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 […]
Climate Change
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 […]
26 Jun – Climate Change Lobby of Parliament
By Madeline Woods On 26 June individuals and groups from all over the country met in London to lobby parliament about Climate Change and future climate action. This included a number of people from the Leeds Diocese, gathering to meet their MPs. When asked why they had chosen to attend, a variety of reasons were […]
09 Jun – Live Simply at St Joseph’s Primary School in Wetherby
Last month we featured a brief update about St Joseph’s Primary School in Wetherby gaining the Live Simply Award from CAFOD. Below is a more detailed story from the Head Teacher, Louise Milivojevic. Not only is St Joseph’s the first school in the Diocese to gain the Live Simply Award it is one of only […]
15 May – Two Live Simply Awards in 1 month
A second parish in the Diocese has obtained the CAFOD Live Simply award. On top of this one of our schools has also achieved the award. Here are the details: Our Lady of Kirkstall parish, Leeds The Leeds parish of Our Lady of Kirkstall, encompassing the church communities at St Mary’s Horsforth, Holy Name in […]
08 Mar – St Mary’s Menston get animated about Climate Change!
Over 50 students from St Mary’s Menston High School, Menston, took part in an event organised by the Leeds Diocesan Justice & Peace Commission on Thursday 7th March. It was an ‘Inter-generational conversation about Climate Change’. Facilitated by the Commission Chair, John Battle, the panel consisted of two students from the school (Hannah Jenkins from […]
19 Dec – Live Simply Updates from across the Diocese
CAFOD’s Live Simply Award scheme is starting to take off across the country and, slowly but surely, across the Leeds Diocese as well. Here are some brief updates on parishes in the Leeds Diocese who are working towards the award. What is stopping your parish from taking up the challenge to Live Simply? Good Shepherd […]
05 Nov – Climate Change back on the Agenda
Just in the last couple of weeks bishops’ conferences from across the world have signed a rare joint statement urging political leaders to solve climate change. The bishops’ call is clear: We call for ambitious and immediate action to be taken in order to tackle and overcome the devastating effects of the climate crisis. These […]
A Spirituality of Justice
Justice is love in action and we are called by Jesus to love one another
24 Jan – Good Shepherd Mytholmroyd & Live Simply
We asked people who attended our Live Simply Workshop in June 2017 if they had done anything following it. At the start of January Michael Emly gave an update from Our Lady of Kirkstall parish in NW Leeds. Here, Janet Almond provides an update from Good Shepherd Parish in Mytholmroyd. As with everything, it is […]
02 Jan – Creating a Buzz in Leeds
This update on one parish’s work towards the Live Simply Award has been provided by Michael Emly What will help the “average parishioner” engage with the Church’s social teaching? What will build unity in a parish formed by the merger of 3 formerly independent church communities? How can we make Pope Francis’ teaching in ‘Laudato […]
31 Oct – Update on Carbon reduction in the Leeds Diocese
In July we reported how the Commission had engaged with the University of Leeds for an MSc student on the Sustainability and Consulting course (Mohamed Juma) to evaluate whether the Diocese could do more to reduce its carbon footprint. Climate change remains one of the biggest challenges to the world today. The challenge is huge […]
19 Jul – Can we reduce the Carbon Footprint of the Leeds Diocese?
Some months ago we reported how our Diocese has moved to a ‘green energy’ supplier, along with a number of other dioceses. In the Commission we wondered if there were other actions that the Diocese could take to reduce its carbon footprint to both demonstrate its witness to the truths expressed in Laudato Si and […]
24 Jun 17 -Live Simply Workshop
Fifty five people from across our Diocese and beyond came along to the Workshop that we organised about Live Simply – with the financial support of CAFOD. The event ended with a mass signing by all those present of CAFOD’s ‘Power to Be’ petition cards (highlighting the need for support of renewable energy projects to […]
02 Nov 16 The Live Simply Award – a personal view
Do you remember the days of “The Parish Mission”? If you are under 50 then probably not, as they seem to have largely gone out of fashion. They were often a week-long affair where a non-diocesan priest would come into the parish and as well as preaching at Sunday mass would preach during the week […]