By CAFOD’s Youth Delegation to COP26 in 2021 and collated by Matty MaslenLast year, CAFOD sponsored a youth delegation to travel to Glasgow to attend the UN Climate Summit COP26.A year on, as COP27 occurs in Egypt, we reflect on what has come from the past year for us personally, and for the climate movement […]
Climate Change
05 Sep – SS John Fisher & Thomas More gain LiveSimply Award
By Keith Pitcher (Parishioner in SS John Fisher & Thomas More, Burley in Wharfedale and a member of the J&P Climate Action Group)In June 2022 the Parish Family of SS John Fisher and Thomas More, Burley-in-Wharfedale was the delighted recipient of CAFOD’s LiveSimply award. This is given to Parish Families and schools who have worked […]
22 Jun – CAFOD’s new Campaign: ‘Fix the Food System’
By Matthew MaslenCAFOD’s new campaign ‘Fix the Food System’ begins with a simple fact: “The global food system is broken. It doesn’t work for those who work the hardest – small farmers – and it’s a major driver of the climate emergency.” The way that we produce and consume food is wasteful, exploitative and damaging. We […]
10 Mar – Laudato Si for Parishes & Homes
By Keith Pitcher, SS John Fisher & Thomas More, Burley in Wharfedale Pope Francis’ messages in Laudato Si have been clear in the need for us to protect our beautiful but fragile world. He calls on us, collectively and individually, to: consider the way we look at creation pray about this identify and stop practices […]
01 Mar – Current Commission Climate Work
By Trish Sandbach, Commission Vice-ChairClimate change has been a Commission priority area even before the publication of Laudato Si (LSI) in 2015. Projects in this arena have been workshops about Laudato Si as well as workshops and active support for CAFOD’s Live Simply award scheme. In 2020 several people in the diocese ‘graduated’ as Laudato […]
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 […]
17 Nov – Attending COP26 with CAFOD
By Matty Maslen – Bradford & Glasgow UniversityAt the beginning of the month, I was lucky enough to attend COP26 as part of CAFOD’s Young Adult Mobilisation. From Friday 5th to Sunday 7th of November, we were among hundreds of thousands of people who had travelled from all across the globe to Glasgow for the […]
10 Nov – COP26 events around the Diocese
Together for the Planet @ St Benedict’s Garforth By Trish Sandbach, Commission MemberA couple of months ago the Faith and Justice Action Group from St. Benedict’s in Garforth were discussing how to start bringing people together after the separation and isolation of lockdown and restrictions while continuing to observe Covid safety – as the pandemic […]
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 […]
16 Sep – Climate Emergency Walk to Bradford: an Invitation
photo courtesy of CAFODIn December 2015, we went with a small number of people to Paris to encourage the nations meeting there to take climate change seriously. Even the Pope had written about its importance for humanity!Now, 6 years later has any progress been made? In our churches or anywhere outside?Once […]
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. […]
30 Jul – Ideas for the Season of Creation
Now is the time to start thinking about what your parish could do to celebrate the Season of Creation: Sep 1st through to Oct 4th.Our Climate Crisis is a shared concern and one which needs to be reflected in our prayers, liturgies and parish community actions. We need to reflect on our role as co-creators: […]
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 […]
09 Jul – Lobbying about Climate Change
Meeting with the RT Hon Alec Shelbrooke MP on the Challenges of the Climate Crisis.By Trish Sandbach, Vice Chair J&P Leeds Previous lobbying in 2019 – You have to be in this for the long haul!At first a few of us felt daunted by the thought of meeting with our MP. Having […]
22 Jun – Season of Creation 2021
The Season of Creation in the Church’s year runs from 01 September (the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation) through to the feast of St Francis of Assisi on 04 October. This period is also celebrated in a similar style in several other denominations.This year the theme is ‘A home for all? […]
A Catholic Response to the Environmental Crisis
“We must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world.” Laudato Si paragraph 212 UK Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill This Bill was tabled by Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader, and is supported by MPs of all parties, and by organisations like Green Christian and Operation Noah. You can write […]