'Act justly, Love tenderly, walk humbly with your God'
Micah 6.8
All posts by Stephen Cooke
NW NJPN E BULLETIN NOVEMBER 2024
The November issue of the NW NJPN E Bulletin is a bumper edition with articles on COP 29, Gaza, a tribute by Ian Linden to Peruvian Dominican priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, regarded as the father of Liberation Theology, who died on 22 October 2024 aged 96 plus news from around the NW region. Jenny Sinclair, founder and director of Together for the Common Good looks at the de-humanising effects of Liberalism and suggests that as Christians our conception of the human person is not individualistic – it is relational – ‘we are not complete without each other’. Curlew Action’s Mary Colwell shares her thoughts and feelings on this heart-breaking – yet unsurprising – news: The Slender-billed Curlew is now deemed to be extinct. She adds, ‘Gus Speth, former dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale, has been widely attributed as saying, “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy.”’ He went on to say that, “to deal with those issues we need a spiritual and cultural transformation.” There are also resources, news of webinars and diary dates.
There was no bulletin in October and this November one is later than usual as I’ve been busy compiling a series of Advent resources with fellow parishioner Penny Howes. In place of our usual format of Pray and Reflect services, this year we are offering 4 one-hour Let us Pray sessions based on the Advent themes of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love with readings, reflections, discussion, gentle music, art and prayer. As we journey together over the next four weeks we will seek to deepen our relationship with the God who loves and cares for us as we prepare to welcome the Christ child who fills our hearts with the gifts of hope, peace, joy and love.
Attached is a very condensed booklet to give you a flavour – please email me if you want to know more. You are welcome to use this in full or pick out extracts, however, if you choose anything from writer and artist Jan Richardson she asks that you give the source and also her website address.
The funeral service for Sr. Maire Hayes will take place in Olney, Northampton on Thursday 28 November.
Sr Maire was a dear friend and supporter of NJPN and had been a valued member of the executive since 2012. In sharing their thoughts exec, members have said that not only was Sr. Maire inspiring and insightful, her sense of fun and enthusiasm was infectious. Sr. Maire also possessed a deep sense of inner peace and this together with her unique life experience, was reflected in her contribution to all our discussions.
We all feel very blessed to have known her. May the Lord bless her and keep her.
Sr. Maire had also been a long serving member of GRASSROOTS Staff Team, and David Jonathan (Johny) from GRASSROOTS Programme writes in appreciation of Sr. Maire:
Sr. Maire was a great supporter of the Luton Council of Faiths, and she contributed significantly to inter-faith & cohesion work in Luton. She laid the foundation for Making Luton a Fairtrade Campaign. She never hesitated to take a stand for peace and justice in our world, not even when she lived under the authoritarian regime in Chile for over two decades. Soon after 9/11, she arrived in Luton. She became the Inter Faith Coordinator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northampton, and she carried out that role with great passion for nearly 20 years. We will always remain indebted for her support, guidance, and leadership in many different ways. She stood shoulder to shoulder with Luton’s different faith communities in testing times. Her spirit of defiance to those attempting to undermine the stability and integrity of diverse communities in our town has left a lasting impression on us all. She was admired by us all and by many more in Luton’s diverse faith communities for her gentleness, humility, grace, astuteness, diligence, and the dignified way in which she contributed to life in Luton. We are grateful for her life, her faith, and her selfless commitment to our town May she rest in peace and may we all remain united in our longing for peace in the world, and continue working together for the peace, unity, well-being, and prosperity of all in our town.
Peace be with you all, as Sr Maire would often say and pray.
David Jonathan (Johny) from GRASSROOTS
In February 2015 Sr. Maire contributed to the ‘Speaking Personally’ page on the NJPN website. The link below will give a deeper insight into her life and work.
BBC journalist Peter Taylor receives second Quaker truth award
The second Quaker Truth and Integrity Award has been awarded once again to a journalist, the BBC’s Peter Taylor.
Taylor received the reward in recognition of his outstanding work over 50 years, especially covering the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and Islamic extremism post 9/11.
Quakers have been committed to truth since the mid-17th century. The Quaker Truth and Integrity Group (QTIG) and associated award were set up in 2022 in response to concerns over the undermining of truth and integrity in public life.
The inaugural award was also won by a journalist, Carole Cadwalladr, and QTIG said this highlighted both the importance of trustworthy reporting in today’s world, and the challenges journalists face.
Journalists often find themselves working against a background of intimidation, misinformation and reluctance or refusal to engage and listen with others, QTIG said.
