By Matty Maslen – Bradford & Glasgow UniversityAt the beginning of the month, I was lucky enough to attend COP26 as part of CAFOD’s Young Adult Mobilisation. From Friday 5th to Sunday 7th of November, we were among hundreds of thousands of people who had travelled from all across the globe to Glasgow for the […]
Climate Change
10 Nov – COP26 events around the Diocese
Together for the Planet @ St Benedict’s Garforth By Trish Sandbach, Commission MemberA couple of months ago the Faith and Justice Action Group from St. Benedict’s in Garforth were discussing how to start bringing people together after the separation and isolation of lockdown and restrictions while continuing to observe Covid safety – as the pandemic […]
05 Oct – Conflict & Climate Change Liturgy
The feast of St. Francis on October 4th marked the end of the Season of Creation. The J&P Commission celebrated this feast with a liturgy exploring and praying about the links between Conflict and Climate Change. Using the YCW See, Judge Act approach, short videos were used to find out about the experiences of people […]
16 Sep – Climate Emergency Walk to Bradford: an Invitation
photo courtesy of CAFODIn December 2015, we went with a small number of people to Paris to encourage the nations meeting there to take climate change seriously. Even the Pope had written about its importance for humanity!Now, 6 years later has any progress been made? In our churches or anywhere outside?Once […]
04 Sep – Reflections from the Action for Life on Earth Conference
By Sara of Margaret Clitherow parish in Leeds Sara was one of the young people sponsored to attend this conference by our SPARK Social Justice Project. My intentions in attending the Justice and Peace Climate Change Conference were to educate myself more on the global crisis and try to understand how churches were taking action. […]
30 Jul – Ideas for the Season of Creation
Now is the time to start thinking about what your parish could do to celebrate the Season of Creation: Sep 1st through to Oct 4th.Our Climate Crisis is a shared concern and one which needs to be reflected in our prayers, liturgies and parish community actions. We need to reflect on our role as co-creators: […]
26 Jul – Action for Life on Earth NJPN Conference
By Matty Maslen – parish of St Blaise, Bradford whose attendance was sponsored by SPARK Social JusticeLast weekend, 23rd to 25th August, the National Justice and Peace Network met for their annual conference at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick. The topic for 2021 was climate change, calling the network together to discuss ‘Action for […]
09 Jul – Lobbying about Climate Change
Meeting with the RT Hon Alec Shelbrooke MP on the Challenges of the Climate Crisis.By Trish Sandbach, Vice Chair J&P Leeds Previous lobbying in 2019 – You have to be in this for the long haul!At first a few of us felt daunted by the thought of meeting with our MP. Having […]
22 Jun – Season of Creation 2021
The Season of Creation in the Church’s year runs from 01 September (the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation) through to the feast of St Francis of Assisi on 04 October. This period is also celebrated in a similar style in several other denominations.This year the theme is ‘A home for all? […]
A Catholic Response to the Environmental Crisis
“We must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world.” Laudato Si paragraph 212 UK Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill This Bill was tabled by Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader, and is supported by MPs of all parties, and by organisations like Green Christian and Operation Noah. You can write […]
12 Apr – Commission launches Sponsorship scheme for NJPN Conference
As part of our SPARK Social Justice project, aimed at 18–30-year-olds in the Leeds Diocese, we are launching a sponsorship scheme for people in this age group to attend the National Justice & Peace Network (NJPN) Conference in July of this year.John Battle, Chair of the Commission commented, “I know that younger generations are just […]
10 Feb – Global Healing
By David Jackson of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Shipley“Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience…Truly, much can be done!”(Laudato Si’, 217, 180)In 2015, Pope Francis published his ground-breaking letter on the environment […]
08 Dec – Living Laudato Si’: Your Planet and Your Parish.
Sr Margaret Atkins, Boarbank Hall. Around fifty people were involved in a recent Zoom weekend from Boarbank Hall on the theme Living Laudato Si’: Your Planet and Your Parish. It aimed to inspire, inform, connect and encourage anyone wanting to engage in practical and prayerful projects in response to the encyclical, especially through parish groups […]
A Reflection on Creation
ONIONHere is an onion – just come back from the Onion Catechism class. I asked if it could remember the questions and answers – It has a fantastic memory: ‘Who made you? God made me. How did God make me? God made me with earth, air, fire and water. Fire? Why did God make you? […]
18 Oct – The Age of Meditation & Praise?
By John Battle (Commission Chair) & Helen Hayden The American social justice activist Fr Daniel Berrigan once surprisingly recommended an instruction of the Buddha: “Don’t just do something, stand there!”. The impact of the Covid lock downs and enforced stoppages has apparently resulted in people watching more TV and films, reading more, clearing out cupboards […]
A walk in the Woods
(This article first appeared in the Tablet Blog in July)I tried to write about the shape of a post Virus Church and patterns of Eucharistic worship and failed. Rather than add to many such attempts, I could reflect how, aged over 80, the possibility of never returning to previous patterns of practice, represents, not a […]