This was the title of a partnership event last week with Pax Christi in the Leeds Diocese and the Leeds Palestinian Film festival. Social justice issues are often complex, and many people do not feel that they can influence unjust situations – and Palestinian injustice is a good example of this.
At the film we showed last November, as part of the Palestinian Film Festival, someone posed a question about this and the event last week was the result.
About 50 people came along to hear a range of speakers talk about the actions that they are taking. We heard speakers from Palestine Action in Bradford who, through some direct actions, have been instrumental in closing an arms factory in Oldham. From Leeds we heard about the ‘Women in Black’ group – which has featured previously in the newsletter. We also heard from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in Leeds and from Jenny Lynn, an Executive member of Calderdale council and Chair of Halifax Friends of Palestine.
She detailed out the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Association) definition of antisemitism. Many public institutions have adopted this However, some of the examples they provide of antisemitism make it difficult to criticise the actions of the state of Israel – and, in turn, this has led to attempts to censure some university academics, not to mention Labour MP’s.
Panel Discussion
Carol Burns, of Pax Christi in the Leeds Diocese, chaired the meeting and stressed that social activism was a journey: we all have a responsibility towards situations of injustice. However, we also all have many other responsibilities and we must each decide what actions we are capable of supporting at any point in time. For some this might mean taking part in some direct action, for others it might just be talking about the issues with other people and raising awareness
Ideas for what you can do and for more background information about our topic can be found in these downloadable handouts:-
A one page slide, freely downloadable with suggestions for action produced by the Commission and the Pax Christi group in the Leeds Diocese. Suitable for use as a handout.
As part of Pride Month, we wanted to celebrate the ways in which the LGBT+ community is, and can be, supported by the Catholic Community. So, we reached out to George White to discuss his contribution to a new educational tool:
I am fortunate to have been one selected as one of the contributors to the Diverse Educators Manifesto. The Diverse Educators’ book is structured around the Equality Act. There are ten chapters, one for each of the nine Protected Characteristics (Age; Disability; Gender Reassignment; Pregnancy and Maternity; Marriage and Civil Partnership; Race; Religion and Belief; Sex; Sexual Orientation) with a tenth chapter exploring intersectionality. I wrote a contribution for the Religion and Belief category exploring how one might simultaneously protect religion and belief, gender reassignment and sexual orientation.
My piece was entitled ‘LGBT Inclusion in Catholic Schools’ and allowed me to discuss both pedagogy and personal experience. My experience as a Catholic and transgender teacher of Religious Education at a Catholic school is certainly very unique. For the vast overwhelming majority of the time, I’ve simply been treated as a normal appointment to the job. But there have been times that we’ve encountered some difficulties, whether it be how to challenge transphobia from pupils or how to respond to right wing church groups who have claimed the school is in breach of Canon law because they employ me. In my day-to-day life, I experience very few negative situations as a result of being an LGBT person of faith but the small number of times that I have are scary and isolating. One of the most positive themes in my contribution to Diverse Educators Manifesto is discussing how the church has changed in its pastoral ministry of LGBT Catholics over the years. Pope Francis has commended those who work with and for the LGBT community, he has gifted funds to a transgender community in Italy and even advocated support for same sex relationships to be recognised by civil law. The official teaching of the Catholic Church – as stated in the Catechism- is to “accept (LGBT people) them with compassion, sensitivity and respect” and Pope Francis is showing us exactly how to do that. I hope that my story and section of the chapter inspires Catholics who are unsure how to extend a welcome to LGBT people to listen to us as Fr James Martin SJ requests in his book ‘Building a Bridge’ which seeks to develop how the Catholic Church and LGBT community can enter into a relationship of compassion, sensitivity and respect.
The Diverse Educators Manifesto is an outstanding collection of contributions from experts in their field. 114 people have shared something of their personal and professional experience as educators in the hope that it offers readers some practical solutions, accessible resources and a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of those protected by the Equality Act.
I don’t think I was the only Bradford resident who was left with very few nails left after the dramatic countdown to the announcement of the winners of the Capital of Culture 2025 on Tuesday 31st May.
It was an absolute delight to hear the news that we’d been awarded the title after a breath-taking bid by the local team.
The hope is that Bradford will benefit in the coming years from investment and perhaps a more positive media spotlight.
