Diocesan Justice and Peace Co-ordinating Council 2010-11
Justice and Peace in Hexham and Newcastle Diocese
See full Justice and Peace Annual report 2010-11:
Understanding our mission
"After challenging our own understanding of Justice & Peace i.e.: is it Fairtrade, Peru, Manvi, CAFOD, Charity, Asylum Seekers, Freedom from Torture, The Environment, Water, Land Rights, Sharing Fair? We recognised we had no “one size fits all” answer.
"We have long known that we have to ground our action in prayer. So spirituality and prayer are a major part of the Group’s formation. We have to be at peace with ourselves to promote Peace in our communities. We do know the plight of Asylum Seekers has been generously acknowledged in over 90 parishes and schools with wonderful responses of food and cash donations."
In the past year the J&P Co-ordinating Council through its members and elected Officers has:
- Supported 5 Refugee & Asylum Seekers Drop-in Centres with volunteers and regular forums for information sharing. {Separate report for failed asylum seekers and food collection programme.}
- Attended city-wide meetings about Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
- 10 people attended Charity Dinner for Refugee week.
- 9 people from the Diocese attended the National Justice and Peace Conference ‘Our Daily Bread’ at Swanwick, Derbyshire.
- Arranged the annual J&P Mass on May 7th at St Andrew’s celebrated by Fr Bill Rook, supported with music by Holy Island Camp volunteers with a small celebration after.
- Arranged an inspiring Justice and Peace Spirituality day ‘The Common God’ at St Lawrence’s, Byker, 25th June 2011. Rosemary Theobalds led us to consider the underpinning spirituality of our work in all areas of social justice, and our work to promote the Common Good. Then she led us to see some of the underpinning in scripture.
- Promoting Church Action on Poverty Campaign - Close the Gap.
- Contributed to setting up the Sharing Fair Co-operative to sell craft Goods from Good Shepherd Projects to promote dignity and justice for women and their families in the developing world.
- Held a successful AGM hosted by St Joseph’s Durham, with parish witnesses on their work on J&P. Hosted Pat Devlin, an Ecumenical Accompanier, as our main speaker at the 2010 AGM who shared her experiences in Israel &Palestine.
- Attended films and discussions on Palestine on the illegal detention of young children and the group of Israelis who continue to support a community of Palestinians evicted and living in caves and tents.
- Involved local schools in developing J&P material for Primary J&P groups.
- Promoted CAFOD’s work - 13 people supported the Mayor’s Charity Dinner for CAFOD. Launching a campaign on Live Simply.
- Fairtrade continues to be promoted around the Diocese with attendance at meetings, events and stalls, communication and even development of a blog http://anne4justice.blogspot.com/ .
- Supported successful Refugee Week information event in Newcastle with positive public response.
- Communication group set up to re-instate the newsletter and set up e-mail communications.
- Sr Lucina’s illness and death has left us without web-site support – we are making more use of Diocesan website.
- Organised meetings with Bishop Cunningham and Kathleen Turner to share a vision of the work of the J&P Council in engaging the Diocese to respond to God’s call to become people of Justice and Peace.