Justice and Peace Assembly 2017
Almost sixty delegates, speakers and workshop leaders attended this year’s Justice and Peace Assembly. The theme was “Pope Francis call to active nonviolence” held at St Peter’s School, Solihull. Staff and pupils from the school made us all feel most welcome. Fr Gerry, Chair of Birmingham Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission opened this our 13th Assembly.
(Link to Photographs of the day)
The keynote speaker, Pat Gaffney from Pax Christi gave an enlightening talk on Pope Francis and the call to nonviolence initiatives. “We are all losers after every war. Any war we fight will only take us back socially and economically to those dark days of survival of the fittest.” Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos. One question that was asked of us was, “How do we encourage non-violent action?” During the presentation we touched on how we thought Justice and Peace had become an add on, an optional extra, whereas in fact Justice and Peace should be at the core of our Christian life. Pat’s presentation has been uploaded to the Justice and Peace website so that you are able to obtain a grasp of this interesting subject.
Our second speaker was James Trewby from the Columbans, looked at Justice and Peace in Education and asked the question “How can we reach young people outside school?”. He talked about the excellent job schools do to encourage our young people to participate in fund raising but what do we do to help them to be actively involved with Justice and Peace issues?
Ten discussion groups explored in depth the morning presentations whilst afternoon workshops provided a selection of topics under the overall Justice and Peace umbrella offered by Austin Smith House (Non-Violence Action in the Bible), Justice for Palestine, CAFOD (Live Simply), Caritas AoB (Journey to Tabor), Bees Abroad (Relieving poverty through bee keeping), Catholics Together in Leamington (Switching to Green Energy), Pax Christi (How to spread the nonviolence work into the Parishes), Aid to the Church in Need (Persecuted and Forgotten) and the Eco Church (Caring for God’s Church). For some of these workshop presenters it was their first time at the Justice and Peace Assembly. Their feedback on the event was very complementary.
During the Questions to the Panel section, Mgr. Timothy Menezes was encouraged to participate in answering questions posed by delegates.
The Closing Liturgy was prepared by pupils of Trinity School Leamington.
The Final blessing was given by Father Gerry Murray.
Date for your diary: Justice and Peace Assembly 2018 - Saturday 13th October 2018.
We will also be organising a retreat during Lent.
Pat Gaffney – Pax Christi and the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative
Link to Powerpoint presentation
http://paxchristi.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Justpeace_August-2016.pdf
http://paxchristi.org.uk/resources/nonviolence-in-action/
James Trewby - Columbans - J&P Education
Link to PowerPoint Presentation
Video clip
Almost sixty delegates, speakers and workshop leaders attended this year’s Justice and Peace Assembly. The theme was “Pope Francis call to active nonviolence” held at St Peter’s School, Solihull. Staff and pupils from the school made us all feel most welcome. Fr Gerry, Chair of Birmingham Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission opened this our 13th Assembly.
(Link to Photographs of the day)
The keynote speaker, Pat Gaffney from Pax Christi gave an enlightening talk on Pope Francis and the call to nonviolence initiatives. “We are all losers after every war. Any war we fight will only take us back socially and economically to those dark days of survival of the fittest.” Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos. One question that was asked of us was, “How do we encourage non-violent action?” During the presentation we touched on how we thought Justice and Peace had become an add on, an optional extra, whereas in fact Justice and Peace should be at the core of our Christian life. Pat’s presentation has been uploaded to the Justice and Peace website so that you are able to obtain a grasp of this interesting subject.
Our second speaker was James Trewby from the Columbans, looked at Justice and Peace in Education and asked the question “How can we reach young people outside school?”. He talked about the excellent job schools do to encourage our young people to participate in fund raising but what do we do to help them to be actively involved with Justice and Peace issues?
Ten discussion groups explored in depth the morning presentations whilst afternoon workshops provided a selection of topics under the overall Justice and Peace umbrella offered by Austin Smith House (Non-Violence Action in the Bible), Justice for Palestine, CAFOD (Live Simply), Caritas AoB (Journey to Tabor), Bees Abroad (Relieving poverty through bee keeping), Catholics Together in Leamington (Switching to Green Energy), Pax Christi (How to spread the nonviolence work into the Parishes), Aid to the Church in Need (Persecuted and Forgotten) and the Eco Church (Caring for God’s Church). For some of these workshop presenters it was their first time at the Justice and Peace Assembly. Their feedback on the event was very complementary.
During the Questions to the Panel section, Mgr. Timothy Menezes was encouraged to participate in answering questions posed by delegates.
The Closing Liturgy was prepared by pupils of Trinity School Leamington.
The Final blessing was given by Father Gerry Murray.
Date for your diary: Justice and Peace Assembly 2018 - Saturday 13th October 2018.
We will also be organising a retreat during Lent.
Pat Gaffney – Pax Christi and the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative
Link to Powerpoint presentation
http://paxchristi.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Justpeace_August-2016.pdf
http://paxchristi.org.uk/resources/nonviolence-in-action/
James Trewby - Columbans - J&P Education
Link to PowerPoint Presentation
Video clip