The monthly e-bulletin for the North West, linked to the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN), is produced jointly by the dioceses of Lancaster, Liverpool, Salford, Shrewsbury and Wrexham.
NJPN NW Justice and Peace E Bulletin August 2015
Help amplify the Catholic voice on climate change next week by taking the Five on Five Challenge!
WHAT IS IT?
On AUGUST 5, reach out to 5 people to sign the Catholic Climate Petition either online or in person.
PRIZE
If you get 5 people to sign the petition, let us know and we’ll include your name on the “Five on Five Challenge Page” and send you a link to a special thank you video message.
THE GOAL
If everyone in our networks reaches out to 5 new people, we can bring in 50,000 more signatures to present to world leaders at November’s UN climate summit.
SOUNDS GREAT, HOW DO I DO IT?
https://catholicclimatemovement.global/petition/
The second initiative to come out of the Green Christian Xistence Project is a Facebook page for parents interested in eco issues to share resources with each other.
It’s called ‘Growing Them Green’. Please take a look, and join/ share it with others if you wish.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/431699590350855/?fref=ts
Westminster J&P Commission Thursday July 30th 2015.
While all are horrified at the sufferings of the refugees and migrants in Calais, most in the UK are paralysed from action because of the huge issues raised. If we ‘open the gates’, will this act as a magnet for thousands more refugees to come knocking on the UK door? This could mean further competition for scarce housing and resources in the poor boroughs which are already coping with huge shortages. If we continue to pour in extra security money, and simply make Calais a more effective barrier, we risk prolonging the distressing scenes in camp and Eurotunnel in Calais currently flashing onto our screens.
The long-term Christian response is not clear. In contrast, the Churches are not standing idle in France. Thierry Cuenot, head of emergency services at Secours Catholique-Caritas France, has pooled resources with 3 other NGOs in Calais to provide emergency humanitarian aid in ‘The Jungle’ camp in the Calais sand-dunes. With Medecins du Monde, Solidarité Nationale and Secours Islamique, the volunteers of his NGO are carrying out an emergency operation as if in a war zone or a natural disaster, in order to help the 3000 or so migrants. Cuenot explained in an interview on Radio Chretienne de France on Monday that there had been an excellent response from volunteers for the summer months, and they were working with migrants on a partnership basis to set up more, and more permanent, shelters, even though the space had originally been allocated for 1500 people. Solidarite Nationale was putting in sanitary structures, while Medecins du Monde was providing health care.
On this side of the Channel help is also being organised, though in smaller and less coordinated ways. A small Kent charity, www.seekingsanctuary.weebly.com, is collecting supplies for Secours Catholique on a regular basis. Ben Bano and his wife, the organisers, are taking foods, cooking utensils, crockery, books, games, toiletries and footwear to the Secours Catholique centre, which has supported migrants in Calais for the past 15 years, since the Sangatte camp, while the London Catholic Worker has taken blankets, food and even bicycles across the Channel, supplying also the Secours Islamique base.
APPEAL: Ben has asked Westminster Justice and Peace to organise parishes to collect goods as described above. We are waiting for more details about transport and delivery.
If parishes are able to organise this themselves they could contact Ben at migrantsupport@aol.com
Meanwhile we look forward to the Churches on both sides of the Channel holding discussions about this distressing situation. A Pax Christi speaker declared at the recent Justice and Peace National Conference that there needs to be more burden-sharing in Europe of the refugee and migrant issue. We at Westminster Justice and Peace wholeheartedly agree.
For further comment, contact Barbara Kentish on 07758630961
Last weekend the 37th annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) took place at the Hayes Christian Conference Centre in Derbyshire.
Over the next days and weeks we will be posting reports of presentations by keynote speakers together with suggested action points from the workshop sessions and an overview of the power of networking.
There will be feedback from young families and from those attending the conference for the first time.
On Saturday 11 July, together with people from all parts of England and Wales, I gathered in Birmingham for the Proclaim 15 event to promote the New Evangelisation. We were promised a line up of inspiring speakers and were not disappointed.
The morning session was opened by Bishop Bernard Longley, then followed interviews with Nicky Gumbel and Michelle Moran and in the afternoon Cardinal Nichols spoke. The thrust of the day was to promote a “new ardour” through prayer and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The workshops encouraged participants to consider practical ways of engaging (new expressions and new methods)
I attended two workshops one on family friendly parishes which acknowledged our need to belong, a need for real friendships in parishes. We were introduced to the Family Group movement, useful resources to be found at www.catholicfamily.org.uk
The second workshop focused on providing practical ideas for building parish evangelisation teams, stressing the need foadequate preparation and opportunity for formation.
The music was excellent, and the Mass prayerful, the bustling market place where various organisations provided information and resources showed the wide range of activities already happening.
Generally the day was about beginnings – proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in “Word. “ As I am lucky enough to be going to the Justice and Peace conference next weekend I am looking forward to hearing a bit more about proclaiming in “Action”
For further information: https://www.catholicnews.org.uk/proclaim15
Maureen Thompson, Portsmouth diocese
Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, 17 – 19 July 2015
“Climate change-induced disasters bring “indescribable miseries”
So warns Fr Edu Gariguez, a keynote speaker from the Philippines at this weekend’s annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network. He will urge action on destructive extractive industries and climate change as a way to build peace in today’s world. “For the Church, climate change is an urgent issue that is clearly related to our Christian responsibility to care for the Earth and to care for the poor and vulnerable in our midst” and he adds that “Pope Francis’ Laudato Si is very clear about this”.
