Following the departure of John Coleby (Caritas Director) in June, we must again this month say another sad goodbye and thank you, this time to Tony Sheen, who is retiring as the CAFOD Westminster Community Participation Co-ordinator after 18 years of service on the Justice & Peace Commission.
We look forward to welcoming new members onto the Commission for Caritas and CAFOD in due course in the autumn term.
The month of September, of course, also launches us into the now well-established Season of Creation. This year’s theme is especially meaningful to all in the Justice and Peace network, with words drawn from the prophet Amos ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow‘ (Amos 5:24). For ideas and resources please visit our website:
There are various events to enjoy throughout the summer, too.
If you have yet to visit the St Francis of Assisi Exhibition at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, we do encourage you to go. Perhaps you might even like to join me on a visit together on Wednesday, 26th July at 11am? Details are in the E-Bulletin.
With every best wish for a refreshing and relaxing summer season.
Tony Sheen, CAFOD representative on the Westminster Justice & Peace Commission, is retiring next month. Reflecting on his time with CAFOD and Justice & Peace, Tony writes:
As some of you may already know, I am planning on retiring this August. It’s been a privilege for me to work for CAFOD alongside so many inspiring volunteers, colleagues and partners overseas for almost 18 Years. It has also been an honour to serve on the Westminster Justice and Peace commission during this time alongside some great inspiring people of faith.
I must say I was overjoyed to move from volunteer to member of staff at CAFOD in January 2006 at the height of the Make Poverty History Campaign. Whilst the campaign didn’t make poverty history, it did achieve billions of pounds of debt relief which resulted in funds being available for a number of developing countries to reallocate for free Primary School education. This is a great example of how Justice and Peace Campaigners can make a real difference. I have had so many wonderful experiences with CAFOD and Justice and Peace over the past 17 plus years which have become an integral part of who I am. Hosting and taking CAFOD partners around the Diocese and hearing their stories of struggle over adversity and hope reminded us how important CAFOD is to the life of the Church. Some of you will remember being moved and inspired talks from Nete, from Brazil, Fr John from Korogotia, Fidel and Erasmo from El Salvador and Sr Clara from Zambia.
I myself had the privilege visiting communities that CAFOD work alongside in Brazil visiting the Favelas of San Paolo with no sanitation or land rights, the heart-breaking disparity between rich and poor, the fight for justice by inspiring partners, the occupations of abandoned buildings and hope while their struggle continues.
I was also privileged to witness our work in the Amazon in the state of Roraima and experience the hospitality of the Macuxi indigenous Indians and learn about their struggle and fight against ongoing human rights abuses. Images of Mass and offertory both in the Favelas where the poor brought food for the hungry to the altar and the gifts of God’s creation at the offertory in the Amazon.
Over the years, we have raised the profile and importance of Fairtrade in the Diocese of Westminster, with over half of the Parishes committing to serve and promote Fairtrade goods regularly. Justice & Peace celebrated us becoming a Fairtrade Diocese in 2020. However, we must continue to encourage all Parishes to serve Fairtrade coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate Easter eggs, wine etc. We also have to care for our earth and care for our sisters and brothers in poverty. One fine way of doing this is the many parishes of have undertaken the journey towards the Live Simply Award. If you are unaware of the award, please start by looking at the web page here: https://cafod.org.uk/campaign/livesimply-award
We are currently campaigning against and unfair food system and lobbying the World Bank to allow farmers in developing countries to use free traditional seeds to grow food rather than be pressured to use expensive hybrid seeds to grow soya to feed cows instead. These Hybrid seeds only produce one year’s yield and are highly dependent on pesticides. I hope you will be able to support the CAFOD campaign in your Parish. Find out more here. https://cafod.org.uk/campaign/fix-the-food-system
I retire on 17th August and will return to being a parish volunteer for CAFOD and Justice & Peace. I look forward to the arrival of our first grandchild, God-willing, this September.
I hope some of you will join me for a farewell bring and share party with volunteers at Oakwood on Thursday 27th July at 5pm.
Our Work for Justice and Peace is going and as they say in Brazil, “A luta continua!” – the struggle continues! I leave you with a prayer often attributed to Oscar Romero from the CAFOD vision mission and values leaflet:
It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Fr Dominic and Colette write: We are indebted to Tony for his long service on the Westminster Justice and Peace Commission and extraordinary commitment to promoting and integrating the work of CAFOD within the life of the Diocese. As well as helping thousands of Westminster parishioners engage with the struggle against poverty and hunger worldwide, Tony has led the way on concerns such as Fairtrade, environmental justice and bringing whole communities together via the Live Simply Award. He remains J & P Contact for Enfield so we hope to continue benefitting from his wisdom, boundless enthusiasm and experience for many more years to come! Happy retirement, Tony.
