DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

August 6th 8.20pm for 1 hour -Hiroshima and Nagasaki Commemoration

For the past 25 years the Kent Justice & Peace Group have organised a commemoration service at Aylesford Priory to mark the anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb in 1945.  These two events are the only active deployments of nuclear weapons in war, so far. 

Refreshments will be available after the Service.   All are Welcome  

For information call John Caruana 01634 864179            

October 16th   Our Autumn Assembly

To be held at the newly refurbished Amigo Hall, beside Southwark Cathedral.

Our keynote speaker will be Archbishop Peter Smith.

Food Justice:

The Food Ethics Council established a committee of enquiry into Food & fairness which has recently published its report.   
                                                                                                                                                     30th July 2010

Welcome to Archbishop Peter Smith and thank you for the encouragement in your homily: "I have no doubt that the faith of the Church is alive and active today. It is manifested in the lives of so many good and holy laypeople, in the vibrant life of our parishes and religious communities, and in the dedicated and selfless ministry of our priests and deacons. It is being fulfilled day by day in the work of our Catholic schools and colleges, organisations such as CAFOD, the Justice and Peace Networks....."                                                                   10th June 2010

Thank you to all who joined us at Aylesford on May 22nd. for our Spring Assembly on "Grassroots Social Justice" Our speakers from the eight organisations gave us a great insight to the work being carried our in our parishes and communities and our keynote speaker, John Battle, was as inspirational as always.  Our picture shows John Battle with Fr Michael Scanlon at the end of the afternoon.            11th June 2010

“Meeting God in Friend and Stranger: fostering mutual respect and understanding between the religions” is a new teaching document on interreligious dialogue from the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Our own Archbishop Kevin had a leading role in its development and production. See our Local Events page for details of a workshop.

 

Choosing the Common Good
The keenly awaiting document from the Bishops' Conference, developing the Church's position on topics relevant to the incoming government, is now available

Correspondence with Gordon Brown
Following the publication of Caritas in Veritate, our chair Fr Michael Scanlon wrote to the Prime Minister sending him a copy of the Holy Father’s encyclical and inviting his thoughts.  In his reply Gordon Brown pays tribute to  the Pope’s concern for peace and justice throughout the world and also thanks Fr Michael for the practical steps being taken in the Catholic communities to encourage justice and peace.                             

"If You Want To Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation" is the theme of  Pope  Benedict’s message for the celebration of the forty-third World Day of Peace.
To download the Holy Father's message    14th December 2009

The Wave - climate change protest.

On 5th December more than 50,000 came together in London to demand action on climate change at The Wave, the biggest ever UK climate change march. Not only did Ed Miliband (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change) hear us, but Gordon Brown invited 24 Wave supporters to 10 Downing Street after the event to hear their demands.

ready to start

Some started from Grosvenor Square and walked a 3 mile route passing the Houses of Parliament and crossing Lambeth Bridge to come back over Westminster Bridge.  Others started at the ecumenical service in Westminster Central Hall led by Archbishops Vincent Nichols and Rowan Williams.

Passing Piccadilly Circus                                              7th December 2009

Our Autumn Assembly

	The main topic of our Autumn Assembly, held at St Peter's,  Woolwich“ on 17th October was "The Changing Face of Britain” celebrating 25 years of CARJ (Catholic Association for Racial Justice).  The pictures show Bishop Howard Tripp with Haynes Baptiste, one of the speakers from CARJ and Bishop Pat Lynch with
	Margaret Ann Fisken, the Chair of CARJ, Tony Lobo and Richard Zipfel. Other speakers were Mr Pat Winston, head teacher from St Paul's Academy and Petra Kjell, Environment Policy and Advocacy officer from Progressio who spoke on "Water, Climate Change and Copenhagen.

                   2nd November 2009

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Report from National Justice & Peace Network conference 2009
On the Road Together: A~Mazed by Migration
A summary of the report on the Open Space debate from the conference is now available  to download please click

Also Bishop Pat's homily "Our mission to, with and for migrants today: the context, the principles and the pastoral strategy" and the views of all the keynote speakers .

If you have difficulty downloading or printing any of the above we are happy to post copies from the office.                                                        14th October 2009

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Holy Father’s Video Message to Climate Change Summit
Pope Benedict sent a video message to participants in the UN summit on climate change, which was held in New York on 22 September.
Speaking in English his message started:  "I wish to reflect today upon the relationship between the Creator and ourselves as guardians of His creation. In so doing I also wish to offer my support to leaders of governments and international agencies who are meeting at the United Nations to discuss the urgent issue of climate change….”                   28th September 2009

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Tobin Tax developments
Foreign minister David Miliband was named by his French counterpart as a supporter of a Tobin tax on financial transactions in a move designed to show growing support for a clampdown on excessive bank profits.
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said in an interview that Miliband agreed on the need for a new tax on financial transactions to fund development.

For more information follow this link to The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/17/miliband-tobin-tax-french
see also our                                                      September 21st 2009

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Pope Benedict urges leaders to be responsible stewards of creation

World leaders should address global environmental issues "with generous courage", that Man is called to responsible governance of creation and the current model of global development needs transformation, Pope Benedict said yesterday.

                                                       August 27th 2009
 

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Government slashes support to asylum seekers awaiting a decision.

The government has announced that it is cutting its cash support to destitute asylum seekers waiting for a decision. Currently, single asylum seekers over the age of 25 receive £42.16 a week, which is 30% less than a single person over the age of 25 who is resident in the UK. The government is planning to reduce this to £35.15 per week from October, leaving asylum seekers with only £5 per day to live on.

Donna Covey, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council said:
“ These changes mean asylum seekers will receive a little over half of what the government says is the minimum people need to live on....  Surely a more practical solution would be to allow those that can to work and contribute to the growth of our economy, rather than penalising the poorest and most vulnerable?”    www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/stopcuts for more information and a draft letter to send to the Home Secretary.                                  August 24th 2009

 Look at our Resources section to read     

or print the new Papal Encyclical “Caritas in
Veritate” together with comments from various sources.