Taylor has made award-winning landmark documentaries for the BBC and ITV and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from BAFTA and the Royal Television Society.
He is the author of ten books, the most recent being Operation Chiffon: The Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and the Road to Peace in Ireland. “Peter’s painstaking and brilliant reporting has been based on seeking to bridge differences and understand those from extreme traditions,” the QTIG citation reads.
“In doing so, he courageously and often at personal risk made a material contribution towards preparing the way for the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement, crucially involving the IRA.”
Taylor has also investigated the power of Big Tobacco and was awarded the World Health Organisation Gold Medal for Services to Public Health.
In 2008 he received the James Cameron Award “for work as a journalist that combined moral vision and professional integrity.”
Concerns over the decline of truth prompted QTIG to set up an annual award to recognise an exceptional contribution by a British individual or organisation towards the enhancement of standards of truth and integrity in public life.
QTIG hope the award will stimulate growing interest around the importance of maintaining standards in public life.
Media Information
Cato Pedder
Media Officer
Quakers in Britain
020 7663 1048
07958 009703
@mediaquaker
catop@quaker.org.uk
www.quaker.org.uk
Exploring UK Poverty and the Real Living Wage – Leeds Meeting – November 16th
NJPN NETWORKING DAY
NJPN in partnership with The Leeds Diocese J & P Commission invite you to attend the first event in our Year of Jubilee theme, taking place at Wheeler Hall, Leeds on Saturday 16th November, from 10.30am until 3.30pm.
We welcome Sara Bryson, Assistant Director (North) for Citizens UK, as our keynote speaker to talk about why we need a Real Living Wage to end child poverty.
There will be a chance for networking, and following your packed lunch, there will be a panel discussion including Graham Brownlee, Senior Organiser for Leeds Citizens, and Paul Coleman, Faith at the Margins Lead at Leeds Church Institute.
Please book your place via Eventbrite or if you have any questions, please email admin@justice-and-peace.org.uk
Feel free to forward to anyone who might be interested. It would be great to see many of you there.
Columban Missionaries in Britain have launched their 2024/2025 Schools Media Competition, which has the title: ‘Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope’.
Columban Missionaries in Britain have launched their 2024/2025 Schools Media Competition, which has the title: ‘Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope’.
Encouraging creativity and faith engagement with issues in the world today, this year’s competition welcomes both written and image entries until 7 February 2025, with winners being announced on 10 March 2025. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winning entrants. The competition is targeted at students aged between 13-18 years old.
Pope Francis has decreed that 2025 will be a year of Jubilee. The theme he has chosen is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ and he urges us to look for signs of hope in the world around us and work for peace and justice.
Students will find the Columban Competition website an essential resource. It includes information on the theme of Jubilee and Pilgrimage plus examples of Columban projects and inspirational communities. There are also details on submission of entries and a helpful FAQ page. The website provides material suitable for students, teachers and parents.
A young Muslim woman wanted to organise an Interfaith Vigil because she believed in the importance of the different faiths acting together to express concern about the appalling violence unleashed on October 7th and continuing on an unimaginable scale in Gaza, spreading to the West Bank, Lebanon and elsewhere.
She was in touch with sympathetic Orthodox Jews who were anti Zionist and horrified by the way the State of Israel was perpetuating the oppression of the Palestinians, stating that this was in variance with the values of Judaism. She wanted to include Christians in the Vigil but didn’t know any and was referred to me.
Through contacts a number of us worked to publicise the event throughout the Christian community, to obtain their support and prepare a contribution. As we were unable to find a member of the clergy to speak at the event we just had to do the best we could. As the initiative had come from the Muslim community who had extended their hand of friendship to us we felt it important to respond.
We had no idea what to expect but wanted to take the opportunity to mourn the terrible suffering on all sides of the conflict and to focus on expressing our love and compassion for the victims, embedded in the life and witness of Christ.
A few of us got together from different denominations and prepared a short address, a Taize chant, a prayer and an invitation to extend the hand of peace amongst all of us in the crowd and to those suffering in such a horrifying situation,
All our emotions are touched in times like these. A variety of emotions were expressed during the vigil. There was a beautiful, heartfelt poem, the Rabbi who increased our understanding of his group’s perspective on Judaism and its refusal to be drawn into a position of hatred and violence. There was a speech from a prominent political activist empathising the necessity of putting pressure on our Government to stop the supply of arms to Israel and its complicity with its government and there were other impassioned contributions.
There was a large crowd of over a thousand and it commanded a lot of attention in a public space in the City Centre, outside Waterstones.
