How can Christians in West Yorkshire respond to recent riots and racism? How can we build a better society? This was the theme of the recent Caritas Catholic Care Day of Reflection. Caritas Catholic Care focus on social action – what services can and should the Diocese provide to help those in need? This ranges […]
SPARKsocialjustice
08 Sep – World Day of Migrants & Refugees
By Kathy Shaw, SPARK Project ManagerThe Church has been celebrating the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on the last Sunday in September since 1914. It is always an occasion to highlight the need for global unity in supporting refugees; to pray for different vulnerable people on the move as they face many challenges; and […]
03 Jul – ENews Editor appointed to CAFOD Trustee Board
Matthew (Matty) Maslen has been appointed to the Trustee Board of CAFOD. Matty has edited our monthly newsletter since November 2021. Matty has also been involved with our project for younger Catholics, SPARK Social Justice. He part-sponsored by SPARK Social Justice to attend the youth stream of the first two Conference of the Parties to […]
The General Election – a view from the SPARK Social Justice Community
The non-optional presence of Good Works in the life of a Christian is paradoxically often ignored and focused on in equal measure. Jesus’ core teachings revolve around care for your neighbour, and to ignore this is to ignore Jesus.The Church’s long history of social teaching, formed into our Catholic Social Teaching, is particularly overlooked when […]
12 Feb – Daily Compassion for Leeds through Lent
By Emma Temple, Communications and Marketing Manager, LCI“Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12)On Tuesday 6th February, LCI and Leeds Christian Community Trust launched the 2024 edition of the Leeds Lent Prayer Diary.The launch event at Roscoe Methodist Church brought together the […]
05 Jan – Listening to the Signs of the Times-what did we hear?
By Matty Maslen, Newsletter Editor; Sara Forrest, Commission member; and Bronagh Daly, Faith and Creativity Lead at LCI.At the end of last year, we held an event at Wheeler Hall in Leeds. The title was ‘Listening to the Signs of the Times’.To begin the event, John Battle read a prayer which called for the Lord […]
21 Dec – Partnership with Palestinian Film festival goes from Strength to Strength
Our involvement with the last film in this year’s Palestinian Film Festival, on 9th December, was sponsored by SPARK Social Justice – as there are always many younger people in the audience. This year it was sold out. The film was called Israelism and explored how many young Jewish people in the USA are brought […]
15 Oct – Faith & Creativity: A Tool for Social Justice
By Bronagh Daly, Faith and Creativity Lead LCIFaith and creativity are interconnected in helping us to discuss and convey hard to explain messages. Whether it is the banner on the protest march, or the font type we choose to promote a retreat, we would be hard pushed to find a faith or justice movement where […]
12 Oct – SPARK: Empower, Lead, Change
This was an inter-generational conversation about where faith might fit into how we view leadership. It was set up as an informal event where students could have conversations with a number of invited guests with different leadership experiences who acted as discussion facilitators. We almost cancelled the event as not only was there a train […]
09 Oct – Season of Creation Events at Mary, Mother of God parish, Bradford
“Let Justice and Peace Flow” was the chosen theme for the Season of Creation 2023; from the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on September 1st to October 4th, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. This year’s theme was drawn from the cry of the prophet Amos: “But let justice roll […]
11 Jun – Progress on the Journey to 2030
As indicated last month, the Commission hosted a meeting of the Northern Dioceses’ Environment Group on 08 June, at Wheeler Hall in Leeds. This is an open group of interested people from each of the Northern Dioceses, and they meet about 4 times a year Five out of the seven dioceses in the North were […]
18 Apr – Join the SPARK Community!
By Kathy Shaw, SPARK Outreach & Engagement Manager The Catholic Church has a history of social teaching. It goes back centuries – impacting on all aspects of our work and family life. In 1892 Pope Leo XIII outlined a ‘just social order’ in response to a lack of basic employee rights and an increasing tendency […]
16 Mar – SPARK Social Justice sponsors places at Sustainability Conference
Live in the Leeds Diocese, concerned about our climate emergency and aged 18-30?SPARK Social Justice is sponsoring people for the full cost of attending the 2023 National Justice & Peace Network (NJPN) Conference. The conference fees are £225 and SPARK will pay directly for your ticket. Rail travel to the nearest station will also be […]
05 Jul – Vienna TPNW Treaty Conference
By Matthew MaslenPreviously, I have written about when I was accepted onto the Youth for TPNW 1MSP (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – Meeting of States Parties) delegation, my thoughts just before our delegation took off for Vienna, and now I’m going to tell you my thoughts now that I’ve returned from it(hopefully […]
12 May – New Project Manager for SPARK Social Justice
By Katherine Hogg, SPARK Project Manager Hello, I am Katherine and I am the new SPARK project manager. I’m originally from St Albans in Hertfordshire and came to Leeds to do an MA in Theology and Development at the University before getting a job with Christian Aid and working towards a PhD. I’ve worked for […]
01 Dec – Commission gains new funding for SPARK Social Justice
SPARK Social Justice, our project engaging with younger Catholics about issues of Social Justice, has just been awarded additional funding by Benevolentia (also known as the Porticus Trust). We are delighted to announce that they have agreed to fund a set of activities over the next 4 years that amount to a total grant of […]