'Act justly, Love tenderly, walk humbly with your God'
Micah 6.8
All posts by Stephen Cooke
Charlie Burchell – Rest in Peace
Charlie died peacefully at home in Heswall on 25th July 2021 aged 92. He will be sadly missed by all his family and friends. Charlie’s funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady and St John’s church, Heswall at 12noon on Thursday 5th August.
Charlie was well known and loved for all his work for justice and peace. He was the first lay Chair of Shrewsbury Justice and Peace Commission and a long-standing member of the National Justice and Peace Network. Charlie served as Chair of the Network from 1997 – 1999 then known as the National Liaison Committee of Diocesan Justice and Peace Groups (NLC)
We remember Charlie and his family in our prayers
May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
Formally known as the Global Catholic Climate Movement, the launch of a new title and website was an inspiring and challenging event, with over 190 participants from around the globe.
This was a momentous moment, where the Global Catholic Climate Movement was re-named as the ‘Laudato Si’ Movement’. This followed a two-year process of discernment the outcome of which is a renewed vision of a spirit led movement reaching out to all people and celebrating diversity.
Synodality: a new way of being the Catholic Church
Pope Francis urges us to participate in synod from October 2021. Join us in conversation with Christopher Lamb, Rome Correspondent for The Tablet and hear why it is critical for all of us to participate, why now and what is means for our global Church
Link
https://www.bigmarker.com/cafod/Synod?bmid=c827d76be60a
Green Christian at NJPN Conference 2021: “We come together for our common home”
The conference was entitled “2021: Moment of Truth – Action for Life on Earth” It attracted 200 participants, including many Green Christian members, to Derbyshire for the first face to face meeting – albeit through masks – of Justice and Peace activists from every diocese since the pandemic started.
Link
NJPN Conference 2021: “We come together for our common home”
The chant: “We come together for our common home”, ran through the liturgies at this year’s annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales (NJPN). It attracted 200 participants to Derbyshire for the first face to face meeting – albeit through masks – of Justice and Peace activists from every diocese since the pandemic started. The mantra came from a new hymn written by liturgical musician Marty Haugen especially for the conference, which took the theme, ‘2021: Moment of Truth – Action for Life on Earth’.
A liturgy group, led by Colette Joyce, Justice and Peace Fieldworker in Westminster Diocese, and including pianist Christine Allen, Director of CAFOD, and Columban co-worker James Trewby on the clarinet reflected the broad range of participants seeking to mobilise for the November COP26 climate talks in Glasgow. Also, to promote ecological conversion and action in the Church and wider society, all inspired by the papal encyclical Laudato Si’.
Conference chair Christine Allen reminded that there are now 100 days to COP26 and CAFOD is working with the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) and faith leaders to lobby for global warming to be kept below 1.5 degrees. She reported that CAFOD, “amplifies voices around the world in climate vulnerable situations”. Bishop John Arnold of Salford, lead bishop on the environment for England and Wales, said Churches and faiths are making clear they want action and “we can mend our common home”. He has been in zooms with COP26 president Alok Sharma MP, “trying to speak loudly to politicians”. In the conference Mass he thanked NJPN “for who you are, what you stand for and what you want, and for keeping Pope Francis as an inspiration in our lives and actions.”
“It is important to acknowledge the truth of the crisis of our common home,” Fr P. Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam SDB, Coordinator of the ‘Ecology and Creation’ sector of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told the conference in a video message. He said, “the planet is crying out and the poor are crying out; we need to open our ears and hear these painful cries;” feeling there is hope and that “this could be a watershed, a moment of change.” He told NJPN that, “you can count on the support of our Dicastery as we work together under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as families, parishes, communities, and institutions, to heal and protect mother Earth.”