Having grown up in Bradford and now bringing up my own children in the local area, it’s sometimes hard to reconcile the media portrayal of the place I know with the one I have come to know through the lens of an often-critical public perception. That’s not to say Bradford doesn’t have its challenges. There is poverty, a lack of investment and a lack of the wide range of job opportunities you might want in your city. We are a diverse place, but I feel we suffer from a lack of opportunities for people to come out of their bubbles and get to know others who are different to them.
Despite all of that, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. There is a warmth to Bradford which I don’t think you find very often. I’ve been fortunate to work across the Bradford district with many different organisations and groups. I’ve seen Bradford through the eyes of families who have just arrived from war torn countries to build a new life, they see Bradford as a place of hope. I spent the Jubilee weekend with families who are newly arrived in the city at a party held at the hotel they currently live in which was hosted by the local secondary school and later at the Shabbat service at Bradford synagogue where a diverse group of us from different faiths were welcomed.
There are so many things that make Bradford unique which I hope will be shared with a wider audience as part of our Capital of Culture Year. We have the most diverse landscape and fantastic heritage. We have amazing museums, galleries, and theatres. As a trustee at the Peace Museum, I’m biased but the range of culture on offer is already immense and will only be strengthened by the award. There are multi faith trails you can join to visit the beautiful places of worship and meet members of the various faith communities. We have several literature festivals as well as so many local and central festivals and celebrations.
It’s no secret that one of the strengths of Bradford’s bid was the young people and how their voice was placed front and centre. Over a quarter of the population are aged under 25. This award is a gift to them, and I can’t wait to see what they have to offer as the plans for the Capital of Culture year get underway.
A week on from today (20th June), I will be flying to Vienna from Manchester airport for the first MSP (Meeting of State Parties) on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Since April, when I last wrote about what I’d been doing in the run-up to Vienna, our pre-MSP events have been coming thick and fast!
I mentioned before that at the beginning of this journey I knew that I wanted to learn more about the impact of nuclear weapons from a non-western perspective.
Since then, we have had sessions on Nuclear Weapons and the Pacific, and Africa and Nuclear Weapons. In these sessions I learnt a huge amount from speakers who were invited to join us, as well as from other delegates to the Youth MSP.
Discussions in these two sessions brought home the colonialism that is endemic to nuclear weapons. We discussed nuclear weapons-testing in the pacific, specifically the Marshall Islands and the toxic legacy left behind. The United States used the area to test over 50 thermo-nuclear weapons between 1946 and 1958. Local people were not evacuated from the island and were exposed to radiation. The US claimed that this was due to an unexpected shift in the wind. Yet evidence later emerged of Project 4.1 which said leaving people on the island would “afford valuable radiation data”. The Marshall Islanders experienced higher rates of cancer, babies had birth defects or were still born.
Project 4.1 demonstrates the hugely disturbing thinking behind nuclear weapons. The US used the Marshall Islanders as guinea-pigs to test the impacts of radiation. In 1956, the Director of the US Atomic Energy Agency’s health and safety said: “While it is true that these people do not live the way Westerners do, civilized people, it is nevertheless also true that these people are more like us than the mice.”
Learning about people’s lived experiences of nuclear weapons has been eye-opening because I often feel that here in the UK nuclear war is a theoretical threat, so it’s important to remind myself that there are people living with the actual consequences of nuclear weapons already.
But the programme of pre-MSP events hasn’t just been about the impacts of nuclear weapons; it has also been about the practicalities of treaties and law. I have learnt the difference between different types of law (such as treaty and customary).
While I find this sort of information much harder to digest, I know that it’s important for me to understand how we can change things, and the processes that change will be channelled through.
During this session we focused on the additional protocols to the Geneva Convention, and it became increasingly baffling how the world is able to justify the legality of nuclear weapons when they so evidently fail to satisfy the conditions that so many countries have agreed to.
Our zoom session on this topic was only an hour so we focused on the conditions which prohibit warfare that cause:
indiscriminate attacks,
unnecessary suffering and superfluous injury,
widespread, long-term and severe to the environment.
For me, the most exciting thing that we’ve been up to has been compiling a policy document. This document presents suggestions about the role young people and future generations ought to play in the conversation. The document centres around youth education, inclusion and empowerment.
