By David Jackson, ShipleySeveral J&P members in the diocese have just finished an on-line programme presented by the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM – based in Rome) to ‘graduate’ as LAUDATO SI ADVOCATES in October. As part of the course, Dr Lorna Gold (Trócaire and GCCM) presented a sobering assessment of the growing existential threat […]
Climate Change
21 Jul – J&P Diocesan Annual Gathering
By John Battle, Commission Chair On the 24th June 2020 we held the annual meeting of our Leeds Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission as an open “gathering” on ” Zoom” to announce the refocussing of our project work; responding as a Diocese to the climate crisis, developing our parish “Poverty in the UK” workshop pack […]
16 May – J&P Issue Action Group – Climate Crisis
On 28th March 2020 the Justice and Peace Leeds Climate Crisis Action Group met for the first time. The result was an ambitious plan to take the challenge of fighting Climate Change to parishes throughout the Diocese of Leeds. Keith Pitcher talked to us about the experience of Parish of St John Fisher & St […]
09 May – Can we still campaign in a time of lockdown?
By Carol Burns Of course, the answer is ‘yes’ and I am sure many of you are linked to Change.org and Avaaz as well as other campaigning organisations such as Church Action on Poverty or Sabeel Kairos, to name a few that come to mind. I wanted to share a small example of campaigning in […]
02 Mar – St Mary & St Michael, Settle, obtain Live Simply Award
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 […]
17 Feb – Northern Dioceses’ Environment Group
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 […]
05 Nov – Creation & Eucharist
Our latest day of reflection, held on 19th October at the Good Shepherd parish centre in Mytholmroyd, was an extended celebration of the mass exploring the connections between the mass and care of God’s creation.The day was structured around the different parts of the mass. After some initial refreshments, we started our day with an […]
24 Oct – Care of our Common Home – in Shipley and Baildon
In June our parish CAFOD contact person suggested at a meeting of the Pastoral Council that we take up the campaign ‘Care for our Common Home’. A Group was set up to plan. It was asked to ensure that the voices of young people be heard. One meeting and a flurry of emails later, together […]
08 Oct – Live Simply Updates across the Diocese
Good Shepherd, MytholmroydJanet Almond writesThis summer, in keeping with the Good Shepherd’s goal to Live Simply by recycling and reusing, two parishioners (John and Bernadette Gibson) have introduced and co-ordinated the Mary’s Meals Backpack project – – Mary’s Meals ( www.marysmeals.org.uk) is all about offering practical help in tackling poverty, hunger and education in many […]
03 Sep – Diocesan Environment Policy in Preparation
For about 12 months now the Commission has had a small project steering group working on the development of an Environment Policy that could be adopted by the Diocese. Since the publication of Laudato Si’ in 2015 there have been 4 dioceses that have adopted such policies and some other dioceses also have them in […]
01 Sep – Getting a CAFOD Live Simply Award is the start of something – not the end
By Trish Sandbach, St Benedict\’s parish Garforth. We have been a Live Simply parish for over two years and the award is something that continues to inspire action in our parish. Most of the activities we undertook in order to achieve the award have continued because they were part of the sustainable structure we developed, […]
26 Jul – Launch of Leeds Big Climate Conversation
By Michael Emly, Our Lady of Kirkstall parish, LeedsOn 17th July, I attended a lengthy session on climate change called the Leeds Big Climate Conversation. Leeds City Council has declared a climate emergency and this session was the launch of a 3 month consultation across the city about what action people felt should be taken […]
26 Jun – Climate Change Lobby of Parliament
By Madeline Woods On 26 June individuals and groups from all over the country met in London to lobby parliament about Climate Change and future climate action. This included a number of people from the Leeds Diocese, gathering to meet their MPs. When asked why they had chosen to attend, a variety of reasons were […]
09 Jun – Live Simply at St Joseph’s Primary School in Wetherby
Last month we featured a brief update about St Joseph’s Primary School in Wetherby gaining the Live Simply Award from CAFOD. Below is a more detailed story from the Head Teacher, Louise Milivojevic. Not only is St Joseph’s the first school in the Diocese to gain the Live Simply Award it is one of only […]
15 May – Two Live Simply Awards in 1 month
A second parish in the Diocese has obtained the CAFOD Live Simply award. On top of this one of our schools has also achieved the award. Here are the details: Our Lady of Kirkstall parish, Leeds The Leeds parish of Our Lady of Kirkstall, encompassing the church communities at St Mary’s Horsforth, Holy Name in […]
08 Mar – St Mary’s Menston get animated about Climate Change!
Over 50 students from St Mary’s Menston High School, Menston, took part in an event organised by the Leeds Diocesan Justice & Peace Commission on Thursday 7th March. It was an ‘Inter-generational conversation about Climate Change’. Facilitated by the Commission Chair, John Battle, the panel consisted of two students from the school (Hannah Jenkins from […]