NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin October 2025
In the October 2025 edition of the NW NJPN E BULLETIN Brian Brivati, Executive Director, Britain Palestine Project, writing in a personal capacity, shares his reflections on the Trump Plan for peace between Israel and Palestine as he gives an excellent critique of the proposed agreement. Pax Christi Chaplain Sr Katrina Alton notes that, as President Trump stood beside Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to announce a 20-point plan to “end” the war in Gaza, there were no Palestinians in the room. She asks will this be “peace on the terms of the powerful – a peace that leaves occupation intact and the oppressed voiceless?” Christian Aid’s Head of Middle East Policy & Advocacy, William Bell says: “a sustainable peace (must) secure justice, dignity and prosperity for all (with) Palestinians and Israelis treated as equals.”
The Manchester Synagogue attack last week has been condemned by Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders with a renewed plea for peace and religious tolerance. A statement from NJPN calls for “deep listening and respectful dialogue. We must continue to strive for a just and equitable world where the common humanity of all people is valued.”
We have poster information promoting the up-coming Sabeel-Kairos UK Advocacy Tour with events in the North West on 15 and 18 October, facilitated by two expert speakers, and exciting news that The University of Liverpool has been awarded ‘University of Sanctuary’ status and has also officially launched its new Refugee Hub.
Ian Linden looks at the life and impact of Charlie Kirk, assassinated at a rally last month, whose dynamic speeches on college campuses and via social media platforms have attracted many young people. Referring to the rise of right-wing extremism and Christian nationalism, Professor Linden says: “Kirk added to the smog that swirls through the politics of the USA today.”
The Bishop of London and Chair of Christian Aid, Bishop Sarah Mullally has been chosen as the first woman to become Archbishop of Canterbury. Cardinal Vincent Nichols was among church leaders who offered warm congratulations on this ground-breaking appointment. He said: “together we will be responsive to the prayer of Jesus that we ‘may all be one’ (John 17:21) and seek to develop bonds of friendship and shared mission between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.”
There are reports from Brian O’Toole about the recent NJPN webinar on Child Poverty in the UK and from Ellen Teague on the Laudato Si’ Movement’s ‘Raising Hope for Climate Justice’ Conference in Italy this week where Pope Leo affirmed his commitment to climate justice. Tim Root from Friends of the Earth suggests forming a ‘Climate Coalition’ to maximise campaigning success and we pay tribute to conservationist and animal behaviour expert Dr Jane Goodall who has died at the age of 91.
There are details of the 2026 Columbans’ Schools Competition on the theme ‘Becoming a refugee is never a choice. But how we respond is.’
All this, plus events for your diary including Church Action on Poverty Sunday on 19 October and their AGM by Zoom on 19 November.
Please read and pass on to others.
Anne O’Connor
NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin October 2025
NJPN – Throwing Open the Doors to Children Living in Poverty in the UK
On 18 September last, the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) hosted the latest in its Jubilee Year webinar series, focusing on one of the most urgent challenges of our time: child poverty in the UK. Entitled “Throwing Open the Doors to Children Living in Poverty in the UK,” the event brought together leading voices in the fight against inequality, offering both hard truths and practical ways forward.
It was an evening that was not only informative but deeply moving. Participants came away with a clearer understanding of the scale of the problem and a renewed determination to speak out for justice understanding that we can make timely interventions with respect to the imminent Child Poverty Strategy by making contact with MPs.
The NJPN was honoured to welcome three powerful speakers: Liam Purcell, Chief Executive of Church Action on Poverty, Paul Morrison, Policy Advisor for the Joint Public Issues Team, and Carol Cross, Trustee of the CAUSE Foundation, which supports families in Teesside.
Together, they presented a compelling mix of evidence, lived experience, and stories of resilience. Each emphasised that poverty is not just a statistic but a daily reality for millions of children who lack secure housing, nutritious food, and fair opportunities.
