Stations of the Cross prepared by Anne O’Connor for the season of Lent 2021
Please download and use in parishes, schools and in local justice and peace groups.
Stations of the Cross in a time of Fear and Uncertainty
For Catholic national youth charity Million Minutes, Lent 2021 marks its 10th year as a charity and ten years creating a deafening silence for overlooked young people through its sponsored silence initiative – siLENT.
Full article below
Million Minutes stands in solidarity with silenced young people in its tenth year
The next NJPN Open Networking Day will take place on Saturday 27 February from 11am – 3pm via zoom
The main speakers for the day will be:
Dr. Harriet Crabtree OBE Executive Director for the Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom
Jon Dal Din Deacon of the Southwark Diocese and the inter-faith representative of the Focolare Zone of Western Europe.
Everyone is welcome to join us.
Click here for programme details and booking
A message from our Editor
Racial Justice is our lead issue this weekend, but there is also a big mixture of Actions to take part in, plus many events, including the opening of bookings for our own Annual Conference, with the theme: ‘Action for Life on Earth 2021’
We forge ahead towards our Conference with a sense of positivity that this year it will happen and we will meet again.
The next bulletin will be out in two weeks’ time and, don’t forget, if you have something you particularly want shared please send it to:
ebulletin@justice-and-peace.org.uk
Please download the latest E-Bulletin and share as widely as you can. Thank you
NJPN E-Bulletin 31 January 2021
The latest issue of the NJPN newsletter is available to read below, the issue focuses on a number of different topics,
NEW BEGINNINGS – A JOURNEY FROM LENT TO EASTER
A message from Anne O’Connor
For the past few years, I’ve produced a Lent reflection leaflet continuing a format started by Bryan Halson during our time together on the former Shrewsbury Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission. This year Lent takes on a new meaning for me following the death from natural causes of my beloved elder daughter Annie in June 2020. For Advent 2020 I put together a series of weekly reflections based on her writings as a scripture scholar, teacher, and evangelist. For Lent this year I am sharing some more of her material as we journey through Lent towards Easter.
The resource is available here – A LENTEN JOURNEY 2021 NEW BEGINNINGS
Booking forms now available for NJPN Conference 2021
Click here for more information
The next annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) will be held at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire 23-25 July 2021. Yes, it’s a bit of a leap of faith in the context of the pandemic, but the planning group feels that the issues of the conference should not be postponed for another year.
Read more:
Geoff Thompson NJPN Annual Conference
What are you seeing? What do you want to see?
These were questions posed by Rev. Ian Rutherford from Greater Manchester Homelessness Action Network at the November 2020 open networking meeting and AGM. Around 40 participants were reminded of the words of Isaiah where we are explicitly told what is required of us. We have the assurance that:
“The LORD will guide you always…………………… you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings” (Isaiah 58;11-12)
Of deep concern to those present was evidence of the homeless crisis all around us whenever we walk the streets of any town or city and ask how our Church should respond. Ian was very clear that no one sector can solve the problem, it is everyone’s issue. The solution requires committed partnerships. In developing a strategy for action Ian suggested we work on the ‘4Rs’ Reduction – considering causes and taking appropriate action involving political campaigning. Respite – providing safe places, Recovery – providing ongoing support, Reconnection – enabling people to lead meaningful lives within the community. Ian suggested that generally churches focus more on providing respite, which meets the immediate need for shelter, but we must recognise this is part of a much more complex problem and a holistic vision is required. Ian suggested the possibility of faith groups creating networks of support for vulnerable families. Ian recognised the fact that there are many groups offering compassionate support to vulnerable families and individuals but stated that there is a crying need for systemic change, and we must raise our voices against injustice and suggested that campaigning is key to effecting meaningful change. So where do we begin? Ian suggested we learn harsh lessons from Covid and campaign for an increase in mandatory universal credit, call for an integrated housing policy with a focus on providing more social and affordable housing, which would include an effective homeless prevention strategy, a more integrated health and well-being policy taking account of the need for more sustained mental health support. We should be working on the premise that intervention and recovery leads to prevention. There is also the major issue of those stuck in an unfair and failing structure with no recourse to public funding. People of faith must speak up for those who have no voice in the public arena.
So, what do we see? Constant scapegoating of the ‘other’ within our society, hostility, inaccurate perceptions largely as a result of fear of the unknown exacerbated by negative and inaccurate reporting of facts. What are we going to say to those who say ‘we have to look after our own? On a more positive note we see many people of good will who feel helpless and in need of a good ‘steer’ (maybe this is where we should be shouting the loudest and reminding ourselves of the gospel imperative) We must share the ‘good news stories’ Maybe we should be taking more seriously the impact of what Pope Francis is demanding of the followers of Christ.
So, where do we go from here? We are fortunate that we have the freedom to decide.
Anne Peacey
‘White privilege’ is the notion I shall retain from 2020. The Black Lives Matter explosion had repercussions for all who have suffered racism, and for those like myself who have worked for anti-racism for decades. “It has brought back all those incidents of pain, anger and self-doubt that we had buried and put behind us,” said one black friend. “We’re reliving the trauma.” I, a white, felt some weariness. Many obvious things had been suggested before more black role models for our young people, recognition of black history in mainstream education, more black religious/cultural imagery, more black leaders. I can think of many reasons for the failures of anti-racists like me: unwillingness to confront injustice; economic disasters hitting black and ethnic minorities the hardest; xenophobic fury encouraged by right-wing groups, and so on. Another reason is indifference and laziness among whites, however. What a wake-up call, that the generation of young black people I myself might have once taught are becoming more vocal about racism. Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of the best-seller, Why I am no longer talking to white people about race, went to a Catholic school near where I taught. She is wounded by the blithe carelessness of white friends, indifferent to the history of slavery. My British-born friend with Jamaican parents has spent years as head of a deprived South London primary school. She tells me that she still attends teacher meetings with her inexperienced white male deputy only to find that he is assumed head, rather than herself. Such casual racism is part of white privilege, or in religious language, culpable ignorance. One black friend talks about the pervasive suspicion he encounters: the crime of ‘driving while black’, the stop-and-search, the casual assumption that black equals criminal. Recently athlete Bianca Williams and her partner were dragged from their car and separated from their baby, under stop and search powers. What can black people do? Have the energy and patience to keep on challenging white privilege. Where can white people start? Learn, urgently, about black history, not just in Black History Month, but all year round, in school and parish; listen with humility to the experiences of black neighbours and parishioners. A few of us, black and white, have produced a 2021 calendar celebrating Africans in Northern England to challenge the all-white view of Northern history. What a great learning experience for me!
For copies contact barbarakentish@talktalk.net.
Barbara Kentish White privilege