We had hoped for a much larger Christian presence. It was intimidating to be such a small group speaking out at such a large event, when none of us had had any experience like this before. We hope that our contribution was meaningful despite being such a “still, small voice”.
NJPN at Wistaston Hall, rising to the challenge of the Jubilee Year
Liz Archibald, Sharon Chambers, Ann Kelly, Kevin Burr, Sue Ingham, Barbara Butler, Brian O’ Toole, Anne Peacey (Chair) James Buchanan & Annette Brindle.
Buoyed by the success of the ‘Just Politics’ Conference in Swanwick, the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) executive gathered recently in Wistaston Hall, Crewe to review and evaluate the year that culminated in this timely conference. NJPN and their members continue to be exercised and challenged by the significant issues that face those furthest behind with a particular and an ongoing focus on the Movement of people, the Environment, Peace and Poverty & Inequality.
The peace and quiet of Wistaston, offered the executive a time to reflect and consider their work and plans in the context of the theme of the forthcoming Jubilee year, “Pilgrims of Hope”. The Jubilee year promises time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, with a specific significance on the acts of social justice. Recognising that hope is faith in action the NJPN are concerned with the restoration of the dignity of the person with the lived experience and in drawing upon the Jubilee symbolism of “opening the holy doors,” they resolve to do their level best to garner support to wedge these holy doors open to draw on the hope that is embodied in the recently agreed “Pact For The Future.”
The pact aims to reinvigorate the Sustainable Development Goals and to turbo charge the Paris Agreement, also addressing peace and security at a time of so many conflicts. The NJPN sees that their responsibility is ‘not to let the bad news win,’ and feels that with so many concerned people and groups there is a real and obvious hope brewing on the cusp of this Jubilee year. The NJPN take real inspiration from Pope Francis who regularly speaks to the promise that we can successfully address all of the existential crises that confront us. He importantly supports this statement by issuing the challenge that we all have a part to play in the delivery of solutions, especially for those future generations who have no voice now but ours and so we have a responsibility to prophetically work for a just future for all.
The NJPN intends to imminently gather the ‘Just Politics’ conference attendees to consider the implications of the outcomes and the actions that were prompted given the inspiration from, not just the keynote speakers, but especially from the youth who delivered an impassioned and motivating session to seasoned activists.
And over the course of the next year there are a number of both in-person and online NJPN events planned that will be ‘Jubilee’ themed and framed in our brand new ‘Pact for the Future,’ but all with an underlying aim to restore the dignity of the person furthest behind, to give opportunities to those with a lived experience to be heard and to be agents of real change in our collective futures. As Pilgrims of Hope the NJPN embarks on this journey to pursue, a just peace, a just equality, a just movement of people and justice for our environment but in recognising the power and strength of the network they are resolved to renew and re-energise the membership in their collaborative efforts to make a real and lasting difference. Keep and eye on the NJPN website for details of future plans and events.
Brian O’ Toole
(NJPN Executive)
The September issue of the NW NJPN E BULLETIN features a wealth of events across the region as well as several Zoom presentations. Announcing this year’s International Day of Peace (21 September) with the theme ‘Cultivating a Culture of Peace’, UN Secretary-General António Guterres says: ‘In a world mired by conflict, inequalities and discrimination, we must strive ever harder to promote dialogue, empathy and human rights for all. Let us plant the seeds for non-violence, justice and hope’.
The World Council of Churches is taking ‘Gaza’ as a single focus for the 2024 World Week of Prayer for Peace in Palestine and Israel (16-22 September). Pax Christi will be hosting an online prayer event on 18 September and the final 3 pages of this bulletin contain the text of a service for Palestine and Israel put together for a Pray and Reflect service in my parish. You are welcome to dip into this or use in full – I can supply this material laid out in an 8-page A5 size booklet on request.
Ahead of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on 29 September, the Jesuit Refugee Service UK has issued a challenging report that examines the experiences of homelessness among people refused asylum in the context of the cost-of-living crisis and following the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are resources for the Season of Creation (1 September – 4 October) including details of a Climate Justice Gathering in Liverpool on 12 October, rescheduled from 29 June, plus news and events from CAFOD Lancaster Diocese.
Church Action on Poverty is urging churches to sign a letter lobbying for the controversial two-child limit to be removed in the October Budget. This cap means families are not allowed to access support through Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit, for more than two children, if children were born after April 2017. Please ask your church to sign or send an individual response using the sample letter.
The Autumn 2024 NJPN Newsletter, featuring a wide range of articles including reports on our 2024 Annual Conference “Just Politics”, the Living Wage, Palestine and Israel,
