1/ CAFOD School Volunteers Urgently Needed to Inspire Younger Generations. Do you enjoy working with children & young people? Could you help to inspire & empower children & young people in our Catholic schools to bring alive their sense of global justice? Could you give an assembly or workshop in a local school?
Supported by CAFOD with training & resources, you will relish the time you spend discussing issues of global justice with children & young people. You will add to parish & school life, complementing the work of teachers, priests & catechists.
For more information contact Jenny at your local CAFOD volunteer centre. arundelandbrighton@cafod.org.uk Tel 01483 573273 Mob 07710 094448
2/ Columbian Schools Media Competition We are looking for students in Britain and Ireland (aged 13-18 inclusive) to submit an original piece of writing or an original image on the theme “Biodiversity Matters” Closing date 17th Feb. More info at http://www.columbancompetition.com/
3/ Live Simply Tip of the Week – Buy & donate second-hand clothing. Support the town’s charity shop’s for some great bargains. By doing this you are supporting the circular economy. Some charity shops are also looking for volunteers. http://www.zerowastehome.com/about/tips/
4/ Worthing Deanery Group Justice & Peace Group This new group was set up last year with the aim for the churches to work together. Since formation we have been carrying out joint actions between the churches, two examples are the collection of clothing for Gatwick Detainees last Autumn & the signing of the CAFOD Giant Letter on behalf of small farmers in the developing world. The next event planned is a sponsored walk on behalf of CAFOD, watch this space.
5/ The annual diocesan Justice & Peace Assembly took place at The
St Philip Howard Centre in Crawley on Saturday. The theme this year centred on safety in our homes and in our communities, with speakers from a range of charities and organisations including Restored, Lifecentre and Pax Christi. Canon Rob Esdaile (opened the event with a talk entitled ‘Peace in Our Relationships and Communities – Theological Considerations’. You can read an extract from Canon Rob’s talk below:
“What has our Christian faith got to say about peace in our relationships and communities? And are we part of the solution (as the Church normally assumes) or part of the problem?
“Peace is not the absence of fighting. Peace is not the cowed existence of those who are controlled, gas-lighted or robbed of their ability to think for themselves. Peace is not the imposition of a constant threat of violence or the sapping of a community’s will to resist. A peace without any uproar is not biblical peace, because true peace is a fruit both of justice and of the action of the Spirit, who blows where She will. Peace has to be a positive condition. It is about restored relationships, mutual respect, making room for the other and their dreams; about a trust that each person and each culture has not only an intrinsic God-given value but also a unique contribution to make, a gift to share for the good of all. Peace is the enabling of that sharing…
“We have to create oases of reconciliation, examples of other ways of resolving conflict, projects that make the possibility of peace tangible and the search for peace urgent. We are bidden to seek first the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness (Mt 6.33). Loving our neighbours is what we are about. Meanwhile, “Say “No” to peace if what they mean by peace is the quiet misery of hunger, the frozen stillness of fear, the silence of broken spirits, the unborn hopes of the oppressed.”
To read Canon Rob’s talk in full, https://www.abdiocese.org.uk/news/canon-rob-esdaile-true-peace-j-p-assembly?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2_17_2022_14_56_COPY_02)&mc_cid=f84c27c035&mc_eid=24d11430c0