Carol Cross’s contributions highlighted the devastating effects of financial hardship on families in the North East, while also showing the extraordinary courage of parents determined to give their children the best possible start despite systemic barriers.
Child Poverty: A Policy Choice, Not an Inevitability: Paul Morrison delivered a clear and sobering message: child poverty is not inevitable. It stems from political and policy choices, from economic structures that prioritise some while leaving others behind, and from a society that too often ignores the voices of the most vulnerable.
He challenged those present to recognise the moral responsibility we all share. Communities, churches, faith groups, and individuals must not only provide support but also advocate for fairer policies. The injustice of child poverty, he argued, is a collective problem that demands collective solutions.
The Work of Church Action on Poverty: Liam Purcell spoke about the practical work of Church Action on Poverty, an organisation dedicated to challenging the root causes of deprivation. A key part of their mission is amplifying the voices of those who know poverty first-hand.
He particularly emphasised the role of young people engaged in the Right to Food campaign. These youth ambassadors, supported by the Food Foundation’s Children’s Right2Food initiative, have shared their experiences of food insecurity while calling for meaningful action. Their testimony underlines the urgent need for systemic change, ensuring that no child in this country is left hungry.
A Collective Call to Action: The webinar ended with a sense of urgency and hope. Participants recognised that although the challenge is great, change is possible if we act together. Ending child poverty requires both compassion and political will, and both are within our reach if we refuse to accept injustice as normal.
This is a crucial moment to raise our voices and influence decision-makers. Policies such as the two-child limit continue to push families into hardship. Scrapping this unjust policy is one of the most immediate steps we can take to improve children’s lives.
We urge everyone to contact their MPs and demand change. One easy way to take action to join the End Child Poverty Coalition’s email action, available here: End Child Poverty Email Action
You can rewatch this important Webinar HERE or on our website. Throwing open the doors to important issues is important but the challenge now is to keep these doors open – even if we have to stick our foot in every door! This is the call of the Jubilee Year.
Brian O’ Toole Sept 22nd 2025
NJPN Newsletter Autumn 2025
The latest newsletter is now available,
The newsletter features a range of articles on topics such as A Just Peace, the NJPN Conference and The New Pope
Also contained are details of our next event
Autumn 2025 Newsletter
NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin September 2025
The September issue of the NW NJPN E Bulletin leads with a stirring reflection from Sr Katrina Alton, National Chaplain to Pax Christi England and Wales given at the start of a silent vigil at the recent DSEI Arms Fair, followed by a challenge to the UK Government to recognize Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide by priest, peace campaigner and poet Rev’d Jon Swales. This plea is echoed by a statement from July’s NJPN Conference which calls for “a Just Peace – a peace that refuses to dehumanise, that dismantles injustice, and that centres the common good of all people.” Jon Swales’ powerful poem When stone learned to speak links the statues of those commemorated in Parliament Square with the mass arrests of protestors.
The current proliferation of St George and Union Jack flags has caused feelings to run high with graffiti and malicious messages appearing on walls and buildings. A report from the Religion Media Centre gives a positive take on the situation from an Iman in Birkenhead who, despite hostility from local people, says: “We are British. Now is the time to say we do belong here. We’re embedded in this country and we’re a part of the fabric of society.”
Upcoming events include the Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel, World Day of Migrants and Refugees and the Season of Creation with resources and prayers.
Continuing the theme of ‘Throwing Open the Doors’ during this Jubilee Year, NJPN are hosting a webinar entitled: NJPN – ‘Throwing Open the Doors to Children Living in Poverty in the UK’ on September 18. Guest speakers include Liam Purcell, CEO of Church Action on Poverty, Paul Morrison, Policy Advisor for Joint Public issues Team and Carol Cross, Trustee of the CAUSE Foundation (Helping families across Teesside)
We include tributes to Kathy Galloway, Minister, feminist, social justice leader, writer, poet and former Leader of the Iona Community who died recently.
