Latest news from Church Action on Poverty
Church Action on Poverty’s winter newsletter is available to read and share now.
All posts by Anne Peacey
2018 Calendar and NJPN contacts list
Justice & Peace Calendar for 2018, together with NJPN contact details and opportunities for prayer, worship and action.
Download here: 2018 Calendars NJPN calendar + contacts
Portsmouth Diocese Justice Peace and Social Responsibility January 2018 Bulletin
Heartfelt good wishes for peace. Peace to all people and to all nations on earth! Peace, which the angels proclaimed to the shepherds on Christmas night, is a profound aspiration for everyone, for each individual and all peoples, and especially for those who most keenly suffer its absence. Among these whom I constantly keep in my thoughts and prayers, I would once again mention the over 250 million migrants worldwide, of whom 22.5 million are refugees. Pope Benedict XVI, my beloved predecessor, spoke of them as “men and women, children, young and elderly people, who are searching for somewhere to live in peace.
Pope Francis New Year message 51st world Day of Peace
New Economics Foundation: Blue New Deal: the movie
In case you missed it;
Over the last three years, we’ve been developing the Blue New Deal – a plan to revitalise the UK’s coastal communities. This week we launched a short film which tells the story of Eastbourne fisherman Graham Doswell who, with NEF, has led an effort to secure a better future for his community,
WCC: “Solidarity more powerful than darkness”
Amid continuing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Christians in Seoul are hoping the fragile light of candles will illumine a path to peace. Along with Christian groups around the world, they are holding candlelight vigils for peace during the season of Advent.
“The situation is bad. Powerful countries like to fight. But during this Advent season we gather to light candles and pray for the peaceful reunification of Korea, because even a small candle can illumine our path. Togetherness and solidarity are more powerful than darkness,” said the Rev. Lee Chung Jae, general secretary of the National Council of YMCAs of Korea.
The YMCA sponsored a chilly 9 December candlelight vigil in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square. It was the last of seven daily candlelight vigils in Seoul. For the remainder of Advent, similar vigils will be held in towns and villages across the country, according to the Rev. Lee Hong-jung, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea.
Rev. Dr Martin Robra, World Council of Churches programme executive for Ecumenical Continuing Formation, spoke at the final Seoul vigil.
“We share your sorrow about the tension of the current situation, but we rejoice with you that we can gather in this candlelight vigil as an expression of hope,” said Robra, who was in Seoul for a WCC consultation on ecumenical diakonia.
Robra told participants at the vigil that the struggle for peace in Korea was one of the key concerns of Christians gathered in Norway for the awarding of the 2017 Nobel Peace prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a WCC partner. That ceremony took place December 10 in Oslo.
“Our candles are a small light in the darkness,” Robra told participants at the Seoul vigil. “The fragile, flickering light of candles give us hope in the middle of the darkness. It stands for the fragile presence of the servant of God who will not give up until there is peace.”
The Seoul vigils were held in Gwanghwamun Square, the central location of the Candlelight Revolution that led to the resignation of President Park Geun-hye in March.
According to the Rev. Sungkook Park, executive secretary for partnership and ecumenical relations of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, such candlelight vigils have a long history in Korea, especially during the democratization process in the 1980s.
“Candlelight vigils are an expression of the Korean people, not just the churches. It is an expression which was successful in the past and we would like to continue it as we move towards peace and reconciliation and forgiveness,” he said.
The public witness occurs as tensions are heating up on the peninsula. Following a visit by a top United Nations official to North Korea, the international body issued a statement on December 9 declaring that “the current situation was the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today.”
In her acceptance speech in Oslo, ICAN executive director Beatrice Fihn declared that “mutual destruction is only one impulsive tantrum away.”
Park said the Korean people appreciate the solidarity manifested in the vigils and prayers of churches around the world.
“We Korean people don’t feel left alone. We are not facing these issues by ourselves. This accompaniment brings us a sense of togetherness and bonds us together,” Park said.
Photo: Paul Jeffrey/WCC
Free high resolution photos from the Candlelight vigil in Seoul
WCC campaign A Light of Peace, including prayers for peace in the Korean peninsula (available in English, French, Germanand Spanish)
WCC urges all parties in Korean Peninsula confrontation to be instruments of peace (WCC press release of 22 November 2017)
WCC leadership celebrates steps toward world free from nuclear weapons (WCC press release of 22 November 2017)
As ICAN accepts Nobel Prize, peacemakers celebrate – and vow to work even harder(WCC press release 11 December 2017)
WCC statement on the Korean peninsula 11 June 2017
YCW Marks 80 Years in England & Wales with a National Mass and Celebration
Young Christian Workers Press Release
Nearly 200 YCW Members, past and present, celebrated the 80th Anniversary of the YCW in England Wales last month at Salford Cathedral.
The day began with Mass, presided over by Rt. Rev. John Arnold Bishop of Salford and over a dozen priests, including the YCW National and Assistant Chaplains, Fr John Marsland and Fr Mark Connolly.
The Mass saw many of the current YCW and IMPACT young members participate as welcomers, readers, in the offertory, altar servers and in the music group.
