Over the holiday break I’ve been going through old files and looking back at the NW Bulletins since they started in January 2014. To kick start 2023 I’ve included a few sample extracts, one from each year. What stands out from the monthly bulletins is that the same issues appear again and again: conflicts; the arms trade; poverty; austerity; homelessness; asylum seekers and refugees; slavery and human trafficking; gender equality; climate change; the list goes on.

It’s easy to become disheartened at the scale of the problems facing our country and our world today.

But now is not the time to be despondent.  Perhaps a good New Year’s resolution might be to roll up our sleeves with renewed vigour and commit ourselves to lobbying, campaigning and community action to bring about a kinder, fairer, more peaceful world for all.

Let’s be inspired by Greta Thunberg’s words: “Right now, we are in desperate need of hope. But hope is not about pretending that everything will be fine. To me, hope is not something that is given to you, it is something you have to earn, to create. It cannot be gained passively, through standing by and waiting for someone else to do something. Hope is taking action.”

These stirring words are echoed by Niall Cooper Director Church Action on Poverty who says: “As we enter 2023, Church Action on Poverty is determined to offer a message of hope. Another world is still possible, and is already struggling to be brought into being by people and communities ‘on the margins’ across the country.”

Have a look at the other initiatives for action in the first NW NJPN E Bulletin of the New Year.  Please read and pass on to others.

Wishing all our readers a happy and peaceful New Year.

Anne O’Connor

NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin January 2023

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