By Carol Burns, Leeds Diocese Pax Christi groupWe made a decision for our Autumn Day of Shared Reflection (held on 28 October 2023) that we would focus on personal reflection. The decision to focus on nonviolence was all the more significant because of the unfolding conflict in Israel Palestine.As Thomas Merton, the American Trappist monk […]
Prayer
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 […]
27 Oct – Exploring Prophecy: Our Day of Shared Reflection in Harrogate
By Joe Burns, Commission MemberIt seems like there are not so many people who are labelled as ‘prophets’ in our times. That was one of the reasons why we decided to organise a Day of Reflection to explore what the prophets in Scripture were all about and where we see prophets in our own time. […]
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 […]
Stations of the Cross
The wayside pulpit in our neighbourhood says during Covid19 “God still does home visits”! In other words, a shut Church and limited services does not mean the end of our prayer life. The traditional Lenten practice, the Stations of the Cross, could always be a private meditation on Jesus’s final journey to his Crucifixion as […]
25 Feb – Diocesan Peace Sunday Liturgy
By Sr Sheila Griffiths, The Holy Family Sisters in BradfordMembers of Pax Christi and J&P in the Diocese organised a prayer Service for Peace Sunday, January 17th, 2021. This was live streamed on Zoom that very same day. Since COVID restrictions on Church Services are at present in force, I tuned in to this service. […]
19 Nov – Leeds J&P Commission online
Leeds J&P continues to provide opportunity to reflect, pray and take action on our three priorities. These activities now take place online through Zoom primarily. This medium has its challenges, praying together can be done but we can’t hear each other but we can be together to share ideas and reflect on the issues we […]
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 […]
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 […]
18 Sep – Prayer Network for our Times Invitation
We are living in a time of great political turmoil. Many of us feel paralysed by uncertainty as to what to do next: how do we adequately respond to what is happening? Very rarely do we hear concerns raised about making sure that, whatever happens with regard to Brexit, the needs of the poorest in our […]
04 Sep – World Day of the Poor 2019
By John Battle, Chair of the Commission Pope Francis who has established the Church’s World Day of Prayer for the Poor three years ago has announced the theme for this year’s day to be held on 17th November. In his message announcing the theme he stressed the vital importance of the both “embracing and assisting […]
16 Aug – Women in Black Group started in Leeds
By Carol Burns, Leeds Pax Christ group. In Leeds, a group of women (of faith and none) have gathered together to protest against the Occupation of Palestine. The first “Women in Black” Vigil was held on Tuesday 6th August from 1:30 – 2:30pm at Dortmund Square. Following vigils will be held on the first Tuesday […]
10 Oct – World War 1 Centenary Liturgy Booklet
A new liturgy resource has been published by the Justice & Peace Commission in conjunction with the Leeds Pax Christi group. It has the title of ‘Remembrance is not enough’. Copies of this booklet have recently been sent to all parishes and to all high schools. As Bishop Marcus puts it in his Foreword, “The […]
17 Apr – A Carmelite approach to Justice
This was originally scheduled to take place in March but for a variety of reasons this was not possible.Having to re-arrange the date of this event meant that there were less people who were able to go. However, the dozen people who were able to attend had a delightful day – helped by some lovely […]
Eucharistic Lessons from El Salvador
In November 2017, Steve Atherton, the Justice & Peace worker in Liverpool went on the Romero Pilgrimage to El Salvador. The picture below was taken by him in one of the churches in central San Salvador. He related how, when he first caught sight of it, he was puzzled – it looked as though there […]