It was only last month that we were reporting on the 300 or so young people who have attended SPARK workshops in the last few months – using drama to explore issues of social justice such as UK poverty and the devastating impact that it can have on people’s lives. With the lockdown, of course, all workshops are off. It seems unlikely that the project will be able to engage directly with young people before September at the earliest.
There were 3 settings where some of the people involved in the workshops were ready to start a Social Justice group. This is a key goal of the project and there is a real danger of losing the momentum that has been building up. Some members of the Project Steering Group have been meeting via Zoom to try and re-orientate the project to work with the new circumstances and to understand what opportunities (as well as problems!) there might be to achieve the goals of the project in this different situation.
The Project Director, Aoibheann Kelly, is in the middle of organising an initial set of 4 video sessions aimed at our target audience (anyone aged 16-30 in the Leeds Diocese).
The first session will be with Marc Besford, a member of the Project Steering Group and National President of YCW (Young Christian Workers). He will be discussing examples of inspirational youth leadership.Other sessions include Tom Chigbo (Senior Organiser for Leeds Citizens) discussing how to start a social justice group and another will be an interview with John Battle, Chair of the Commission.
At first, we considered delivering a number of live Zoom sessions. However, the schools we have been working with were keen to have recorded sessions where they can share the link more widely.
Like many people at this time, we are feeling our way in this situation. The imperative, from the project perspective, was to do ‘something’. We will evaluate any comments we get back from these initial sessions and take it from there.
In these extraordinary times we are living through, it has been necessary for many people to radically change the way they work – including the Justice and Peace Commission. Many of us experienced the Easter services live streamed from St Anne’s Cathedral, through the internet, into our living rooms. It has been impressive how quickly people and institutions have adapted to the restrictions. This has meant a rapid assessment of etiquette in these new and strange situations but many of us are appreciating being able to see friends and family on video calls, enjoying quizzes and virtual birthday parties! Live streaming of Mass will never replace physically being with other people in church and being able to receive the Blessed Sacrament however I am very appreciative of being able to engage in the Mass in this virtual way. At J&P we quickly signed up to Zoom and have been conducting virtual meetings and it is good to see people even if we sometimes get interrupted by little ones! Joe Burns and I joined a Zoom conference hosted by Citizens UK with over 250 other people. It worked incredibly well, and the subject was virtual and online campaigning. The conference’s main input was from Nona Jones who as well as being a Pastor of their Church community in Florida advises Facebook on Faith Communities. She introduced us to the excellent resource hub www.facebook.com/community/faith. Nona likened a Facebook presence to a home. The Facebook page is the ‘front porch’ which is viewed passively by people passing by and then you can invite people in by setting up a Facebook group in which people can engage and participate in discussions. This is a safer area as it can be controlled by the host and is much more interactive and targeted. We already have a ‘front porch’ so perhaps it is time to be developing Facebook groups where people can safely share their thoughts about particular issues. There are issues in this brave new world, we have received warnings about ‘Zoombombing’ where people are able to join meetings to which they haven’t been invited. There have been reports of people having their accounts hacked through ‘Houseparty’ another online video chat website. The biggest and most important issue is of people not being able to access the internet either due to financial reasons, lack of experience or both. As I marvelled at the number of people watching the live feed from St Ann’s on Good Friday, I couldn’t help wonder how many people would have attended services around the diocese who could not watch on You tube. Although technology is enabling us to stay in touch, share information and stay safe in these times of crisis, there is a danger of the very people we are most concerned about, being left on the margins of our virtual communities. When we evaluate the outcomes of this crisis, we may decide that we want to carry on some of the practices we have developed to carry on during the lockdown. There are benefits, environmentally and community wise. Zoom could be a great way to involve a much wider cross-section of the diocesan community – people for whom attending a meeting in Leeds, for example, would simply be too difficult -especially in the evening. However, we must be careful not to leave out the very people we need to include and protect.
Many people hope that one day they can go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land; to see for themselves the places where Jesus walked and where key events in the bible are thought to have taken place. All of us want to be able to identify better with the Gospel stories that we have heard since we started going to church. Even though there may be modern towns in those places there is something special about being where events have actually taken place.
