev’d Sharon Footit, Acting Parish Vicar and co-ordinator of Year of Discernment Program for Melbourne Diocese, Anglican Diocese of Melbourne
- Reverend Polly Butterworth, Senior School Chaplain, Abbotsleigh
- Prof Jacqueline Grey, Professor of Biblical Studies, Alphacrucis University College
- Rev Dr Rebecca Lindsay, Lecturer in Old Testament Studies , United Theological College