There are details of two plays coming (briefly) to the local region: The Telling, the imagined testimony of Hildegard von Bingen and The Invaders’ Fear of Memories, a one-man play by Ben Rivers which brings to life his own great-grandfather’s story. With songs in Ukrainian, Yiddish, Hebrew and Arabic woven throughout, the play confronts us with the tragic cycles of history in which we are still caught. It could not be more relevant in today’s violent world.
There’s also a packed diary of events across the NW and beyond.
Please read and pass on to others.
Anne O’Connor
NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin September 2025
NJPN Webinar – ‘Throwing Open the Doors to Children Living in Poverty in the UK’
Dear Friends,
Continuing the theme of ‘Throwing Open the Doors’ during this Jubilee Year we are inviting your to attend our next webinar entitled:
NJPN – ‘Throwing Open the Doors to Children Living in Poverty in the UK’
on
Sept 18th (2025) 7.30pm
We look forward to hearing from:
- Liam Purcell, CEO of Church Action on Poverty
- Paul Morrison, Policy Advisor for Joint Public issues Team
- Carol Cross, Trustee of the CAUSE Foundation (Helping families across Teesside)
There will also be a chance to hear and share your experience, concerns, activism and call to action.
We attach our flyer for this event to this email.
We will send the link to attend closer to the event itself.
Thanks for your interest
Sharon
Hello everyone
Time is flying by and we are now entering the Autumn season so I am pleased to send you this quarter’s Mouthpeace.
There are several things going on in September for the Season of Creation .
Plus reports from CAFOD and Church Action of Poverty on their events.
Also this time as we still do not have any real signs of peace and justice for Ukraine and Palestine/Israel I have included several things from this years’s NJPN Conference at Swanwick which was very appropriately on Just Peace. It gave us plenty to think and pray about,
Five years ago Mouthpeace went digital. It was interesting to reflect on the history of Mouthpeace with Anne O’Connor – see the front page.
Best wishes
Marian
PS Since I produced Mouthpeace I have received this below from Pax Christi
There are several things about the DSEI in this Mouthpeace including a story from Sr, Katrina which may encourage you to pray.
From Pax Christi England and Wales
Our National Chaplain Sr Katrina Alton has written a
Novena of Nonviolent Resistance for us so that we can pray each day from the
1st – 9th September for the courage and wisdom to resist the evils of the arms trade using the tools of Gospel nonviolence. We will be posting the full Novena on our website this weekend
https://paxchristi.org.uk/ and will post the prayers daily on Instagram and Facebook. Please share the resource with your parish or local group.
To start the Novena on
Monday 1st, we will host a zoom call at 6.30pm so that we can pray together. You can register for that call here here:
tinyurl.com/mryfvu9f
We will host a further call on the final day of the Novena –Tuesday 9th and are looking to see if we can host this live from outside the gates to the fair.
We, the delegates of the 2025 Conference of the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales, gathered in Swanwick stand in solidarity with all those suffering the horrors of war in Palestine and Israel.
Echoing the urgent appeal of Pope Francis:
“I follow with great concern the extremely serious humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the civilian population is crushed by hunger and continues to be exposed to violence and death… Every human person has an intrinsic dignity bestowed by God Himself… I urge negotiating a future of peace for all peoples and rejecting anything that could jeopardise it.”
We share the Pope’s profound alarm at the deepening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and reaffirm the Church’s unwavering commitment to the dignity of every human being—regardless of nationality, religion, or political identity
The continued bombardment of Gaza, the illegal occupation of the West Bank, and the targeting of civilians, humanitarian workers, and journalists are not isolated tragedies—they are violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. As Mary Robinson recently told the UN:
“We are witnessing an unfolding genocide in Gaza.”
The International Court of Justice has affirmed that Israel’s actions in the West Bank amount to de facto annexation and breach international obligations on racial segregation and apartheid.
We grieve all lives lost—Palestinian and Israeli—and condemn indiscriminate violence and hostage-taking by all parties. But the scale and intensity of Israel’s military response is overwhelmingly disproportionate and morally indefensible.