Bishop Paul McAleenan, students from Newman College, Brent, and electro-pop band Ooberfuse, were among those joining the regular monthly prayer vigil outside the Home Office in Marsham Street on Monday for an extended service to mark Refugee Week (19-25 June 2023)
The event was given added poignancy following the tragic sinking of the Andriana off the coast of Greece on 13 June. The boat was believed to be carrying as many as 750 migrants, of whom only around 100 were rescued.
A harrowing list of names of those who have died in the last month trying to reach Europe in small boats was read out during the vigil. They included some of the hundreds of people who perished in the Andriana disaster last week, an unknown man who died of hunger and thirst after 13 days adrift at sea off the coast of Spain, and a child electrocuted on a railway line in France.
While Home Office staff came and went, more than a hundred people took part in the moving vigil of prayer, hymns and reflections. Among them was Brother Johannes Maertens from the London Catholic Worker, Robina Rafferty former head of Housing Justice, Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Chair of the Diocese of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission, and a group of students from Newman Catholic High School in Harlesden.
Electro-pop band Ooberfuse, together with Kurdish refugee folk singer Newroz Oremari opened the vigil with their latest song: ‘Show Me Love’ . Singer-songwriter Alistair Murray led some of the hymns.
Bishop Paul McAleenan, Lead Bishop for Migrants and Refugees in the Bishops Conference gave the following reflection:
“The reality of the life of a refugee, the hardships and hazards they endure opens this Refugee Week as we listen to the accounts of the latest tragedy off the coast of Greece.
No doubt there will investigations and enquiries into the tragedy, into the events of the preceding hours before the boat sank so that the truth can be uncovered. Those enquiries are important.
Our concern is not simply the events and decisions which took place immediately before that tragedy but the decisions and the policies which have been in place for many, many years which make such tragedies almost inevitable. The term safe and legal routes come to mind again.
We see again the consequences of policies which do not include compassion, the theme of this year’s Refugee Week. We see again the need for international cooperation.
When law and policies increase suffering, compounds trauma, and put lives in danger justice is not served. To advocate on behalf of migrants, refugees, displaced persons, asylum seekers is not simply kindness but it is a plea for justice for the most vulnerable, it is to do what the law should do.
Migrants, refugees, asylum seekers have had to abandon those things from which one has the right to expect stability and security, homeland, family, familiar customs. Our solidarity with them comes from this basic belief, that we have a duty, an obligation towards those who have lost everything.
When they encounter rejection not surprisingly there will be consequences which impact upon their mental and physical well-being. There will also be consequences which impact upon the whole human family. So I repeat that to support migrants and refugees is not almsgiving but an attempt to build fraternity and unity by encouraging the sharing of resources.
In Isaiah a verse describing the manner of the Redeemer in his pursuit of justice says of him, ‘He does not break the crushed reed nor quench the wavering flame’.
If someone has fled their homeland, crossed a desert and a sea and survives and is then detained, denied the right to work, threatened with deportation is it likely that the flame of hope which they managed to keep alive is going to strengthened or extinguished.
That is why we oppose Immigration systems which threaten to destroy hope, which divide people into categories giving different rights to each category.
Whether a person is a citizen, a migrant or a refugee they have a dignity, that innate dignity is our starting point and one which what ever else we must keep in mind.
To say we respect someone’s dignity is one thing, though I don’t think the word ‘respect’ captures the fullness of our obligation. The dignity of a person is so sacrosanct it needs to be protected and promoted, it involves relationship.
To meet a refugee and listen to their experience is very enlightening, informative and moving. We may not have met a refugee in the flesh, nevertheless we can stand with them and for them. That is what we are doing now, making a statement, declaring they are our brothers and sisters.
So I thank you for all you do, for your presence here today at the beginning of Refugee Week. May our prayers and our work bear fruit for the good of all especially those who have nothing.”
The Christian Prayer Vigil is organised each month by Westminster Justice & Peace and London Catholic Worker.
The next vigil is on Monday, 17 July 2023, 12.30-1.30pm.