First, we were split into groups according to which area of policy we had chosen to be a part of. My group was to write about ‘Education and Agency’. Since the Youth 4 TPNW delegates are from all over the world, we couldn’t really meet in a café and discuss over a coffee! So instead, we made a group chat and shared a google document! Myself and five other young people found ourselves in front of a blank document that we had to transform into a policy document… but how?
I have never had an opportunity to take part in policy writing before, so this was a totally new experience. I was unsure of what a policy document really was: the format, the wording, and quite honestly, the point! Was this an exhaustive list of everything we could change? Or a selective list of recommendations? How comprehensively did we need to justify each idea? Did we need to begin by listing everything that’s wrong currently?
The rest of my group were amazingly supportive though. A couple of them had been a part of similar tasks before, mainly on the topic of climate change, so they were able to answer all my questions and provide insight into how I could contribute.
Each team had an allowance of 1500 words. We provided an overview, followed by an outline of what the current issues are relating to education and agency for youth in disarmament and non-proliferation, and then our recommendations to overcome these problems.
Our contribution was then added to the others into one final policy document, edited by the Youth 4 TPNW team. It feels amazing to have been a part of the team who have created this piece of work.
When we meet in Vienna, we will be discussing how to put it into action, discussing how that may look different in different countries and regions of the world.
Our Youth MSP Conference is being held in the Austria Centre on Tuesday 21st June. To get into the building we had to register for UN badges! The following day, we will be taking part in civil society action, marching through central Vienna.
Over the past 6 months I’ve learnt an enormous amount and met some incredible people. I’m so excited for this next part of the experience: the actual conference! I’d like to say a huge thank you to the SPARK Project for funding my travel so that I can attend in person!
Are you passionate about wanting to eradicate poverty and caring for the Earth, but also well-organised? You could be the person we are looking for. We need someone to provide support to the Commission on a self-employed basis for the things that we do. It will work out at about 5 hrs per week at £20 per hour.
What we need doing
Many of the things that we need doing can be done from anywhere at a time of your choosing. The hours will vary quite significantly over the course of the year. The activities are very diverse. Many of them are currently done on a voluntary basis. We are not expecting someone to do all of them! – just enough to give us more flexibility in the things that you are unable to do.
EMAIL MANAGEMENT –ensuring that the main jandp email address is regularly monitored and that emails are passed onto appropriate Commission or action group members and that other queries are dealt with by yourself
EVENTS -assisting in the organisation of events. Depending on your experience this could be helping with the logistics on the day, setting up Eventbrite pages, developing marketing materials and sending out Mailchimp emails, other event admin.
GOVERNANCE – Servicing the meetings of the Commission, Executive, and our action groups on priority issues – ensuring key points and actions are documented and followed up. Sounds straightforward but Commission discussions are sometimes a bit convoluted! – So you need good skills at summarising key points from a discussion as well as making clear any actions agreed.
DIGITAL SERVICES Constructing attractive emails using an email marketing package (Mailchimp), constructing Eventbrite pages for events, scheduling social media posts, uploading content to the J&P website.
How to apply
Applications will be accepted by email only.
Your submission must contain: –
Full contact details, name, address, phone and email address – and the date when you would be available to start providing services
A heading for each bullet point given above along with evidence of your skills and experience in relation to each point. Just put ‘none’ if you have no experience of doing that.
The Closing date for submissions is midnight Friday 01 July 2022
Where we wish to take a submission further then we will arrange a time to meet either in-person at the J&P Office at Hinsley Hall in Headingley or via Zoom.
On the 21st May, hundreds gathered at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk to protest against US nuclear weapons being stationed on British soil.
A group from the West Yorkshire area got in a coach in Bradford and Sheffield and arrived among the earliest at RAF Lakenheath. Among them were Mollie and David Somerville. Other groups had travelled from places as far away as the North-East of England, East Anglia, particularly Norwich, and London.
Mollie and David have been members of CND and Pax Christi for many years. In the 1980s Mollie took a small part in the Greenham Common activity. “We think that Nuclear Weapons not only threaten humanity’s future but the money and time and expertise wasted on them would be so much better spent elsewhere. We have found that not paying attention to pandemics and climate change has already cost us dearly.”