There can be no Peace without justice. The time for silence is over. The time for prophetic action is now.
To the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
We urge you to:
- Publicly and unequivocally condemn the Israeli Government’s war of aggression in Gaza;
- Speak out against the use of starvation, denial of healthcare, and targeting of civilians—grave breaches of international law;
- Raise your voice, in the spirit of Catholic Social Teaching, for a peace rooted in human dignity, equality, and justice for all.
To the British Government and all political leaders
We call for principled and urgent action to uphold international law and human rights:
- Secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces;
- Guarantee the safe and unrestricted delivery of all humanitarian aid;
- Impose a comprehensive arms embargo and end all military cooperation with Israel;
- Secure the release of all hostages—Israeli and Palestinian alike;
- Recognise the State of Palestine without conditions or delay;
- Suspend trade with illegal Israeli settlements and with entities complicit in occupation or war crimes;
- End the blockade of Gaza and dismantle the occupation of the West Bank;
- Pursue international accountability for violations of humanitarian law—by Hamas, Israeli forces, and settlers. – Enforce targeted sanctions to end impunity and uphold justice.
His Eminence, Cardinal Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has appealed to us, and the international community, to do what is right for everyone, in a way that restores human dignity. He said,
‘it is time to end this nonsense, end the war and put the common good of people as the top priority.’ ‘Let us not turn peace into a slogan, while war remains the daily bread of the poor.’
As people of faith and conscience, we must not settle for a fragile peace maintained by fear, nor a silence born of complicity. We are called to a Just Peace—a peace that refuses to dehumanise, that dismantles injustice, and that centres the common good of all people.
The time is now—to speak, to act, and to stand with courage for a future rooted in justice, human dignity, and the radical hope that peace is possible.
Anne Peacey, Chair of Conference Planning Group
The statement can be downloaded below
NJPN statement on Gaza
NW NJPN E Bulletin for August 2025
The NW NJPN E Bulletin for August 2025 focuses on Gaza, leading with two excellent analyses from Professor Ian Linden who asks ‘Is it too late for the two-state solution?’ Unlike many commentators, he gives the historical context of this troubled region to help put the current conflict into perspective. On page 4 Pat Gaffney, Vice President of Pax Christi, Executive of Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and a stalwart of weekly Women in Black vigils, shares her concerns about the government new anti-terrorism legislation.
Regular contributor Heather Kiernan provides poems on Gaza (page 5) and also Hiroshima (page 8) to go alongside a heartfelt appeal from the Catholic Bishops of Japan to mark the 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombing – a timely message as President Trump announced this week that the US has moved two ballistic missile submarines to change course for Russia.
Also included in this bulletin are reports of the recent NJPN Conference with links to video presentations on page 7, news on page 9 that St John Henry Newman is to be declared a ‘Doctor of the Church’, and resources on pages 10-11 for the Season of Creation including the introduction of a new Mass “For the Care of Creation” into the Roman Missal, a clear sign that caring for our common home is not merely an environmental issue, but a deeply moral and faith-centered calling. This September the Columban Missionaries in Britain, in collaboration with the Laudato Si’ Centre in the Diocese of Salford, are hosting ‘Hope for Our Common Home’ to celebrate the Jubilee year – details on pages 11-13.
Please read and pass on to others.
Best wishes
Anne O’Connor
NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin August 2025
NJPN Conference 2025: “We can tip the scales in favour of Peace”
This year’s annual National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) Conference on 25-27 July in Derbyshire, took the theme: ‘Towards a Just Peace – Challenging the Inevitability of Violence.’ In the final session on Sunday led by Brian O’Toole, Director of the Presentation Interprovincial Justice Desk, he suggested that “we must build a new narrative, based on the common good and common sense,” and that “we can tip the scales in favour of peace.”