We pray for Pope Francis and our church leaders that they continue to speak out forcefully against the injustices that force people to flee their homelands to seek sanctuary far away – Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for the people and the lands from which refugees flee – whether it is due to political oppression, climate change, or conflict. May there be peace and reconciliation between people and nations. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray that refugees and those seeking asylum may find a welcome among us, and we pray for all those who make our laws and administer justice – may the God of justice be our guide. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for those who minister to refugees that they may show God’s welcoming love; and we pray for ourselves to have the courage to reach out to victims of injustice and poverty. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Vigil Outside the Home Office, Monday 19th June 2023, 12.00-1.30pm
The next monthly vigil organised by Westminster Justice & Peace together with London Catholic Worker, will be a special onefor Refugee Week (19-25 June 2023)
Bishop Paul McAleenan, Lead Bishop for Migrants and Refugees in the Bishops Conference will give a reflection and electro-pop band, Ooberfuse, together with Kurdish refugee folk singer Newroz Oremari, will be performing their new song: ‘Show Me Love’ during the Prayer Vigil outside the Home Office on Monday, 19 June from 12.00-1.30pm.
Newroz Oremari has a mesmerising voice and recently made recorded with Ooberfuse in the iconic Abbey Road studios – an incredible change of fortunes for a dissident artist who had faced the death penalty in Iraq for his music which was critical of Saddam Hussein regime.
Join Westminster Justice & Peace, the Jesuits in Britain, Jesuit Missions and others at a silent demonstration, prayers and petition outside the High Commission of India to clear the name of Indian Jesuit, Fr Stan Swamy SJ on Tuesday, 20th June 2023.
Fr Stan was a Jesuit priest who was unjustly imprisoned for his human rights activism in October 2020. He died, a prisoner, still seeking justice in July 2021.
Schedule
8 – 8.30am Parish Mass – Church of the Immaculate Conception. Celebrant Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Parish Priest
8.30 – 9am Coffee – Arrupe Hall, London Jesuit Centre (location tbc). Welcome by Paul Chitnis, Director, Jesuit Missions
9 – 9.15am Gather in courtyard outside London Jesuit Centre
Collect placards
9.15 – 10am Walk to High Commission of India
10 – 10.25am Silent Vigil outside the High Commission of India
10.25- 10.30am Remarks by Fr Damian Howard SJ, Provincial, Jesuits in Britain
Presentation of Petition at High Commission of India.
Together we join in saying the Our Father to close.
Route
Meet: London Jesuit Centre,114 Mount St, Mayfair, London W1K 3AH
Walk north-east on Farm St towards Hill St turn right onto Mount Street. Turn left onto Berkeley Square Continue onto Berkeley Street. Turn left onto Piccadilly. Continue to follow Piccadilly taking a slight right onto Coventry Street. Continue to follow Coventry Street to Swiss Court. Turn right towards Leicester Square. Turn left onto Irving Street. Turn right onto Charing Cross Road. Then, go slightly left to stay on Charing Cross Road. Turn left onto St Martin’s Place. Continue onto William IV Street. Turn right at Agar Street, and then left onto Strand High, leading to Aldwych.
High Commission of India – India House, Aldwych, London WC2B 4NA.
Because of the hot weather, please bring water and, if you choose a hat and sunscreen.
If you are planning on attending could you please email Lynn McWilliams Lynn@jesuitmissions.org.uk
Following the conviction and jailing of Carla Foster, on 12th June, for inducing abortion outside the legal limit using pills at home, Bishop John Sherrington, on behalf of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, called the circumstances ‘deeply distressing’ and offered prayers for all concerned.
In his statement, the Lead Bishop for Life Issues said:
‘Abortion is always a tragedy, both for the mother and for the child who is killed. The consistent teaching of the Catholic Church has always been that both must be protected.
‘The recent case of the mother who aborted her child outside the parameters of the law is deeply distressing for all concerned, especially her other children. However, it is the responsibility of the judiciary to decide how the law should be applied, including the consideration of mitigating circumstances and sentencing.
‘I offer prayers for all concerned.’
Day for Life, a day the Church dedicates to praying for and raising awareness about the meaning and value of human life, is on Sunday 18thJune this year. Read more about the Day for Life here.
Ooberfuse, is a London-based band that is a critically acclaimed favourite on the Indie music scene. It was started by songwriter-vocalist Cherrie Anderson and multi-instrumentalist-producer Hal St John, who have now brought together a number of talented and innovative refugee musicians for this event to celebrate diverse contributions to the Artistic scene in Britain. Individual performers originate from countries such as Syria, Ukraine and Iraq, including the Kurdish exile, Newroz Oremari.
The band has played at many venues worldwide, both large – such as Wembley – and small. Their music has been described as ethereal, East-meets-West electronic pop with heartfelt vocals, often inspired by observations of injustice in today’s world.
Their latest release is ‘Show Me Love’, inspired by the teachings of Pope Francis on welcoming the stranger. Scenes in the accompanying video were filmed in Dover. The singers have therefore decided to return to Dover which features so strongly in many of today’s refugee tales, to perform this concert for Refugee Week (19-25 June 2023)
Submitting the petition at No. 10 (from left to right): Father Dominic Robinson SJ, Father Matthew Madewa, Fiona Bruce MP, Baroness Caroline Cox, Caroline Hull, John Pontifex and Mike Watts.