Tourist image of Jerusalem
What we sometimes forget is the context in which Jesus lived and the tragedy of the similarities of his situation with the situation that exists in the Holy Land today. We want to understand more about Jesus, so we crowd out the modern-day elements and, often, envisage a Holy Land full of holy people and idealised places. Adverts for Holy Land pilgrimages often reinforce this mental image. Jesus’ family fled to Egypt to avoid the danger to their lives – they were refugees in Egypt. When they returned to Palestine, they returned to a region that was under military occupation by the Romans. In order to crucify Jesus, the permission of the Roman authorities had to be obtained – and it is worth remembering that the official charge against Jesus was subversion – plotting to overthrow the state!
The ‘Separation’ or ‘Security’ barrier
Today, most Palestinian people live under occupation by the Israeli Government. They suffer fierce restrictions on where they can go, the documentation needed in order to be able to travel and the seizure of much of their land (despite international agreements to the contrary going back to the period following the 1967 war). The Israeli government has, for some time, been building a ‘security barrier’ to separate Israeli land from Palestinian land. This has also resulted in much hardship for most Palestinians. This is the Holy Land today. The situation raises some ethical dilemmas for Christians. How can we go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land without supporting the terrible injustices inflicted on the Palestinian people today? – It is a question many of us will shy away from – it goes in the “too difficult” box. The last thing I want to do is discourage anyone from going to the Holy Land. However, I believe that there are things that we can, and should, do to ensure that we limit our complicity in the injustices that are ongoing. This was one of the key areas that the new Peace & Nonviolence Issue Action Group of the Commission explored at its first meeting. This took place just before the lockdown wasimposed. This group of volunteers come from parishes and church communities across the Diocese – including Skipton, Mytholmroyd and the wider Leeds area. It also includes Tricia Griffin, a member of Sabeel Kairos in Yorkshire and part of the organising committee of the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival.We had all sorts of ideas about what we could do to promote the idea of pilgrimages that took better account of the current situation in the Holy Land. These ranged from a ‘preparation evening’ for those going on an organised pilgrimage to the Commission taking the lead in organising a pilgrimage itself (something it did in 2013 – which is where the picture above was taken). At this point we felt that building awareness amongst would-be pilgrims was the most useful thing that we could do. This could be done through producing written or online resources – but there are many of those already in existence. imposed. This group of volunteers come from parishes and church communities across the Diocese – including Skipton, Mytholmroyd and the wider Leeds area. It also includes Tricia The real question is how to engage people in exploring the issues involved. We felt that some sort of ‘Pilgrimage Preparation Evening’ would be a better way forward. This could be offered to any parish that was organising such a pilgrimage. Holy Land pilgrimages are not a cheap holiday and people want to get the most out of the experience. We thought we could capitalise on this interest by developing a format to specifically address people in a parish setting. The evening would include some tasters of the sorts of food that you can expect to find (food is always a good idea for an event of this sort!) as well as some basic information about how Palestinians have to live day to day and the opportunity for people to ask questions from people who have had first-hand experience of the plight of Palestinians today.
The group had a number of ideas for other sorts of events to build awareness of the plight of Palestinians. These included having a Day of Reflection as well as participating in the 2020 Leeds Palestinian Film festival (assuming it all goes ahead!). These are all things that you will hear more about as we work out the detail of what we can offer – even if it has to be a virtual offering!
At their last meeting, on 19 February, the Yorkshire Friends of Sabeel-Kairos group had a speaker, Chi-Chi Shi, Campaigns Officer at War on Want. Her topic was the campaign for morally responsible investment and how local groups could become involved, especially as it related to the Israel Palestine situation (as that is the focus of Sabeel-Kairos).
