By Liz Firth, Commission member 15th May is International Conscientious Objectors Day. This year the J&P Commission, Pax Christi and the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival Committee jointly hosted an event to mark the day. Over 60 people joined us at Wheeler Hall in Leeds to listen to speakers, including Rev Clive Barratt, and to watch […]
Peace
27 Apr – International Conscientious Objectors’ Day
The Commission is working in partnership with Pax Christi in the Leeds Diocese and the Leeds Palestinian Film festival to draw attention to International Conscientious Objection Day on 15 May.Rev Clive Barratt, who has written a book about first world war conscientious objectors in Yorkshire, will provide a short context for the film which follows. […]
26 Apr – Yorkshire Women in Black groups
Women in Black (WiB) is a world-wide network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence. As women experiencing these things in different ways in different regions of the world, we support each other’s movements. An important focus is challenging the militarist policies of […]
15 Jan – A visit to the Faslane Peace Camp
By David Kelly, Vice Chair, Scottish Campaign for Nuclear DisarmamentLast year was the fortieth anniversary of the Faslane Peace camp, situated across the road from the home of Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet. The four submarines that are equipped with Trident nuclear missiles, have been joined by the seven nuclear powered submarines of the Astute class, […]
21 Sep – Bike for Peace 28 Aug-01 Sep
By Tim Devereux, Chair of the Movement for the Abolition of WarI joined blind peace campaigner Tore Naerland, along with Åse Simonsen, Tordis Landvik for a five-day, 222 mile Bike for Peace ride which finished in Bradford on 1st September. Tore Naerland, President of Bike for Peace, is almost totally blind but is a keen […]
02 Sep – Events across the Diocese commemorating Hiroshima & Nagasaki Bombings
By Tim DevereuxChair, Movement for the Abolition of Warwww.abolishwar.netThis year, as many before, there were events in Bradford and Keighley to commemorate the dropping of atomic bomb on Hiroshima, 6th August, 1945, and in Leeds three days later remembering the Nagasaki bombing, 9th August, 1945. From outrage at the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish […]
05 Jul – Vienna TPNW Treaty Conference
By Matthew MaslenPreviously, I have written about when I was accepted onto the Youth for TPNW 1MSP (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – Meeting of States Parties) delegation, my thoughts just before our delegation took off for Vienna, and now I’m going to tell you my thoughts now that I’ve returned from it(hopefully […]
13 Jun – Final Thoughts before TPNW Youth 1MSP
By Matty Maslen 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 […]
01 Jun – Yorkshire CND at RAF Lakenheath
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 […]
08 Apr – Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
By Matty Maslen – Bradford/Glasgow UniversityOn the 22nd January last year, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force. The treaty is a comprehensive prohibition on the development, production, stockpiling and use – or threat of use – of nuclear weapons. In other words, it is a legally binding agreement that […]
25 Mar – Commemorating the Assassination of St Oscar Romero
The chapel where Romero was assassinatedArchbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated by paramilitaries on 24 March 1980 whilst in the middle of saying mass in the chapel at a hospital for cancer patients.On 25th March, the Commission held a presentation of a film about his assassination and the subsequent journey to him […]
Ukraine – What should we do?
Ukraine is an independent country of 44.7 million people with an elected government and President taking its place in the United Nations. Yet, as a result of Russian military invasion and bombing attacks, nearly 2 million (mainly women and children) have had to leave their homes and flee the country as refugees seeking help from […]
28 Jan – War & Climate Change
This was the title of our January webinar led by Tim Devereux, Chair of the Movement for the Abolition of War. Tim spoke for about half an hour and the rest of the time was used in questions. After a brief scene setting about Climate Change itself, Tim went on to explore the greenhouse gas […]
02 Jan – Still Rolling with the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative
By Pat Gaffney, Vice President of Pax Christi in England and WalesThis article first appeared in Peace News in November 2020I am a cup-half-full sort of person, not I hope naïve, but encouraged by the hope-filled actions around me. In the last year this includes the strengthening of the Black Lives Matter movement, the persistence […]
John Hume RIP
By John Battle, Commission Chair(adapted from John’s universe article)Sorting family papers this summer, my wife’s father’s family in Derry turned up a handwritten letter to her Uncle Eddie from John Hume written in 2001. It congratulated him on his 80th birthday and thanked him for his key role in establishing the Credit Union with him […]