Among the 160 participants, who shared this view of prophetic peacemaking, were Justice and Peace representatives from 17 dioceses in England and Wales, Justice and Peace Scotland, and religious orders, including Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ), Srs of St Joseph of Peace (CSJP), Presentation Sisters, and Mary Ward Loreto UK. Organisations running stalls included CAFOD, Catholic Social Action Network, Laudato Si Movement, Archbishop Romero Trust, Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology and Christians Aware. Peace groups included Pax Christi, Christian CND, and Peace Pledge Union. Petitions were signed on tackling international debt, dismantling nuclear weapons and the Big Bank Switch towards greener banking.
The 47th annual conference opened on Friday evening with a Litany of Peace by Dan Shutte with the chorus ‘Let us be your peace,’ led by Sheena, Anna, Eleanor and Andrew Marshall. Then Anne Peacey, the NJPN Chair, introduced the conference as an opportunity “to commit to becoming peacemakers in our troubled world.” She said, “we thank God for the witness of Pope Francis and now Pope Leo.”
Gospel Nonviolence was explained in an opening dialogue between Sr MaryAnne Francalanza FCJ, of the Centre for Faith and Ecological Justice in North London, and Sr Katrina Alton CSJP, the National Chaplain to Pax Christi England and Wales. Katrina said Jesus’ way is a way that combines a rejection of violence and a focus instead on the power of love and truth in action for justice, peace and integrity of creation. Katrina told of her experience at a protest vigil at an arms fair at the Excel Centre in London where, as she knelt in prayer, a delegate whispered in her ear, “I fear you are right.” She pointed out how most casualties in modern warfare are civilians and that combatants are young people.
At a panel discussion on ‘Just Peace’ on Saturday morning, chaired by James Trewby of the Columbans, Andrew Jackson, CEO of Pax Christi England and Wales, highlighted the “deep spirituality in a commitment to nonviolence”. Bokani Tshdizu of Operation Noah spoke of her commitment to fly less and reduce her carbon footprint to try and protect “our beautiful world.” She felt, “we must do more in the community – such as vigils, street protests, being active in our churches,” to build peace. She asked, “are we doing enough on racial climate justice?”
Speaking during the conference Mass, celebrated by Westminster priest Fr Joe Ryan, Ann Farr of Pax Christi International called for a Just Peace for Gaza. Particular concern for Gaza was expressed in a public ‘Red Line for Gaza’ where many participants wearing red lined up for a photo to urge decision-makers to end the killing of children in Gaza. In messages written on red paper, they joined thousands in similar protests across the world, a striking symbol of how many red lines Israel and its Western backers have crossed. The creation of mass starvation of Palestinians by deliberately blocking food deliveries and shooting unarmed civilians at distribution points was singled out for condemnation.
On Sunday, Joanna Frew of Rethinking Security – a network of organisations, academics and activists working together for security based on justice, cooperation and sustainability – explored what real security looks like today. She suggested root causes of global insecurity, such as the climate crisis and extreme poverty, should be addressed. An alternative vision of security should be considered, based on Gospel values of loving enemies, welcoming the stranger and Earth care as stewards of creation, for “there is no security without a viable planet.”
Workshop contributors include Richard Solly of Jesuit Missions and Ellen Teague of the Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology Team who explored links between violence and environmental problems. Bokani Tshidzu of Operation Noah looked at ‘Investing in Peace through Climate Action.’ Quakers in Britain explored how local interfaith and intercommunal relations in Britain are impacted by international conflicts.
In this Jubilee Year 2025, the NJPN invited all to join them as ‘pilgrims of hope’.
Link:
Videos from the conference available at:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4HAuivOZMEXP59V6429gmpA8DEhaV_f6
79th Meeting of the National Justice and Peace Network Environment Group
The 79th Meeting of the National Justice and Peace Network Environment Group took place 16th July 2025 on Zoom,
A wide range of issues were discussed with minutes available by clicking the link below, please read and share wiht anyone who may be interested,
NJPN ENV Gp 79th meeting 16 July 2025