National Team member Marc Besford said: “It was great to see the young people show their talents and confidence to all those gathered, with many former members commenting that they were happy to see a new generation of young people taking the lead within the YCW.”
Afterwards there was a celebration in the Cathedral Centre, where members reconnected and shared memories of their time in the YCW. One member, Rose, recounted her long service to the YCW, having joined in 1946, and she was given the privileged job of cutting the YCW birthday cake.
In England and Wales, the first YCW group was founded in Wigan in 1937, with Father Gerry Rimmer as the Chaplain and Patrick Keegan, a young factory worker, as President. Patrick would go on to become the first lay man to address an Ecumenical Council of the Church when he addressed the Second Vatican Council on the role of the laity.
National President, Kate Wilkinson, thanked all those who came along to support the event and took the opportunity to share the YCW’s upcoming campaign on Young People and Mental Health, called “Mind! The Gap”. She said: “I would like to thank everyone for their service to the YCW over the last 80 years and especially all those who could join us for this magnificent occasion.
It is important to take time celebrate all the good work that has gone on, but it is even more important to keep looking to the future and seeing where the YCW can make a difference to the lives of young people. That is why we have decided to launch our new campaign in early 2018 and will be building a national campaign team of young people to help us run it.”
Press Release Ends.
More information from YCW
Email: marc@ycwimpact.com
Tel: 0161 872 6017
Young Christian Workers website www.ycwimpact.com
Date of Press Release 7th December 2017
News from the North West
The December issue of the NW NJPN E BULLETIN opens with the response from world and religious leaders to the current crisis in the Holy Land caused by President Trump’s controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In addition to reports of current campaigns and forthcoming events in the North West there are Christmas reflections to remind us of the true spirit of the season. We wish all our readers the blessings of Christmas-time and look forward to a peaceful New Year where all God’s creation may flourish.
Download the bulletin here:
News from the North West – December 2017
NJPN Comment in Catholic Universe: Making ‘thy kingdom come’ – By Bruce Kent
Since this article will appear just at the end of 2017 or early in 2018 – Happy New Year to all readers!
I’m going, as a diversion, to start the year with a joke. Not a brilliant one. It wasn’t a joke to the little boy who was trying to answer an exam question. The question on the paper was ‘What happened to the Egyptians in the Red Sea? His answer ‘They were all drowned in the dessert and afterwards Moses went up Mount Cyanide to get the 10 Amendments’
Now that you have finished laughing, or groaning, I have a serious suggestion.
It might be an idea to do some forward planning for the task we all share: making this world a better and fairer place. Building the Kingdom of God, not just waiting for it to arrive, but working to make it happen. How many times have we all prayed ‘Thy Kingdom Come’?
Forward planning makes sense. It is too late if we just wake up to opportunities when they are nearly over. Peace and justice-building are not tasks only for the wise and worldly. We all have our own vocation as builders, with God, of the Kingdom. Sadly, the word ‘vocation’ is now almost exclusively applied to those in seminaries and ordained as priests. The Church is not a coach with a few drivers and a number of lay passengers. We all have our own vocations and responsibilities.
So what is coming up on the calendar in the first few months of 2018 that we can use to spread the word? On the 14 January comes our annual Peace Sunday. Late in the day to remind you about it now, but hopefully not too late. Pope Francis has chosen a powerful theme for Peace Sunday: ‘Migrants and refugees – seekers of peace’. Perhaps you could use some quotations from it, write them out on card and display in the Church porch. Pax Christi could certainly help you with leaflets, prayer cards, bidding prayers, and activities for children. See: www.paxchristi.org.uk
On Sunday 11 February, a fairly new organisation – Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence – will be having their annual fundraising party in London. It’s a good time for your parish to get-together with other parishes and organisations, especially the Prison Advice and Care Trust, and the St Vincent de Paul Society, to have some discussions, and perhaps a parish social and fundraiser to raise interest in the penal system. Is there some reason why Britain has one of the highest prison populations per capita in Europe? Yet only about a quarter of those in prison have ever been violent to others. Do other European countries deal with these problems more intelligently than we do?
A final date for your diary in the first three months of the New Year? Well 27 March would be a good place to start. On that day in 1988 Mordechai Vanunu , a junior technician, was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment by an Israeli court for revealing , for reasons of conscience, that Israel had a nuclear weapons’ programme. He served all that time in prison and is still unable to leave Israel. Before him, in 1944, the Polish physicist Joseph Rotblat refused to continue work on the atomic bomb when he learnt that it was to be used on two Japanese cities full of civilians. He was sent back to this country from Los Alamos, USA, in disgrace.
The courage to say No carries a price. Perhaps we should discuss when and in what situation a NO ought to be our response as well.
Bruce Kent is the vice chair of both Pax Christi and CND.