Keynote speaker Lorna Gold, Chair of the Board of the GCCM and author of ‘Climate Generation: Awakening to Our Children’s Future’, highlighted the “vibrant network of networks sustaining and nurturing ecological conversion right across the world” and turning Laudato Si’ “into a lived reality.” She applauded the role young people have played in stimulating climate action. “Young people have done more in two years than the rest of us have done over three decades” she said. Lorna felt the pandemic is teaching us that we are all connected to each other and to nature and what it means to act together to face a common threat. She felt Pope Francis’ vision of ecological conversion refers to “community conversion” and asked: “What if that process of community ecological conversion was to extend to the entire world of faith communities that still encompass 80% of the world’s population?”
Andy Atkins, head of Arocha UK, underlined how far Churches have come with programmes such as Live Simply, Eco Church, Eco Congregation, Climate Sunday and Fossil Fuel Divestment with Operation Noah. In fact, more than 5000 churches across the Christian denominations are registered with green schemes which “was unimaginable 30 years ago” but “we need to speed up.” He deplored the UK government’s loss of credibility to deal with the crises facing us. “At a time when the government says it is leading the world it has cut its aid budget and has opened the door to further fossil fuel development,” he lamented; “we should be saying ‘No More Fossil Fuel Exploitation’ in this country!” Lorna felt the 20 October announcement of fossil fuel divestment should include the 18 Catholic dioceses on England and Wales that have not yet announced divestment.
Fr Eamonn Mulcahy CSSp’s presentation on, ‘Let us dream together: Pope Francis’ Gospel Vision for an Integral Humanity’, considered criticisms of excessive anthropocentrism, consumerism and the technocratic paradigm – all themes taken from Laudato Si’. “We must be agents for healing and restoration” he said, “respecting every living creature and organism.”
Speaker Mark Rotherham, of the Northern Dioceses Environmental Group, felt it essential we transform our current economic system so that it promotes both social equality and environmental protection. “A good life-sustaining economy is about slowly down and recognising planetary boundaries” he said. He described the arms industry as “a huge shadow over our nation” and felt that we need to withdraw legitimacy from this draw on global resources and energy.
NJPN Chair Paul Southgate taught the conference a Navajo hymn ‘The world is so beautiful,’ and called on young people to feed in their primary concerns to the conference. Young university and school students told participants bluntly that they would like “less of fossil fuel companies pretending to care and schools accepting money from them”. They urged Catholics “to challenge the increasingly hostile policy towards refugees”, many of whom are victims of our UK actions in arms trading and raising global temperatures. One criticised “the detachment of our education system from real life” and the attitude that, “the more money we have the more successful we are.”
An enthusiastic action planning session at the end included dioceses forming Laudato Si’ Action Platform groups, organising Climate Sunday Masses, promoting the Live Simply programme in parishes and schools, and urging divestment from fossil fuels. Inspiration was taken from a presentation by Emma Gardner, new Head of Environment in Salford Diocese, who manages the flagship Laudato Si’ Centre and stimulates environmental action in Salford’s parishes and schools. Columbans and Salesians are among those arranging a 24-hour prayer vigil on 5 November – during COP26 – that parishes can join, with intentions fed in from around the world. Many dioceses plan to connect with the Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN) pilgrimage to Glasgow and the Camino to COP26, setting off in September.
More than 20 stalls were available in the ‘Just Fair’ plus a room where participants could measure their carbon footprints.
Around 15 workshops were available on such topics as: ‘Sustainable Development Goals,’ ‘Conflict and Environment,’ and a ‘Nature Explorer Walk’ with a botanist. Justice and Peace Scotland gave a briefing around ‘Attendance at COP26 – real or virtual’.
Since 2005, NJPN has regularly taken an environmental theme for the national conference and its Environment Working Group, formed that year, helped plan the 2021 conference.
