Justice and Peace Group
The group was established in 1996 and currently has a busy and wide-ranging programme of activities. Informed by our Catholic Social Teaching, we aim to raise awareness of current campaigns as well as fund raising.
Our starting point is best illustrated by St James 2: 14-16
“How does it help, my brothers, when someone who has never done a single good act claims to have faith? Will that faith bring salvation? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty,’ without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? In the same way faith, if good deeds do not go with it, is quite dead.”
So what do we do?
Parishioners will be aware of the monthly Traidcraft stall where Fair Trade products are sold. Behind each product is a story of a producer or farmer in the developing world who is being paid a fair wage for his/her produce. Please continue to support the stall enabling those farmers in the developing world to trade their way out of poverty even if only to indulge in the chocolate.
Another popular event is the mulled wine and mince pie event in the week before Christmas which raises money for the Medical Missionaries of Mary, who run clinics in Africa.
The food bank collections on behalf of Leighton Linslade Homeless Service are a more recent necessity and together with sending Christmas cards to prisoners as a way of supporting the Prison Advice Care Trust (PACT) forms our UK-based efforts.
In the wider church, CAFOD’s Connect2 has seen us support a village in Bangladesh with a recent talk and curry evening being over-subscribed. Connect2 is an initiative aimed at fostering communication between Parishes in the UK and communities in the developing world.
This year we will be supporting the wider Hungry for Change and IF campaigns to tackle global hunger and challenge global structures that leave 1 in 8 people going to bed hungry at night. Previously we have campaigned for Climate Justice as climate change is having such a devastating impact on so many in the developing world.
We support the Pope’s Annual Peace message on Peace Sunday and try to raise awareness of Peace issues through assistance from Pax Christi.
Our Justice and Peace Group is represented on the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission and some of the group are active in the Leighton Linslade Christian Ecology Group where they discuss environmental issues and their impact on this country and the developing world.
Getting involved is easy, just contact us via the link on this site and a member will be in touch with details of the next meeting or event, or keep an eye on the newsletter at Mass. We meet every six weeks in an informal meeting to organise our campaigns and regular events. We are always looking for new members and new ideas – we need your help to help others.
Other links:
www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/
