This Wednesday (11 July) End Hunger UK will launch a national petition calling on the Prime Minister to fix Universal Credit to prevent people going hungry. Evidence from front line food aid providers across the UK reveals that the roll-out of Universal Credit is currently causing hardship for vulnerable people, and putting pressure on emergency food supplies.
Ellen Teague
One initiative of the Columban missionaries to celebrate their Centenary has been the Centenary Altar Cloth. Made up of 16 panels signed by Columbans, lay missionaries, coworkers, supporters and friends in each country where Columbans work, it has been on many altars at celebrations internationally. It was carried to one Mass in Fiji by a makeshift boat on a turbulent river, but arrived dry and safe to a huge welcome by the community.
The Cloth will cover the altar at this Saturday’s Columban Centenary Mass in Southwark Cathedral. Signatures on the British section include the religious of Birmingham Diocese, Columban friends attending a Laudato Si Day in Sheffield, and collaborators of the National Justice and Peace Network.
It has great symbolic value as it represents the interweaving of stories which make up the Columban journey over 100 years. The Cloth brings together the unity and diversity of the Society: missionary situations identified by the names of the countries and a diversity of languages seen on the cloth. It celebrates coming together around the same Eucharistic table. Whether we celebrate Mass in great cathedrals or in small barrio chapels, we share in the One Bread and partake of the same Cup of Blessing. It is a tangible religious symbol of the Columban missionary journey which draws others in. The Cloth represents the Columban Society’s reaching out to greet migrants, engaging with other cultures and religions in interfaith dialogue, welcoming the poor and marginalised to our table, and supporting care of creation.
All are welcome to join the Columbans at a Mass of Thanksgiving at 12.30 pm on Saturday 30 June 2018 at St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark. The main celebrant is Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark. The Mass will include a special Offertory procession marking various aspects of Columban mission, such as remembering the 24 Columbans – including one Columban sister – who were martyred while on mission in China, Korea, Myanmar, Philippines and Peru.
In a letter to Columbans missionaries, Pope Francis has paid tribute to them and urged them to see the anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on “the great good accomplished”. He thanked them for their “tireless efforts” past and present in the areas of justice, peace and care for the Earth.
After the Mass a major date on the Columban calendar will be the 20-22 July annual Justice and Peace national conference in Derbyshire. Places are still available.
https://www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/conference/ and www.columbans.co.uk
A message from Patricia Stoat, Chair, Nottingham Diocese Justice & Peace Commission
Dear Friends
I’m very happy to be bringing you the news that our new Justice & Peace Fieldworker, Paul Bodenham, has now joined us and will be making contact with you over the next few weeks to learn more about the Diocese, about the many different ways in which we work for justice and peace in our various communities, and about what we may be able to do together in the future.
I’m sure you will be pleased to welcome him, and will enjoy working with him.
With best wishes
Patricia
Patricia Stoat, Chair, Nottingham Diocese Justice&Peace Commission
What a year for anniversaries! It is the 40th anniversary of a national Justice and Peace network in England and Wales, which will be celebrated at the NJPN national conference on 20-22 July.
It is also 100 years since the end of the First World War, 70 years since the founding of the NHS, 70 years since the Windrush landed and one year since 122 nations voted in favour of a UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Just how much can we celebrate and truly say “Happy Anniversary”?
In 1918 the nations rejoiced that the “War to End all Wars” had come to an end, but since then millions have been killed in conflict. In 1948, the National Health Service was founded, and has been called “the nearest thing we have to a national religion”, but is now desperately short of funds and health workers. Windrush brought willing workers from the Caribbean to save “the Mother Country” but now we find, not only that they have been unjustly denied citizenship, but our country has lurched further into racism and xenophobia. And our own government refuses to engage with a truly multilateral treaty that could save the world from nuclear conflict.
How can these anniversaries be remembered and celebrated? More of us are aware that many thousands of people are driven from their homelands by war and violence and that the only way to cope with the ever-increasing number of people seeking sanctuary is to find non-violent ways of solving national disputes. The shortage of workers in the NHS could be solved by welcoming immigrants, just as we did after the Second World War, and the funding crisis could be helped by diverting the £200 billion earmarked for the lifetime of the new Trident Nuclear Weapons System.
Most churches in this country have been at the forefront of a call to our government to support the new Ban Treaty. Next week, the Church of England is debating the morality of nuclear weapons at its General Synod. We pray it follows the example of Pope Francis in his support for nuclear disarmament. The Holy See was one of the very first states to both sign and ratify this Treaty. At the UN in Geneva in May, the Holy See delegation said: “Weapons of mass destruction should find no place in military arsenals, but above all their use or threat of use should find no place in our hearts and minds.”
By Patricia and Michael Pulham
The Pulhams represent Christian CND at the meetings of the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN). http://christiancnd.org.uk/
If you are planning to attend the NJPN Swanwick Conference you will find a wide ranging choice of challenging and relevant workshops in which to listen and share.
Issues may be raised and discussed in depth, leading to ideas for practical action which could be implemented in our own local situations.