Statement of Justice and Peace Europe on the occasion of Human Rights Day
Multinational companies and Human Rights
Towards an international legally binding instrument
Multinational companies have acquired in recent years considerable economic and also political power, which implies an increased responsibility. This means not only the civic obligations to pay taxes where profits are earned it also includes full respect for the entire human rights body in all its activities. It may be appropriate to address this latter responsibility in a binding text at the level of the United Nations. On the occasion of the Human Rights Day 2017 Justice and Peace Europe wishes to attract the attention of its member commissions and an interested public to the negotiations of an international working group within the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, whose task it is « to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate in international human rights laws, the activities of transnational corporations and other enterprises ».
The working group was mandated by a resolution of the Human Rights Council in June 2014. A first session of the working group was convened in July 2015. A third session of the working group last October in Geneva was attended by a hundred member states of the United Nations. The Holy See was represented by an observer, as was the European Union. Civil society organisations – many of them with a Christian background – gathered in the « Treaty Alliance » have played an important role since the beginning of the whole process
The elaboration of a binding instrument will complement and go beyond the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights from 2011. It shall reaffirm that all companies must respect human rights with a special focus on gaps linked to transnational activities, reinforce the protection of human rights defenders. It may also include special provisions on activities of multinational companies in conflict-affected areas.
Furthermore, the whole process concords with the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from March 2016 to member States on human rights and business, which should contribute to an effective implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights at the European level. The preparation of this recommendation was strongly supported by Justice and Peace Europe through its delegate at the Council of Europe. Justice and Peace Europe was also involved in the elaboration of the recommendation “Business and Human Rights”, which the conference of International NGOs at the Council of Europe adopted in June 2017.
Pope Benedict XVI stated in his encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate that “among those who sometimes fail to respect the human rights of workers are large multinational companies as well as local producers” (CiV 22) and in the encyclical letter Laudato Si Pope Francis specifically addressed multinationals in the mining sector: “There is also the damage caused by the export of solid waste and toxic liquids to developing countries in ways they could never do at home in the country in which they raise their capital. We note that often the businesses which operate this way are multinationals” (No. 51).
On the occasion of the Human Rights Day 2017, Justice and Peace Europe therefore wishes to express its hope that an international binding treaty may contribute to diminish and effectively abolish forms of abuse and disrespect for human rights in all sectors of activities of multinational companies. It strongly supports the ongoing negotiations in Geneva and wishes its full success.
Freising/Germany, 27 November 2017
The Executive Committee of Justice and Peace Europe
The Conference of European Justice and Peace Commissions (Justice and Peace Europe) is a European network of 31 national Justice and Peace Commissions, working for the promotion of justice, peace, respect for human dignity and the care of creation. It contributes to raising awareness of the Catholic social doctrine in the European societies and the European institutions.The Executive Committee of Justice and Peace Europe is composed of 9 elected members. Its President is Mgr. Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg.
Contact: secretary@jupax-europa.org
http://www.juspax-eu.org
WTO Summit “illegitimate from day one”
Members of the Global Justice Now delegation are among the 63 civil society actors from 20 organisations who were last week banned from attending the summit by the government of Argentina.
- Campaigners slam president Macri’s ‘draconian summit’ as civil society delegates returned from airport
- Call for no deal on ‘new issues’ like e-commerce
Statement on the World Trade Organisation’s 11th Ministerial Summit in Buenos Aries, Argentina, which takes place from 10-13 December 2017.
On the summit:
“President Macri has excelled in his draconian approach to this summit. We’ve never before seen such a silencing and censoring of civil society voices. His attempts to block over 60 experts and campaigners from the host country are unprecedented, with observers now being returned home from the airport. This disgraceful display of power shows that Argentina should not host the G20 summit next year – Macri is unfit for that responsibility.”
On food and agriculture:
“The WTO’s rules on agriculture are pretty much the definition of double standards. We support India in standing up for its right to reduce poverty through protecting the food prices paid by its citizens. All countries should have this right. We absolutely reject the position of the US and EU in trying to clamp down on these poverty-reducing policies – but especially so when they show such hypocrisy. No one protects agriculture more than the US and EU. It’s time to end a system which means one rule for the rich and another for the poor.”
On e-commerce:
“The big new issue this year is e-commerce – supposedly making it easier to trade online across borders. But the e-commerce agenda is really about the power of Amazon, Google and the big tech companies. These gigantic corporations profit from data, the ‘new oil’ of the global economy, and they want rules to ensure they can use and abuse this data as they wish – moving it around the world without restriction or responsibility. This stops countries being able to adequately tax and regulate these companies so that all can benefit from new technology. It is also a disaster for our privacy and ability to control our data.”
On fisheries:
“Overfishing is a massive, global problem, but the approach of rich countries to simply lay down blanket rules on subsidies isn’t the answer. This is likely to reduce support for small, artisanal fisherfolk, who are not part of the problem at all, while continuing to allow industrial scale scouring of the ocean floors.”
On development:
“Agreement at the WTO broke down over 15 years ago because rich countries passed everything they wanted and ignored the needs of everyone else. If we’re to have global trade rules they need to work for the poorest most of all. In fact, they have simply become a way for big business to tell everyone else how to behave. We absolutely reject the opening of any new issues at the WTO before the development promises of a previous generation have been fulfilled.”