NJPN Conference 2021 Hashtag: #NJPNlifeonearth
Videos from the weekend at: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4HAuivOZMEWq7cF8bAWUskTb1kF91_09
You can find the slides from Mark’s PowerPoint by clicking below
No one deserves to receive vitriolic abuse and death threats, certainly not for missing a penalty shot in a football final. If the unlucky England strikers had been white would there have been a racist backlash? The mid July NW NJPN E Bulletin leads with these recent events that expose a disturbing undercurrent of racism in our country. The England team manager Gareth Southgate has inspired many with his humility, his calm and decisive leadership and the loving way he guides his young team. In a letter written at the start of Euro 2020 he outlined his vision for the team and beyond, printed here in full. Other articles feature the government’s response to the plight of refugees, and preparations for COP26 and climate crisis, highlighted by terrible floods across Western Europe resulting in loss of life. The Primate of All Ireland criticises the UK government’s decision to ‘draw a line’ under the troubles in Northern Ireland, there is disappointment at Parliament’s decision to ratify the UK’s aid budget cuts, as well as the disturbing news that the online giant Amazon destroys unsold products, plus an account of the recent Christian CND Zoom conference attended by more 90 people.
The NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin for July covers a range of topics from Climate Change, Covid crisis funding, a tribute to Martha White, US Civil Rights activist, an article on the thorny issue of women priests, resources and diary dates plus an urgent action request to lobby your MP by the Reset the Debt campaign in advance of a parliamentary debate on 8 July.
Another two weeks has flown past, and in that time we had Summer for a week, and then back to the cold weather again! Very much a sign that our climate doesn’t know what it is doing any more. Our lead article this week will be on the Climate and Environment. After the rather disappointing G7 Summit, and yes, we have some articles summing that up, I thought it important that we look at what is being done and said in Christian circles in the run-up to COP26.
We have an interesting Action of the Week concerning Piracy on the High Seas. Something that doesn’t directly affect most of us – but it is real, and it is still happening. Please read, and most importantly pray with, and support the seafarers, through Stella Maris.
Our Conference is rapidly approaching. This will be a really important Conference in the lead up to COP26 in November. If you are still thinking about it, but haven’t yet put your name down, please do so soon. Details are available through our website here. However, before filling in any forms or sending a cheque, please communicate with Geoff Thompson, the NJPN Administrator. Email address admin@justice-and-peace.org.uk or telephone 07365 838535.
All being well, the next e-bulletin will be out in two weeks time, the 11th July. If you have something you particularly want shared, please send it to:- ebulletin@justice-and-peace.org.uk. This email address is usually only monitored when the e-bulletin is being prepared, so please do not expect an immediate answer when sending anything.
NJPN Blog in ICN: Michael and Patricia Pulham – 60 years of campaigning against nuclear weapons
A special commemorative zoom event is planned by Christian CND to mark 60 years of its campaigning against nuclear weapons. It will take place on Monday 12 July at 7pm….
The event was originally scheduled to take place in Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, the location of the historic first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. The first resolution it passed called for the elimination of nuclear weapons!
This week, 14th – 20th June, is Refugee Week. Our Action of the Week and lead articles are all about refugees.
Pope Francis, back in May 2013, wrote the following:-
‘I would like to ask you all to see a ray of hope as well in the eyes and hearts of refugees and of whose who have been forcibly displaced. A hope that is expressed in expectations for the future, in the desire for friendship, in the wish to participate in the host society, also through learning the language, access to employment and the education of children. I admire the courage of those who hope to be able gradually to resume a normal life, waiting for joy and love to return to brighten their existence.
We can and must all nourish this hope!’
Please get involved this week if you can.
Other articles include comments on the G7 Summit, which will have taken place in Cornwall by the time you receive this e-bulletin.
We are continuing to take bookings for our Annual Conference, which takes place the 23rd – 25th July at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire. All the details and a booking form are available through our website here. Everyone is welcome and we are particularly keen on encouraging young people to attend. It is a first for me, and I am taking the family! If we can just sow some seeds in the younger generation about caring for our planet and people, the future of the world would look a lot more hopeful.
The next e-bulletin will be out around the 27th June. If you have any articles you want included, please send them to ebulletin@justice-and-peace.org.uk