The Filipino priest and environmental activist and a British lecturer in peace studies are amongst the keynote speakers at this year’s annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales. It will be held at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, from 17-19 July 2015 and around 300 justice and peace activists from the Catholic dioceses of England and Wales are booked in.
Pat Gaffney, the general secretary of Pax Christi will chair the conference.
‘The Things That Make for Peace’ recognises that poverty, injustice and environmental destruction are both causes and consequences of conflict, so that all the issues that we engage with across the J&P network have their part to play in building a peaceful world. This conference will seek to identify the real threats to human security and how we can work together to create a world without war.
Speakers:
Fr Edu Gariguez, is a Filipino religious leader and environmentalist. He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2012, for voicing protests on behalf of indigenous communities against large scale mining projects in the Philippines. He is the current Executive Secretary of National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA), the advocacy and social development arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. He is a big supporter of the new papal encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ and has recently been involved in rallies to endorse it and protests against Filipino government plans to build more coal fired power stations in the Philippines.
Professor Paul Rogers, School of Social and International Studies, University of Bradford. Paul works on trends in international conflict, including the politics of energy resources use and impact of climate change on international security. He will speak on ’A Century on the Edge: From Cold War to Hot War 1945-2045’. See his weekly analysis on international security at www.opendemocracy.net.
Making peace in the community: Three women’s perspectives. Fiona Mwashita from Zimbabwe, who is Progressio’s Southern Africa sub-regional Manager, Sr Maire Hayes who works in inter-faith community building in Luton and Lorraine Dinnegan who works in London with young people involved in violence.
Rev Dr Martin Poulsom SDB, a senior lecturer at Heythrop College, will provide theological reflections on the inputs.
Workshops include: Arms Trade, Mediation, Nonviolence, Young People and Militarisation, Participatory Budgeting, Austerity and Conflict, Climate and Conflict, Racial Justice, Climate Change and Development, Refugees, Inter-religious Dialogue, Welfare not Warfare, Nuclear Morality, European Union a force for peace?, Families and J&P.
There will be a programme of activities for children and young people, and a Just Fair with information and resources from many organisations.
A few spaces are left at the conference. Phone Conference Administrator Ann Kelly on 020 7901 4864 or admin@justice-and-peace.org.uk
Media contact: Ellen Teague 07956 317 338
Phone line at the conference for media interviews: 01773 526016/7
Justice Magazine, the Catholic social justice quarterly, currently has 8,000 readers for its online edition, and is going into print this autumn.
Editor Lee Siggs is now looking to set up an enthusiastic and passionate team of volunteers to help get the title distributed across the country.
Lee receives fantastic support from freelance contributors and agencies around the world in producing the magazine editorially, including Apostleship of the Sea, Cafod, Progressio, and Trocaire.
The print edition will increase awareness of the title which offers a unique platform for people to find out more about the good work being done in the Church.
“We’ll be keeping the print edition, like the online magazine, free for readers and supported by advertising,” Lee said.
“We’d really like to hear from people interested in advertising with us both in print and online as well as from groups, parishes and NJPN members keen to help with distribution in their area.
“We’d also be delighted to hear from schools and colleges who’d like to sign up to receive copies – it really is a fantastic resource for teachers to help their pupils explore the Catholic Social Teaching elements of the RE curriculum in a vibrant and contemporary way.”
Work is currently ongoing on an Android and iOS app which will be available this summer and will include access to the latest issue of Justice as well as back issues.
To contact Lee, email editor@justicemagazine.org or call 07806 946697. To sign up for an alert when new issues are released or information about the new app, please visit https://tinyurl.com/justicealerts or for free downloadable back issues visit www.justicemagazine.org and click on ‘read’.
The Rev. Paul Nicolson, the founder of the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust and Taxpayers Against Poverty has been granted a national award by the Social Policy Association for his tireless work in walking alongside and being a voice for those living in poverty and bound by debt.
Rev. Nicholson was the keynote speaker at the NJPN AGM in May 2012, shortly after the founding of Tax Payers Against Poverty and shared some personal reflections.
He began by saying “I am still learning how to apply the Gospel to the political, social and economic circumstances in which I have worked for around 40 years.”
He went on to remind us of the words taken from the first letter of St. John – “Our love is not just words or mere talk but something real and active”
For Rev. Nicholson ‘Real and active includes giving money, befriending debtors in poverty, shedding light on the misery of poverty in wealthy nations, campaigning for improvements and proposing amendments to reduce and relieve it as relevant bills go through Parliament.’
In receiving his award Rev. Nicholson emphasised the fact that ‘In recent years employed, unemployed, disabled and single mothers who claim social security and welfare benefits have suffered from extreme cuts in their income following a financial crisis for which they bear no responsibility’
NJPN offers congratulations and good wishes to Rev. Nicholson.
A new report from Church Action on Poverty shows serious failures in the UK’s welfare safety net, and calls for an urgent Parliamentary Inquiry.
Restoring Faith in the Safety Net presents a detailed overview of the holes that have appeared in our benefits safety net, strongly restates the case for the welfare safety net, and lays out recommendations for action to reinstate the safety net principle.
In the UK today, an increasing and alarming number of holes have appeared in that safety net. Undue delays, errors, and excessive sanctions are leaving large numbers of people without income for days, weeks or even months at a time. Too many people, including children, are being left at risk of hunger or destitution as a result. Church Action on Poverty’s new report Restoring Faith in the Safety Net contains many stories of real hardship caused by failures in the benefits system, often leaving people penniless and hungry.
Frank Field has just been elected as chair of the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, the cross-party group responsible for overseeing the benefits system. We need as many MPs as possible to urge the Committee to launch an inquiry.