War on Want focuses on the root causes of global poverty, the climate crisis, inequality and injustice. Poverty is political: the choices thatGovernments and organisations make in democratic countries that give rise to (or do nothing about) poverty mean that we were all complicit if we do nothing about it. Such issues of poverty and injustice are often a direct consequence of conflict and war, in which UK companies are often involved. While the poorest in our society have been suffering from austerity policies, the Government has been supporting companies to make money from arms deals with countries that do not respect human rights. Chi Chi then explained why War on Want supported the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Palestine. The Palestinians were not people to be pitied. They had been working against the occupation since it happened in the 1940’s. The key difference in the Palestinian situation was the global solidarity movement for peace and justice. The call for BDS came in 2005, when all of Palestinian society came together and produced a set of conditions which needed to be met. It was the legacy of decades of resistance for Palestinian rights. With Trump’s ‘land grab’; a steep increase in house demolitions and a forcible transfer of prisoners there has been a significant deterioration in the situation in Palestine. All of these are war crimes in which UK companies are complicit. “Palestinians”, Chi Chi said, “are facing an existential threat, with the huge diaspora population of refugees facing an attempt by Trump and Netanyahu to de-classify second and subsequent generation refugees, taking away their right of return to the land.” The principles of BDS were not exclusive to Palestinians; comparisons with the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa and the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, showed that these succeeded and were made possible by support around the world.Further examples quoted included War on Want’s campaign in the 1970’s against Nestlé products when the company was pushing its Baby Formula, and the boycott of Barclay’s Bank due to its involvement in South Africa. More recently, pressure on G4S to sell its operation in Israel had been successful. Closer to home, Leeds University has divested from three companies involved in Israel and Saudi Arabia, following student pressure, while demonstrations at UK factories of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems had in some cases caused the shut-down of operations for the day. It was natural for individuals to feel powerless, wondering ‘what can I do?’, but Church members had a responsibility to ensure that their investments were not facilitating human rights abuses. Obviously, this needs to be a consideration for individuals who have investments in stocks and shares. However, it is also a responsibility for Dioceses across the country to ensure that their ethical investment policies reflect these concerns.
Last time I wrote, we were just about to begin our SPARK social justice journey – since then, we have delivered workshops to almost 300 young people within the Diocese and are coming to the end of our first phase. We have explored a number of pertinent issues with young people through the medium of drama, storytelling and theatre. We have realised that this is such a powerful tool to enable young people to gain a deeper and more meaningful understanding of quite complex issues and also a profound and impactful appreciation of the challenges and unexpected struggles many people face in the UK on a daily basis. Creativity and, in particular, drama has a sense of urgency about it – it makes the unreal feel real and it enables profound connection to take place when there was detachment before and an aspect of common ground.
All of the activities and games of the workshops we have done have been rooted in truth, inspired by true testimonials and stories of people who have experienced poverty of any kind in their lives and through this, explore a number of feelings and emotions. In relation to this project, drama and games enabled us to discuss status and identify with feelings of powerlessness, disempowerment and lack of control. However, on the flip side, we also looked at examples of empowerment, resilience and strength – even in the deepest midst of despair or chaos – we discussed how people who have found themselves in great difficulty but found the tenacity and strength to stand up and keep moving. Forum theatre was particularly effective at allowing the young people to watch scenarios playout where they see an injustice occur. The participants are encouraged and empowered to take positive action there and then to try to resolve or find a positive solution to a difficult situation.
Students at St Mary’s Menston in a SPARK workshop
We considered what in our lives makes us feel secure, safe and truly valued as a human being and then what happens when those things that are truly valuable are taken away from us – what are we left with? How can we be someone’s safety net when they need us most? One Year 12 student said: Many organisations simply ask for aid and charity for those less fortunate. But the session on poverty gave us a real comprehension of those who live in need and really taught us to consider the saddening situations of others. They also provided much needed education into the specifics of poverty and the ways to access help if you ever fall into such an unfortunate situation. Lou-Anna Barber (year 12 student) SPARK has also provided an incredible opportunity to collaborate with some excellent organisations and people including with Pax Christi, The Columbans, Young Christian Workers, Leeds Citizens and experienced local freelance actors. Mia McHugh, LTU Coordinating Lay Chaplain, commented about the workshops held at LTU. “The workshops were unique in that the students had to be active and engage in drama inspired activities, which was a real change of pace after a day of lectures. Aoibheann led the students and got them to reflect on difficult issues, issues that some of them had actually experienced and were happy to share in a safe, loving environment. The Spark evenings made up part of our Chaplaincy social calendar and allowed for something different and unlike what we usually do. All of the students who attended were from different backgrounds and religions, but it was powerful to see them all gaining an understanding of what it really means when Catholics talk about ‘Faith in Action’. The students now have plans to set up their own social justice group and are thinking of ways that they can make a positive change to issues faced.”