RAF Lakenheath has previously been a US nuclear weapons station as the base is under the control of the US Airforce. However, in the wake of relentless protesting, the 110 nuclear bombs were removed in 2008.
Now, over a decade later, there are reports that they are either to return or, more worryingly, possibly already have. The US Department of Defense has added the UK to a list of nuclear weapons storage sites that will be upgraded. For more information see Hans Kristensen’s article here.
As Mollie and David said, “No government announcement will be made – all in the interests of secrecy and our national defence!”
And so, they travelled to Lakenheath to take a stand. Just after midday they joined in the Christian CND service led by the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship outside the base where they “sang lustily in the open air!”
The majority of people who travelled arrived in time for the speeches which started after 1pm. The group from Yorkshire met with Justice and Peace people from Birmingham and the story featured in the local BBC news among other outlets. “It was a beautiful day and everyone was in festive as well as serious mood of all ages and origins both political and racial.”
The protest was particularly relevant as it was held just over a month ahead of the TPNW 1MSP in Vienna. When asked about what outcomes they hoped to see from the Conference, Mollie and David said, “We have no great hopes in the TPNW because it’s a bit like asking Americans to give up private guns. Everyone else can see the sense of it but not them! British people are like that with nuclear weapons!”
Hello, I am Katherine and I am the new SPARK project manager. I’m originally from St Albans in Hertfordshire and came to Leeds to do an MA in Theology and Development at the University before getting a job with Christian Aid and working towards a PhD.
I’ve worked for Christian Aid for 13 years in the Leeds Office as a Regional and Project Coordinator. I was made redundant in 2020 and since then have been self-employed and initially took on a project for Green Christian. I wrote a small group discussion resource for churches called ‘Plenty!’ as part of the Joy in Enough programme. Joy in Enough – Awakening to a new economics. I am still involved on the Enabling Group for the project.
I also work with Leeds Church Institute on Schools of Sanctuary Schools of Sanctuary | Building a culture of hospitality for people seeking sanctuary (cityofsanctuary.org) This is a nationwide initiative, part of the Sanctuary movement ensuring that refugees and asylum seekers are made welcome in school and that the whole school community learns about sanctuary issues. Given that the Justice and Peace commission is concerned about climate and refugees, I hope there will be some overlap between these organisations and I am sure I will be able to draw on the work I’ve done for both so far. Prior to working for Christian Aid, I taught English as a Foreign Language in London and one of my first jobs was working for the Christian youth organisation, Urban Saints where I eventually organised their overseas programme for young people called CRUSOE. This followed travelling to Kenya with Urban Saints as a young person and living in Nairobi for a year in a slum and working with children who used to live on the streets.
I now live in leafy Meanwood which is a world away from the slums of Nairobi but I’m still in touch with the people I met there and am well aware of the inequalities in the world and in UK and Leeds and it is a privilege to work with today’s young Catholics as they seek to speak and act with SPARK.
I am an active person and enjoy starting my days outdoors in the morning light. I decided to start my own fitness business called Meanwood Valley Fitness which is on Facebook. I moved outside in the pandemic and as someone who enjoys outdoor exercise anyhow, it has proved to be perfect! I also enjoy cycling and leading rides in the Dales with Valley Striders Cycle Club for whom I also run a stretching class on Monday nights. I attend All Hallows Anglican church in Hyde Park where I am involved with leading worship.
I’ve started on the SPARK project by making contact with various key people who have been involved in the past or are central to the project now. Additionally, I’ve been reading various documents and looking over websites from the Catholic community. This is one area I will need people’s help with as I build up my knowledge of Catholicism. I look forward to working with young people again as it’s been a while since I worked with Urban Saints and my own faith has broadened and changed since then.
In time I’ll be recruiting ‘animators’ for SPARK – young people in the 18-30 age group who are keen to receive leadership training and show an interest in social justice issues. My first two challenges are likely to be recruiting animators and recruiting those who can share social justice issues through the creative arts. We’ve got off to a good start with setting October 8 as the date for an initial gathering. This will take place at Wheeler Hall. Who can you tell about this?
Skills-building for Social Justice Activism
08 October 2022 @ Wheeler Hall
10:00 – 4pm
Aged 18-30 and want to gain better skills to campaign about the issues you care about?? (Skills that will also look good on your CV!) More information coming soon.
