By Tim Devereux (St Joseph’s Pudsey & Leeds Pax Christi)Our Bishop, Marcus Stock, has signed Christian CND’s ecumenical statement by clergy for the 75th Hiroshima/Nagasaki anniversary (6th & 9th August); my Parish Priest Father Peter Kravos has signed it; and yes, I did ask them to, and they responded promptly and positively. The statement does […]
Yorkshire
07 Jun – Commission endorses open letter following recent murder of George Floyd
The Chair, vice-chair and Treasurer of the Commission have signed a letter put together by the faith leaders involved withLeeds Citizens. The recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has had repercussions not only across the USA but across the world. We join with other faith leaders in denouncing racism wherever it occurs and we […]
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 […]
15 Apr – SPARK Social Justice goes Virtual
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 […]
07 Apr – Our new Virtual J&P World
By Helen HaydenIn 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 […]
05 Mar – SPARK Social Justice Project Update
An update from Aoibheann Kelly, Project Director 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 […]
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 […]
06 Feb – Fixed term job opp with Caritas Leeds
The Diocese of Leeds is seeking to appoint a dynamic and enthusiastic researcher with a passion for social justice. Your main task will be working with volunteers to develop outcomes from an exciting action research project: the Caritas Leeds Criminal Justice Inquiry. This is a fixed term contract of two-days a week (April-September 2020). Closing […]
15 Jan Living with Hope and Courage in a Hostile Environment
Sr Maria Crowley of the Holy Family Sisters, Bradford reflects on their work with asylum seekersThis is a real challenge to us, in these dark times, where we are confronted daily with the great harm, we are capable of doing to each other. As we listen to the news and read the newspapers we hear […]
01 Nov – Family Poverty Workshops in Shipley & Baildon
By Roman Hazulczuk, St Teresa Benedicta parishIn July 2019, a group met at St. Walburga’s Parish Hall in Shipley. They had decided to take part in a 5-week workshop programme on the causes and possible solutions to poverty in our respective parish communities and beyond. There were 16 participants and three more who could only […]
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 […]
24 Sep – SPARK Social Justice
By Aoibheann Kelly, Project Director for SPARK Social Justice – A Leeds J&P Project Stories can conquer fear and make the heart grow larger. Listening to and sharing stories has been part of my life and I have had the privilege of witnessing first-hand how people’s perceptions about the society they live in and attitudes […]
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 […]