Workshop possibilities
Places still available.
https://www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/conference/
The July edition of the NJPN NW E Bulletin leads with reactions to President Trump’s inhumane separation of children from their parents at the US/Mexico border – a policy which an opinion piece in this week’s Sojourners’ magazine calls a ‘Kairos moment’. There are details of a national information-gathering campaign launched by the Catholic Church and the Church of England using a download app to help drivers combat modern slavery in hand car washes, reports of recent events and campaigns and a wide range of resources including those for the Season of Creation (1 September – 4 October). There are still places available for the Annual J&P Conference 20-22 July in Swanwick, Derbyshire:
https://www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/conference/
There is also an extensive programme of parallel events surrounding Adoremus, the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress to be held in Liverpool 7-9 September.
NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin July 2018
Barbara Kentish
Lord Alfie Dubs was a member of the Kinder-transport – German and Eastern European children admitted to the UK between 1938-40, to save them from the death camps in Germany. Kinder-transport was an astonishing scheme, admitting 10,000 children in less than 2 years, and finding homes for them throughout the UK. So campaigners are this year celebrating the 80th anniversary of this outstanding example of British generosity with a call to government to mount another such welcome: of 1000 young migrants per year over 10 years from the migrant camps around Europe.
In May 2016 Lord Dubs won a significant victory when David Cameron’s government agreed to admit up to 3000 migrant unaccompanied minors from across Europe and beyond. This provision was later overturned but Dubs and others are campaigning to have it reinstated in the new EU withdrawal bill, debated on June 12th. Known as the Dubs Amendment, one aspect, ‘Dublin 3’, in particular, seeks to ensure that those with families in the UK are reunited. The Lords accepted this amendment recently, but victory in the Commons is more uncertain.
Campaigners now have the task of contacting their local councils, first, to ask if they have already arranged fostering for any of these children and second, if they will agree to do so. Hammersmith Council, inspired by the Kinder-transport campaign launch at Westminster last week, has agreed to take 100 children. Well-known children’s writer Michael Morpurgo has written a playlet on the subject, which groups can obtain to perform in their local area, so as to raise awareness, and persuade their councils to commit.
The group behind this ambitious campaign is Safe Passage, which has so far managed to arrange for 1000 young migrants to enter the UK legally. They want as ambitious an agreement for this group as has been obtained for refugee families through the Community Sponsorship s and Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Schemes. We can admit 10,000 young people over 10 years.
Westminster Justice and Peace has been delighted to support the Safe Passage campaign, as a consequence of our seeing so many youngsters on the Calais UK border forced to seek illegal means of crossing the Channel. More details can be found on the Safe Passage website at http://safepassage.org.uk/get-involved/kinder-transport/ We hope that churches will take up this campaign. Foster families will be needed, but as often quoted, it takes a village (or a parish!) to raise a child.
Barbara Kentish is the J&P Worker for Westminster Diocese.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A leading expert on pastoral theology has underscored that the Catholic Church must quickly and effectively engage young Catholics through dialogue, awareness, listening, respect, humility, patience and creativity — or its future looks dim.
In the June 25 opening presentation at the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests‘ annual assembly held June 25-27 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Franciscan Sr. Katarina Schuth did not minimize challenges in reaching millennial Catholics.
Franciscan Sr. Katarina Schuth addresses the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests on challenges of evangelizing young Catholics June 25 at the Marriott Pyramid North in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Courtesy AUSCP/Paul Leingang)
Revd Dr. Al Barrett to address the NJPN Swanwick Conference
20-22 July 2018
“We are living in times of profound fragmentation. In the UK, the EU referendum divided the country between ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’, but it also exposed divisions between people from different generations, ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic classes. Politicians claims that ‘the people have spoken’ immediately begged the question, ‘which people are you
listening to?’ And then in June 2017, in the tragic aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, we discovered that the voices of the Tower’s residents had been ignored for years. How are we to do our Christian discipleship, in the ‘ordinary time’ after the EU referendum and the tragedy of Grenfell Tower, so that the voices we pay attention to are not just those in positions of opinion-forming power, or those of tragic victims, but also and most particularly those who, with their talents and passions, their struggles and their hopes, live daily on the geographical, economic, cultural and social edges? One common answer is that we the Church must ‘perform Christ’, shaped by the Eucharist, going out to serve our neighbours. Here, I suggest that such a response is not receptive enough to our neighbours, and fails to face squarely enough the tragic injustices of our times. I conclude by suggesting some ways forward for our Christian discipleship, more radically transformed by our encounters with our neighbours.”
Al Barrett is Anglican Vicar in Hodge Hill, East Birmingham, where he’s been involved since 2010 with an exciting grassroots journey of community-building in his neighbourhood. He’s recently finished a PhD reflecting on the journey so far, and seeking to develop ‘a radically receptive political theology in the urban margins’.
He blogs occasionally at thisestate.blogspot.com, and tweets @hodgehillvicar.
Sarah Teather is Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK: part of an international Catholic organisation whose mission is to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf of refugees and those who are forcibly displaced. Sarah has worked for JRS since 2015, initially as part of the organisation’s international advocacy team, working with teams in the Middle East and East Africa, and as UK Director at their East London office since 2016.
JRS UK has a special ministry to those who have been made destitute or who are detained as part of the asylum system. Sarah previously served for 12 years as a Member of Parliament in Brent, North London, including two and a half years Minister of State for Children and Families.
In her keynote speech Sarah will draw on her work at the Jesuit Refugee Service to speak about the situation facing asylum seekers in the UK today in an era of the hostile environment, share JRS’ experience of trying to create spaces of hospitality where community can flourish, and talk about the surprising gifts she has received from accompanying refugees.