Now we have sparked awareness, we will turn our focus on phase two where we will help to support young people in each setting to begin to develop their own unique social justice action groups. We are very much looking forward to supporting the young social justice advocates of the here and now!
Two years ago, it took just a couple of parishioners to introduce LiveSimply at a parish meeting and then speak about it at Mass to get the parish started. From the talks at Mass a group of 12 people volunteered interest and started by reflecting on all the things the parish were already doing. And with great support from Fr Frank Smith developed a future plan under the headings of Living Simply, Living Sustainably, and Living in Solidarity with the poor.
Repairs and renovations to the church hall were already underway and the unexpected receipt of a bequest meant we could plan to add in many environmentally friendly measures such as superb insulation, better heating controls, automated low-energy lighting, and solar panels. A new porch was built to conserve heat and the church was completely insulated too, also with modern lighting and controls.
The other large project was to start Community Sponsorship to resettle a Syrian refugee family in Settle. The parish is too small for such a substantial undertaking alone, but it has been a wonderful opportunity to involve the rest of the town and form a diverse group of volunteers. The group asked Catholic Care Leeds to be our lead sponsor and are delighted we have now been delivering practical day to day support to a family for the last 6 months. The benefits of working together with so many new friends of different faiths and none has been at least as great as the undoubted benefits for the family themselves.
The parish LiveSimply plan was launched eighteen months ago at a special week-end near the Feast of St Francis during the Season of Creation with special prayers, a leaflet encouraging personal pledges to change, refreshments to encourage chatting and displays to browse about past and future ideas. Since then parishioners have come forward creating ecumenical liturgies for Lent and Advent focussing on Laudato Si, Refugees, and peace. Others have built nest and bug boxes given away after Masses. Yet others have arranged for dementia friendly signage, supported the Diocesan Gianna project, Tools for Africa, or provided talks on Laudato Si. And a rota has formed preparing a LiveSimply tip or thought every week for the parish bulletin. Fr Frank has instituted an annual day of Blessing of Animals.
Michael Emly presents the ‘Live Simply’ award plaque to some of the organisersOne of the assessors for their award was Michael Emly from our Lady of Kirkstall parish (who received their own Live Simply award in 2019). He commented “We were particularly impressed by the way such a small parish has initiated and embraced the Community Sponsorship project, with a massive impact on the whole local community. The refurbishment of hall and church has also been a major achievement with ongoing benefits for the environment. Congratulations! But we also want to highlight the small changes to daily living that have been promoted each week through the bulletin. This is so much in line with the approach of Pope Francis – the little things matter (Gaudete et Exsultate #169)! Or as Fr. Frank put it, “keep plugging away until it’s natural”. Add up all the small changes made by each member of the congregation and you really make a difference.
So, what of future plans now the parish has gained the award? Paul Kelly was one of the parishioners who raised the possibility of LiveSimply two years ago. He said “Everyone is delighted we have been given the award but we are all so aware this is really a beginning, not the end. The Gospel call to eco-conversion, the care of all life and the environment that sustains it, is central to my faith but it is a massive change, almost too overwhelming. For me it is essential to have the support of other people with the same challenges and that is what has been special about doing LiveSimply. We all agreed getting the award is not what’s important but it has been a real help to focus us.”
The parish now have plans to plant a wildflower area around the church to attract wildlife and to develop a resource centre about Christian care of the environment. Paul added: “Most of the things newly started will continue with services and bulletin items regularly refreshing ideas for Living Simply. We are not going to change the world, but we can make a difference to our bit of it in our own lives. Pope Francis did say it’s not optional. Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone was doing something for their own bit of the world?”
