Building the Kingdom of God
Every now and again, the Clifton Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission
get together for an ‘away day’ to pray and reflect on the work they
have been doing in the diocese.
The first time we did this was three years ago in 2001 when Lisa Loveridge took over as Chair. The time has now come to elect her successor and to look at the aims and objectives of the 2001 away day and to evaluate how far we have come in achieving them.
On Saturday 14 February this year nine of us, including Bishop’s Secretary, Tom Bigwood, met up at St John’s Parish Centre, Trowbridge with Ozzie Ffield, who acted as facilitator for the day as he had done so successfully three years ago. Then we set ourselves an ambitious agenda, perhaps a bit too ambitious but we are an enthusiastic bunch, we just wanted to get on with the job of raising awareness of the issues of Justice and Peace as an essential part of the Church’s prophetic mission. Perhaps we underestimated the number of people who would be prepared to join us; perhaps we just over reached ourselves, so when we came to reflect on our activities in the last three years we were perhaps a little disappointed.
With Ozzie’s help and some serious soul searching we discovered that we had not done so badly. In fact we had achieved quite a lot. Alright, we may not have got our part time paid worker but we had made great strides in communication, mostly through email. Twice a year the Chair and Secretary met with Bishop Declan who is always supportive and encouraging. A tremendous amount had been done in reaching out to the parishes through the deaneries and the deanery reps. Through this outreach work we have discovered that a lot of parish priests share our concerns about the church’s mission in the field of Justice and Peace.
Whereas our field of focus is by the very nature of the work involved, very broad, we felt that we could also engage with a narrower focus. An inner city parish has asked us for help in raising awareness of the plight of asylum seekers in the diocese. Bearing in mind recent tabloid coverage appears to have fuelled resentment towards the presence of asylum seekers we felt this is truly prophetic in that we are recalling our society back to the terms of the covenant which exhorts us to ‘welcome the stranger.’ We also hope to work on environmental and economic justice issues and will shortly be advertising for people to join us in this and the rest of our work.
What of the future? There is no doubt that the engine of Justice and Peace in the diocese is the parish with the support of the parish priest. For it is here, in our experience of being part of the catholic community, that our response to the demands of the Gospel begins. It is here that we realise our need to come to an understanding of what is happening in our world and to act together for change, where necessary, in order to build up the Kingdom of God.
Mary Anstey, former Chair, Clifton Diocese Justice & Peace Commission
For more information about the Justice & Peace Commission please contact Sue Ingham.
Email: singham@blueyonder.co.uk
Telephone: 0117 924 3011
Useful URL : http://www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/
The first time we did this was three years ago in 2001 when Lisa Loveridge took over as Chair. The time has now come to elect her successor and to look at the aims and objectives of the 2001 away day and to evaluate how far we have come in achieving them.
On Saturday 14 February this year nine of us, including Bishop’s Secretary, Tom Bigwood, met up at St John’s Parish Centre, Trowbridge with Ozzie Ffield, who acted as facilitator for the day as he had done so successfully three years ago. Then we set ourselves an ambitious agenda, perhaps a bit too ambitious but we are an enthusiastic bunch, we just wanted to get on with the job of raising awareness of the issues of Justice and Peace as an essential part of the Church’s prophetic mission. Perhaps we underestimated the number of people who would be prepared to join us; perhaps we just over reached ourselves, so when we came to reflect on our activities in the last three years we were perhaps a little disappointed.
With Ozzie’s help and some serious soul searching we discovered that we had not done so badly. In fact we had achieved quite a lot. Alright, we may not have got our part time paid worker but we had made great strides in communication, mostly through email. Twice a year the Chair and Secretary met with Bishop Declan who is always supportive and encouraging. A tremendous amount had been done in reaching out to the parishes through the deaneries and the deanery reps. Through this outreach work we have discovered that a lot of parish priests share our concerns about the church’s mission in the field of Justice and Peace.
Whereas our field of focus is by the very nature of the work involved, very broad, we felt that we could also engage with a narrower focus. An inner city parish has asked us for help in raising awareness of the plight of asylum seekers in the diocese. Bearing in mind recent tabloid coverage appears to have fuelled resentment towards the presence of asylum seekers we felt this is truly prophetic in that we are recalling our society back to the terms of the covenant which exhorts us to ‘welcome the stranger.’ We also hope to work on environmental and economic justice issues and will shortly be advertising for people to join us in this and the rest of our work.
What of the future? There is no doubt that the engine of Justice and Peace in the diocese is the parish with the support of the parish priest. For it is here, in our experience of being part of the catholic community, that our response to the demands of the Gospel begins. It is here that we realise our need to come to an understanding of what is happening in our world and to act together for change, where necessary, in order to build up the Kingdom of God.
Mary Anstey, former Chair, Clifton Diocese Justice & Peace Commission
For more information about the Justice & Peace Commission please contact Sue Ingham.
Email: singham@blueyonder.co.uk
Telephone: 0117 924 3011
Useful URL : http://www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/
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