A year to the day following the Pentecost Sunday church massacre in Nigeria, a petition calling for justice was handed in at 10 Downing Street. Fiona Bruce MP, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, received the petition organised by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN-UK).
On 5th June 2022, 41 people were killed and more than 80 were injured when terrorists opened fire and detonated explosives during Mass at St Francis Xavier’s Church, Owo, south-west Nigeria. Nobody has been charged in connection with the atrocity which took place in broad daylight in a church packed with witnesses.
Human rights champions and Nigeria experts Baroness Caroline Cox and Lord David Alton of Liverpool yesterday joined ACN National Director Caroline Hull and Head of Press & Public Affairs John Pontifex to hand in the petition.
Lord Alton told ACN: “I was shocked to hear about these cruel and barbaric attacks in the parish of St Francis Xavier in Owo. Things only get worse when the perpetrators are not brought to justice. It is important that we lose no opportunity to keep reminding the world about the price that people are paying for their faith.”
Also present at No 10 were Father Matthew Madewa from Ondo Diocese where Owo is located, ACN (UK) National Ecclesiastical Assistant, Father Dominic Robinson SJ, from the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, London and Mike Watts, a teacher from St Benedict’s School, Ealing with Gabrielle, a Year 8 pupil.
Father Madewa told ACN: “We believe something positive will come out of the petition. It is important to raise awareness. The more awareness we can generate, the more likely a positive outcome is. We are hopeful that the new president of Nigeria [Bola Tinubu, sworn in on 29th May] will do more to serve justice and provide security.”
Survivors of the Owo attack told ACN that they will continue to feel unsafe until those responsible are bought to justice.
Father Michael Abugan, the parish priest at St Francis Xavier’s, said that his congregation remembered the victims at a candlelight procession and memorial Mass on the anniversary. He said, on behalf of the survivors: “I am hoping that the new government will be entirely different from the past administration in its response to security matters. We also believe that the new president will do his best to bring different ethnic groups and religions together.”
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ (pictured above) is Chair of the Westminster Justice & Peace Commission, in addition to his duties as the National Ecclesiastical Adviser for ACN.
Join us for a family-friendly interfaith event, an outdoor picnic and an Eco Festival. Organised by Faith for the Climate in partnership with St John’s Waterloo and Brahma Kumari. Westminster Justice and Peace Commission will be represented.
11:00am – Interfaith Reflection for climate justice: Speakers: The Bishop of Kingston, Husna Ahmed OBE (GlobalOne), Rabbi Jeff Berger (Rambam Shephardi Synagogue), Jamie Cresswell (Centre for Applied Buddhism), Canon Giles Goddard (Faith for the Climate), Sister Maureen Goodman (BrahmaKumarisUK),
12:00pm – Bring-in and share a vegetarian or vegan picnic. Bring a rug to sit in the green. Plates and cutlery will be provided.
12:30pm – 3:00pm – A children’s area with entertainment activities.
Monday, 12th June, 12.45-2.00pm – Southern Dioceses Environment Network on Zoom. Our meeting this month focuses on ecumenical and interfaith collaboration with guest speakers Dr Shanon Shah (Director, Faith for the Climate) and Andy Atkins (CEO, A Rocha UK). Open to all Catholics and our friends with a heart for creation. We especially welcome visitors from other faith traditions and first time enquirers to this meeting.
Central London Catholic Churches (CLCC) is a consortium of volunteers that came together in April 2020 to provide refreshments to homeless people during the pandemic. Originally operating out of a van in Trafalgar Square, it has now transformed itself into a very popular twice-weekly lunch service based at Farm Street church and catering to over 100 homeless guests a week. In addition to enjoying limitless tea and coffee and top-quality lunches sourced from local suppliers, guests can participate in job fairs to learn about employment opportunities, be referred to other services, join in scripture study groups and even get a haircut, all without leaving the Farm Street premises.
What has made all of this possible is the team of around 50 committed volunteers. They range in age from 20 to 85 and include students, doctors, lawyers, housewives, those in religious life and retired people. What is very striking is how well everyone gets on together and how much we share a sense of common purpose. The happy atmosphere created by the volunteers is one of the reasons that guests speak so highly of the service and keep returning to it.
It is hugely rewarding for us to work with what is one of the nicest teams of volunteers that we have ever encountered and we want to put on record how much we appreciate everything you do.
Thank you to our volunteers.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Ade Owusu-Ansah and Linda McHugh
Diocese of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission 