By Kathy Shaw, SPARK Outreach & Engagement Manager The Catholic Church has a history of social teaching. It goes back centuries – impacting on all aspects of our work and family life. In 1892 Pope Leo XIII outlined a ‘just social order’ in response to a lack of basic employee rights and an increasing tendency […]
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16 Mar – SPARK Social Justice sponsors places at Sustainability Conference
Live in the Leeds Diocese, concerned about our climate emergency and aged 18-30?SPARK Social Justice is sponsoring people for the full cost of attending the 2023 National Justice & Peace Network (NJPN) Conference. The conference fees are £225 and SPARK will pay directly for your ticket. Rail travel to the nearest station will also be […]
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 […]
12 May – New Project Manager for SPARK Social Justice
By Katherine Hogg, SPARK Project Manager Hello, I am Katherine and I am the new SPARK project manager. I’m originally from St Albans in Hertfordshire and came to Leeds to do an MA in Theology and Development at the University before getting a job with Christian Aid and working towards a PhD. I’ve worked for […]
01 Dec – Commission gains new funding for SPARK Social Justice
SPARK Social Justice, our project engaging with younger Catholics about issues of Social Justice, has just been awarded additional funding by Benevolentia (also known as the Porticus Trust). We are delighted to announce that they have agreed to fund a set of activities over the next 4 years that amount to a total grant of […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
09 Jan – SPARK Social Justice Project Update
By Aoibheann Kelly – Project Director In March 2020, we were looking forward to continuing to deliver a number of interactive workshop sessions to our partner settings, up until July. However, lockdown meant we needed to re-assess these plans – each of the school settings very much wished to continue to set up social justice […]
21 Oct – Update from SPARK Social Justice
As reported earlier in the year the Justice and Peace Spark Social Justice Project quickly adapted to the lockdown restrictions. As schools were closed and everyone was encouraged to stay at home, the SPARK project went online. A series of recorded episodes were produced, with our young people taking the lead, interviewing a number of […]
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 […]
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 […]
06 Dec – SPARK Social Justice Catches Fire!
Our project working with people aged 16-30 is starting to take off. Earlier this week over 100 students at St Mary’s High School in Menston took part in workshops exploring UK poverty through drama.Aoibheann Kelly, the talented theatre professional who is leading this work commented ”Drama can help young people to make sense of the […]
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 […]
07 Jul – Student in Leeds Diocese obtains Million Minutes Award
The official list for the Celebrating Young People Awards 2019 was announced in London’s West End on the 3 July. Nominations were gathered from schools, parishes and organisations across England and Wales. The awards – now in their fourth year – are powered by the Million Minutes Organisation and honour the achievements of those young […]
22 May – SPARK Social Justice, our new project
For a while now we have been only too aware of the lack of younger people (with some exceptions) coming along to events organised by the Justice & Peace Commission.With financial support from the Porticus Trust we have just started up a project that will run to the end of 2020. It is specifically designed […]