David Jackson, from Shipley, has been a lifelong supporter of working for Justice & Peace and in more recent times has focussed on our Climate Change crisis and what we, as Church, should be doing about it.
Due to ill health, David had to retire from his role as Laudato Si animator for the Leeds Diocese. However, this has not stopped him from thinking about the Church and the importance of synodality.
David was born in Bradford. After ordination in 1964 he studied at Cambridge and Lancaster Universities and went on to teach in seminary. He married in 1973 and began a career in religious education. In 1985 he became the first Coordinator of the Bradford Interfaith Education Centre, a role he held until 2000.
From 2000-2011 David was the Coordinator for Inter-religious Relations for the Diocese of Leeds and a member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference Committee for Other Religions.
In 2020 he ‘graduated’ as a Laudato ‘Si animator and also served on the diocesan Synodal Steering Group.
He writes:
Dear Friends /Relatives/ Contact on my Mailing list,
(Please excuse any mis categorisation – no offence intended).
I have spent the last 3 years or so writing a book:
‘REALISING THE SACRED. The Ways of a Contemplative and Synodal Church.’
This may explain my state of near invisibility lately – that and old age and ‘living with a cancer’ (jaw and neck) – in remission after radiotherapy etc or/and the kind intercessions of St Winefride of Holywell!
How can the Church ensure that its worship, life and mission flow from an encounter with the God of love, mercy and faithfulness?
How can its members develop and sustain a loving personal relationship with Jesus?
How can it ensure that it places itself in all it does and thinks under the guidance of the Holy Spirit?
In other words how can it ‘Realise the Sacred’ both in the sense of ‘coming to know’ the Sacred and of ‘bringing it about’ – by turning to the ways of contemplation?
Can these ways bring unity to the rich diversity of the Church and hence hope and love to a fractured world?
Follow this link to read more about it and to purchase a copy Realising the Sacred – The Franciscan Publishing Company Ltd