A new liturgy resource has been published by the Justice & Peace Commission in conjunction with the Leeds Pax Christi group. It has the title of ‘Remembrance is not enough’. Copies of this booklet have recently been sent to all parishes and to all high schools. As Bishop Marcus puts it in his Foreword, “The […]
Peace
WWI – Remembrance is not Enough (2)
Last month Tim Devereux wrote why he thought that ‘Remembrance is not enough’. One main point is that it is right to remember all the military killed in conflict, but we must also remember all the civilians who have been killed and all those whose lives have been shattered because of conflict. In our own […]
WWI Centenary – Remembrance is not enough
Do you remember four years ago, the stunning installation ‘Blood Swept Lands and Sea of Red’ thousands of poppies flooding down the walls of the Tower of London and into the moat? When I visited, I was very moved by the hushed crowd, and the poignant profusion of blood-red poppies – one for each of […]
05 Dec – Bradford Peace Museum Faith and Peace Project
How often do we hear religion being blamed for the wars of the world? The argument goes that, as there is a religious dimension to the mess in the Middle East, Islamic State, Northern Ireland… so religion must be a force for bad. Yet within each of the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and […]
04 Oct – Nonviolence Works!
A brief report from the open meeting organised by Pax Christi through the Peace Studies department at Leeds Beckett University on Tuesday October 3rd After some formal introductions, Pat Gaffney, General Secretary of Pax Christi UK set the scene. The groundwork for the nonviolence conference at the Vatican in 2016 started in 2013. Having the […]
30 Sep -Commission supports Bishop Malcolm McMahon on nuclear weapons
On September 19th there was a letter published in the Guardian urging the Government to sign up (having boycotted the talks about it) to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty. One of the signatories was Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool. The Commission was encouraged by this leadership and wrote him a letter of thanks:
Lest we forget…
With the demise of the Soviet bloc in the late 80’s the fear of a nuclear holocaust receded for a few years only to be replaced by a fear that a terrorist group of some sort would get its hands on such a weapon. More recently, with the likes of the expansionist Vladimir Putin, the […]
28 Apr 17 – Kevin Dowling on Oscar Romero and Nonviolence
On Tuesday 25 April Bishop Kevin Dowling gave a talk to just over 50 people about the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and the lessons in nonviolence from the life of Oscar Romero. It was a very powerful presentation. Bishop Kevin spoke from his personal involvement in situations of unrest in both South Africa and other part […]
The Nonviolence of the Gospel
It’s difficult to talk about peace when daily on our televisions we see images of violence. Ones that come to my mind are the daily images of the damage to Aleppo, the aftermath of the Iraq war or the sight of violent men driving trucks into crowds.It’s easy just to feel fear and despair – […]
21 MAY 16 -Pax Christi UK AGM in Yorkshire
This year the national catholic peace organisation, Pax Christi, held its AGM and conference in Yorkshire at the Oxford Place centre in Leeds. Both the Leeds Pax Christi group and the Justice and Peace Commission were actively involved in organising and promoting the event locally.The overall message was that Pax Christi’s work in schools, parishes […]
16 MAR 16 – Romero Lecture 2016
The Commission hosted a presentation of the 2016 Romero Lecture, which the Archbishop Romero Trust organises (with support from CAFOD and Pax Christi) every year. This year the title of the lecture was “The Violence of Peacemaking: Oscar Romero and the search for peace” The lecture was given by Fr. Francisco de Roux SJ, Provincial […]
17-19 July 2015 – NJPN National Conference
This was the 37th Conference organised by the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN). Over 300 people from all around the country gathered at the Swanwick Christian Conference centre focussed around the theme of \’The Things that make for Peace\’.These conferences are a mix of keynote speakers, panel discussions and workshops.