Pastor: I baptised 500 – then we never saw 60% of them again
A CHURCH minister last night revealed he has baptised up to 500 asylum seekers in the sea – but more than half disappeared after their Christian conversion.
Pastor Phylip Rees told The Mail on Sunday that he had arranged mass baptisms of migrants on a beach in South Wales during the winter months as a ‘litmus test’ of their faith.
An extraordinary video posted on YouTube shows up to 40 asylum seekers being baptised on a windy beach in Barry Island.
Pastor Rees is shown hugging the migrants as they wade out of the waves after the ‘full immersion’ ceremonies.
The 74-year-old, a minister at Tredegarville Baptist Church in Cardiff for 16 years, estimated that up to 60 per cent of those he baptised were never seen again, with many leaving the area to find work, often in London. Pastor Rees said he wanted to help immigrants in need, adding: ‘We prayed that God would send us asylum seekers and lo and behold the Home Office opened up an office next to the church.’
His comments reveal the scale of conversions among asylum seekers in the UK and will fuel fears many are claiming to have embraced Christianity as part of bogus claims to stay here.
The Home Office does not collect such data, despite evidence some are trying to game the system.
Pastor Rees also revealed that, in addition to the 500 migrants ‘LITMUS TEST’: Phylip Rees claims to have baptised 500 migrants in the sea and more than 1,000 in church
he has baptised in the sea, he has performed ceremonies for ‘a lot more than that in the chapel, more than 1,000’. Many were Iranian or Afghan and all but one was a former Muslim.
The clergyman, who left the Cardiff church in 2019, also claims to have refused to help about 40 asylum seekers after deciding their wish to convert to Christianity was not genuine.
He added: ‘If you are seeking to use Christianity as a means of gaining British citizenship then you are making a big mistake. The Government frowns upon it, they do the necessary checks.’
Holding mass baptisms in the sea during the winter was a way of checking worshippers’ faith, he claimed. ‘It was a litmus test of their commitment. If you can’t deal with a bit of cold water, then you’re not ready for baptism.’
A source close to the Home Secretary said: ‘The Home
Office does not regard religious conversion as an automatic right to asylum.’