This group has been meeting a couple of times a year for the last two years. It is a way of sharing information on the work being done about the Climate Crisis in the northern dioceses (by which I mean Liverpool, Lancaster, Salford, Leeds, Hallam, Middlesbrough and Hexham and Newcastle). Mark Wiggin, Caritas Director for the Salford Diocese has kindly hosted these meetings at their wonderful conference centre adjacent to Salford Cathedral.
The last meeting (at the end of January) was an opportunity to find out more about what is happening at the level of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Usually the meeting comprises a bit of a ‘go round’ on what is happening with one or two keynote speakers. For this meeting Edward de Quay of the Environmental Advisory Group of the Bishop’s Conference was given most of the time available.
Attendees at the meeting with Edward de Quay centre right – and,yes, he really is young!
Some of the key points that he made about the national scene were as follows: • Bishop John Arnold (Diocese of Salford) has the responsibility for the Environment in the Bishops Conference; he has pledged not to travel by air for leisure purposes. He is also developing the Laudato Si Centre at his home at Wardley Hall as a place where people can be inspired to take up the call to action set out in Laudato Si. • There is a push to have an Environment Officer in each diocese. Edward is very interested in the Diocesan Environment Policies that are being developed across England and Wales. The environment officer would be the person with responsibility in a diocese for making sure that the policy is implemented. • At this time, we don’t know what the carbon footprint is of the Catholic Church in England & Wales. Westminster Diocese has produced a way for parishes to calculate their carbon footprint – but there has been no systematic measurement of this across the country. • Green Energy in parishes, through the diocese inter-fuel arrangements, is in place for most dioceses now – but it is not common in Catholic schools yet. The situation here is more complicated with the creation of many ‘Academy Trusts’ which are independent entities. • The Bishops have decided that there will be a Climate Sunday – in September this year, during the Season of Creation. • COP 26 is in Glasgow later in the year. Some delegates from France and Germany intend to walk across most of England and into Scotland and the diocese through which they pass will be invited to provide hospitality for them
Edward, himself, has an interesting background. Prior to his current role, along with his brother, he lived in the diocese of Arundel & Brighton. After the publication of Laudato Si they set up a group called the ‘Ecological Conversion Group’. Out of this has grown a whole programme of work called ‘The Journey to 2030’. This is all about recognising the huge importance of the Climate Crisis for us as Christians. They have developed a set of resources to help parishes find out more, create a sense of urgency within the Church and promote the most effective actions in our race against time (hence the use of 2030 in the title – the year by which we must significantly curb our greenhouse gas emissions Edward felt compelled to point out that the cockerel on the front is nothing to do with the Chinese Year of the Cockerel! It is a reference to the story of St Peter and the cockerel – to emphasise our denial of Jesus in the signs of our times.
FIND OUT MORE AND DO MORE
Many individuals and groups across the diocese are already taking action on Climate Change. If there is one near you then why not join them? The Commission is in the process of setting up a Climate Change Action Group – to help guide the Commission in what it can do. We would welcome more members. Email the office for more details. The ‘Journey to 2030’ guide can be downloaded from the website set up specifically about this goal www.journeyto2030.org/ The Ecological Conversion Group also has a website www.theecg.org/ Westminster Diocese has developed a tool for helping parishes assess their carbon footprint. This is now available for download from the Climate change page on our website. Another great source of information and ways of measuring your parish’s carbon footprint is by using the tools provided by the Carbon Trust. Many are aimed at Small & medium Enterprises and, with a bit of imagination, a parish can fit into that categorisation of organisation. www.carbontrust.com
What is happening? I’m retiring from providing paid services to the J&P Commission. I had my 65th birthday recently and have been providing the Commission with my services since mid-2014. What have you been doing for the Commission? I put together the newsletters, I developed and update the website and Facebook page of the Commission and I also do most of the admin & marketing around the events that the Commission organises. It is ‘goodbye-ish’ rather than goodbye in that I still intend to remain involved in the work of the Commission – but on a voluntary basis. How did you become involved in the first place? Well, in March 2014 I was 5 months into a permanent job that was so awful that I just resigned. I had decided to set myself up as a self-employed consultant to develop websites and provide management consultancy for smaller voluntary sector organisations – my background was in business and IT project and programme management. When I was telling John Battle (Commission Chair) about this he mentioned that the Commission needed some work doing and that it might be of interest. And it was. What have you enjoyed most about the work you have done? I could say all sorts of things but I think the main enjoyment has come (as it has with me for most of the roles that I have had) from working with others to achieve some goal and feeling that I have made a genuine contribution towards achieving it – that I brought something to the effort that others did not. What has been your worst moment? I think it was the first week of doing things for the Commission. The J&P worker, Shelagh Fawcett, had been made redundant in February. My initial brief was to bring the website up to date – as by this time it was late June 2014. I managed to find some handwritten notes that told me how to login into the website content management system. However, when I typed in the web address, I received an error message. It turned out the Commission had forgotten to pay the bill to the company that hosted the website and, just a couple of days before, had taken the website down. It was not a promising start!