On 15th May 2022 Pope Francis celebrated the canonisation of St Charles de Foucauld. St Charles is honoured for his work on inter-religious dialogue but also for his special charism of identifying with and living among ordinary people in order to share their lives and offer support and compassion. Charles joined the Trappists, living in monasteries in France and in Syria, before seeking an even more austere life as a hermit. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1901, he lived among the poor and finally settled in Tamanrasset, Algeria. St Charles lived a life of prayer, meditation and adoration, in the incessant desire to be, for each person, a “universal brother”, a living image of the love of Jesus. His witness and his writings inspired people to follow his way of life and after his death, the Little Brothers of Jesus and the Little Sisters of Jesus congregations were formed.
Though we can’t gather in Rome to join in the canonisation celebrations, we do want to use the occasion to honour the commitment the Little Brothers gave to Leeds and especially to remember and celebrate Brother Guy, who sadly died on 5th February 2013 and who is buried Wortley.
The Little Brothers in Leeds – Brother Guy Jarosson R.I.P.
In 1956 the Little Brothers set up a fraternity in a small house in Leeds and Brother Guy arrived in 1961. He was followed in 1972 by Brother Xavier Chevillard and the two became special friends to the Justice and Peace Commission and to all with whom they worked and lived alongside in Leeds for more than 50 years.
Guy was born in Lyons in 1926 and moved with his family to Paris in 1929. After the war he attended the School of Commerce and then did national service some of which was in Vietnam in the late 40s. In August 1952 Guy entered the novitiate of the Little Brothers of Jesus and spent some time in the desert El Abiodh. Guy had trained as a turner and worked as an engineer. He found work in Leeds as a chemical process worker and shop steward. As a shop steward he represented the interests of his working-class colleagues. It was a wise choice because Guy cared deeply for those who suffered injustice or were disadvantaged. As a person of honesty and integrity, with a finely tuned sense of justice as well as generosity of spirit and heart, he walked alongside his fellow workers. One work friend called him ”a double brother” which captures the essence of Guy perfectly.
Throughout his time in Leeds Guy was involved with local community projects as well as global NGOs, offering hospitality in the Fraternity house to Chilean refugees and later to Night Stop (for street homeless young men), as well as volunteering at the Development Education Centre and CAFOD. He led a working party on work for the Commission, producing a seminal booklet based on Catholic Social Teaching that informed and guided the Commission’s programmes. Guy had a powerful intellect, tempered with wisdom, a ready wit and sense of fun. Always his compassion shone through.
Lines from a letter written to Guy by his father, who had struggled to understand his son’s vocation, summed up beautifully Guy’s inspiration and legacy,
Writing to his son after he after a visit to the Fraternity, Guy’s father wrote,
“just by your presence, without saying a word, simply by identifying with the way of life of all these workers, by the way in which you welcome them, you can create this link between them and Christ… I have finally understood in a tangible, glaring way, the importance of your vocation.” So many of us here in Leeds were blessed by that gift.
Thank you Guy and thank-you Xavier!
Zoom Conversation with Br Xavier Chevillard – 24 May at 7:30pm
If you think there isn’t much about Xavier in the article above that is because there is the opportunity to join him in a Zoom conversation with Commission members John Battle and Marg Siberry.
The week after the canonisation of Charles de Foucauld seemed like an ideal time to explore both the spirituality of this new saint and remember the mission of the Little Brothers in the Leeds Diocese.
Sign up via Eventbrite. Just use the button to register and you will receive an email with the Zoom link:
About 50 people came along to hear a range of speakers talk about the actions that they are taking. We heard speakers from Palestine Action in Bradford who, through some direct actions, have been instrumental in closing an arms factory in Oldham. From Leeds we heard about the ‘Women in Black’ group – which has featured previously in the newsletter. We also heard from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in Leeds and from Jenny Lynn, an Executive member of Calderdale council and Chair of Halifax Friends of Palestine. 
A one page slide, freely downloadable with suggestions for action produced by the Commission and the Pax Christi group in the Leeds Diocese. Suitable for use as a handout.
A more detailed background about the current situation in Israel Palestine for those who want more background.
