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 […]
Prayer
Stations of the Cross
The wayside pulpit in our neighbourhood says during Covid19 “God still does home visits”! In other words, a shut Church and limited services does not mean the end of our prayer life. The traditional Lenten practice, the Stations of the Cross, could always be a private meditation on Jesus’s final journey to his Crucifixion as […]
25 Feb – Diocesan Peace Sunday Liturgy
By Sr Sheila Griffiths, The Holy Family Sisters in BradfordMembers of Pax Christi and J&P in the Diocese organised a prayer Service for Peace Sunday, January 17th, 2021. This was live streamed on Zoom that very same day. Since COVID restrictions on Church Services are at present in force, I tuned in to this service. […]
19 Nov – Leeds J&P Commission online
Leeds J&P continues to provide opportunity to reflect, pray and take action on our three priorities. These activities now take place online through Zoom primarily. This medium has its challenges, praying together can be done but we can’t hear each other but we can be together to share ideas and reflect on the issues we […]
18 Oct – The Age of Meditation & Praise?
By John Battle (Commission Chair) & Helen Hayden The American social justice activist Fr Daniel Berrigan once surprisingly recommended an instruction of the Buddha: “Don’t just do something, stand there!”. The impact of the Covid lock downs and enforced stoppages has apparently resulted in people watching more TV and films, reading more, clearing out cupboards […]
A walk in the Woods
(This article first appeared in the Tablet Blog in July)I tried to write about the shape of a post Virus Church and patterns of Eucharistic worship and failed. Rather than add to many such attempts, I could reflect how, aged over 80, the possibility of never returning to previous patterns of practice, represents, not a […]
05 Nov – Creation & Eucharist
Our latest day of reflection, held on 19th October at the Good Shepherd parish centre in Mytholmroyd, was an extended celebration of the mass exploring the connections between the mass and care of God’s creation.The day was structured around the different parts of the mass. After some initial refreshments, we started our day with an […]
18 Sep – Prayer Network for our Times Invitation
We are living in a time of great political turmoil. Many of us feel paralysed by uncertainty as to what to do next: how do we adequately respond to what is happening? Very rarely do we hear concerns raised about making sure that, whatever happens with regard to Brexit, the needs of the poorest in our […]
04 Sep – World Day of the Poor 2019
By John Battle, Chair of the Commission Pope Francis who has established the Church’s World Day of Prayer for the Poor three years ago has announced the theme for this year’s day to be held on 17th November. In his message announcing the theme he stressed the vital importance of the both “embracing and assisting […]
16 Aug – Women in Black Group started in Leeds
By Carol Burns, Leeds Pax Christ group. In Leeds, a group of women (of faith and none) have gathered together to protest against the Occupation of Palestine. The first “Women in Black” Vigil was held on Tuesday 6th August from 1:30 – 2:30pm at Dortmund Square. Following vigils will be held on the first Tuesday […]
10 Oct – World War 1 Centenary Liturgy Booklet
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 […]
17 Apr – A Carmelite approach to Justice
This was originally scheduled to take place in March but for a variety of reasons this was not possible.Having to re-arrange the date of this event meant that there were less people who were able to go. However, the dozen people who were able to attend had a delightful day – helped by some lovely […]
Eucharistic Lessons from El Salvador
In November 2017, Steve Atherton, the Justice & Peace worker in Liverpool went on the Romero Pilgrimage to El Salvador. The picture below was taken by him in one of the churches in central San Salvador. He related how, when he first caught sight of it, he was puzzled – it looked as though there […]
30 Oct – First World Day of the Poor 19 Nov 2017
Pope Francis has instituted a new ‘World Day of the Poor’, inviting us “to embrace the culture of encounter” and to understand that sharing with those living in poverty “enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel”. In his message for the first World Day Pope Francis asks all of us, whatever our […]
20 Sep – A Carmelite Approach to Justice
On Saturday 16 September the Commission held a Day of Reflection with the Carmelite nuns at their Wood Hall monastery, near Wetherby. We made the practical arrangements and they did the hard work of putting together talks and time for prayer – as well as devising a programme that left some space for silent reflection. […]
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 […]