What do you think are the main challenges for the Commission, going forward? Apart from the current political situation? – let’s leave that to one side.
Interpreting the ‘Signs of the Times’ and discerning the ‘Just’ Gospel response will always be a challenge. Layered on that is the ‘demographic cliff’ in terms of bringing younger generations through to see the faith context for taking action on Social Justice (my feeling is that younger generations are just as passionate about Social Justice issues as older generations but not many see the relevance of the Gospels in underpinning this action). The Leeds Commission is starting to tackle that through the SPARK Social Justice project that is now running -and my hope is that this will lead to a much wider generational involvement in the work of the Commission.
I also think that the Commission must continue to be open to new ways of working and new ways of involving people – just as it was when it decided to use my services!
Second, the Hello! – from Helen Hayden
Who Are you? I’m Helen Hayden and I am delighted to have this opportunity to work for the Justice and Peace Commission in the Leeds Diocese. I am one of the Councillors for Templenewsam in East Leeds. My parish is St John Henry Newman and it is a privilege to not only live in my ward but also that my ward covers a good half of my parish. I am a RE teacher by profession and taught for many years in both Catholic and non-denominational secondary schools. I am active in the parish, in Children’s liturgy and I am a Catechist helping children and their families to prepare for the sacraments. Most importantly, I am Mum to Molly (9) and Richie (8)
What interested you about the work that the Commission needs doing? I was drawn to apply to work with the Commission as it presented an opportunity combine my communication skills and faith in a very practical and tangible way. I am passionate about Catholic Social teaching. When I was teaching, I tried to inspire young people to put their faith into action. I have missed this aspect of my previous life, so I was very interested in promoting Catholic Social Teaching and Gospel values supporting the work of the Commission. The projects that the Commission is working on- Poverty, Climate Change – align with my work on the Council through the Climate Emergency Declaration and my daily work mitigating the effects of poverty. In my role as Chair of the Adults, Health and Active Lifestyles Scrutiny Board one of our main aims is to improve the health of the poorest the fastest. Working with the Commission will give me the opportunity to put my faith into action on these important issues.
What are most worried about? Replacing Joe! I’m so pleased that Joe is not leaving the Commission, the way he has developed this role is very impressive and I can only hope that I can carry on his excellent work. I hope also to use my experience as a teacher to bring younger people to the work of the Commission. I know from experience how passionate young people are about social justice and we have all seen the school strikes for Climate Change. The appetite is there, as Joe says, it is now the time to link it to the Catholic faith and Gospel message. What are you most excited about? There are many things that I am enthused about: meeting all those involved in the Commission, working on such important issues that are affecting all of us now but the poorest the most; raising awareness of the Commission’s work especially amongst those groups who may not have been aware previously. I’m also excited about using my communication skills in a faith-based role.
Please note that you can still contact the Commission using the jandp@dioceseofleeds.org.uk address – that is not changing.
It was only last month that we were reporting on the 300 or so young people who have attended SPARK workshops in the last few months – using drama to explore issues of social justice such as UK poverty and the devastating impact that it can have on people’s lives.
