Category: Events

Report from St Alban’s: Prayers at the Peace Pillar for Hiroshima Commemorations

Peace Pillar at St Alban’s Abbey, Hertfordshire

By Mary Harber, Ss Alban and Stephen Church

Parishioners from Ss Alban and Stephen Church held a joint service with the St Albans’ Abbey community, and representatives of other churches and of Pax Christi, in Sumpter Yard at St Albans Abbey (Cathedral) on Sunday 4 August 2024.

This is an annual event which takes place on the Sunday closest to 6 August, when the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. 6 August is also the Feast of the Transfiguration.

This year the Pillar was relocated to a new site at the Abbey and to mark this change, the service started with a blessing of the Pillar in it’s new site.

Pupils from Loreto College produced Origami Peace Cranes which were distributed at all Masses in Ss Alban and Stephen Church at the weekend and were also distributed to those attending the service.

The vigil is always conducted at the Peace Pillar which is a gift from the people of Japan to the Cathedral.

It was given in 1982 to commemorate the decision of Dean Cuthbert Thicknesse to refuse to allow the Abbey bells to be rung to celebrate the end of the War in the East. At the time the Guardian reported the Dean’s decision, as explained at a council meeting on 14th August 1945, as follows:

“After the dean, who is the mayor’s chaplain, had opened the council meeting with prayer, he made a statement to the council. “Let it not be supposed,” he said, “that any of us withhold our due sense of gratitude for the mighty deliverance. The events of the last ten days had given cause for deep searchings of heart to many people. “The decision to use the atomic bomb was made by the leaders of the democratic nations. We are all, therefore, though without our consent, implicated in that act. I do not hold a service of thanksgiving in St. Albans because I cannot honestly give thanks to God for an event brought about by a wrong use of force, by an act of wholesale, indiscriminate massacre which is different in kind from all the acts of open warfare hitherto, however brutal and hideous.”

LINK

St Alban’s Cathedral: www.stalbanscathedral.org/

‘Threads through Creation’ textile display at Southwark Cathedral until 26 August 2024

One of the panels at Southwark Cathedral

Eight million stitches expressing God’s love!

Textile artist Jacqui Parkinson spent three years stitching twelve HUGE (almost three metre high) panels to make this spectacular art exhibition. ‘Threads through Creation’ is showing at Southwark Cathedral from now until 26th August.

You’ll see the black and white pages of the creation story in Genesis transformed into astonishing colours and designs. It’s beautiful, breath-taking, uplifting and inspiring for all ages.

Threads through Creation is at Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, from Mondays to Saturdays 9-6 and on Sundays 8.30-5.

This beautiful exhibition has already been shown at Sheffield, Blackburn and Lichfield Cathedrals and Leominster Priory. After Southwark Cathedral it is going to Sherbourne Abbey and Hexham Abbey.

LINKS

Southwark Cathedral: www.southwarkcathedral.org.uk

For more information and photos see: www.creation-threads.co.uk and www.jacqui-textile.com/bible/

Holy Apostles, Pimlico, hosts service commemorating the life and witness of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter

Source: Jo Siedlecka, ICN

An interfaith congregation gathered at Holy Apostles church, Pimlico, on Friday, 9 August, the 81st anniversary of Bl Franz Jagerstatter’s martyrdom and Nagasaki Day, to give thanks for peacemakers and to pray for peace.

Jagerstatter was executed for refusing to serve in Hitler’s army. The congregation prayed: “Let us be encouraged and inspired as we reflect on his witness. We pray for the strength to be peacemakers in our troubled world.”

Music was led by Ellen and Gerry Teague. As the congregation filed in, they sang Peace Will Come by Tom Paxton, and the Taize chant The Lord is my Light. All those gathered then joined in a prayer saying “We pray to be peacemakers in our troubled world.’ This was followed by a reading of the words of Franz Jagerstatter written in a notebook 1942, in which he stressed the need for Christians to take a stand against injustice.

Andrew Jackson, CEO of Pax Christi then gave a reflection on the life of Bl Franz Jagerstatter. He said: “This wasn’t some blind, simplistic black and white fundamentalism – despite all the accusations that he had become extreme in his Catholicism. No – he saw the principality, the power and he named it and resisted it. What about us ?

We will say, of course, that we are not leaders, that we don’t have the voice or the profile to have any impact. But then neither did Franz. Outside of a very local community in 1943, no one knew who he was or the stand he was taking. He didn’t have a platform or a position that gave him a voice. He was an ordinary person just like us. But as he told us in our reading from his writings – we are just the people the world is looking for… Words teach, but personal example shows their meaning.”

Read the full text of Andrew Jackson’s reflection: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/50398

A litany of names and groups was read out (after every one came the response: ‘We remember you’): Franz Jagerstatter; Josef Mayr Nusser; Franz Reinisch; Max Josef Metzger; Otto Schimek; all other conscientious objectors, (COs) from World War One and World War Two; All COs since 1945; members of the Society of Friends; Followers of the Anabaptist tradition; the COs of Israel and Palestine; The COs of Ukraine and Russia; The COs of the wars with Iraq, Afghanistan, and those of other countries in conflict.

The congregation was then invited to name other ‘war resisters’. People recalled: St Oscar Romero, Blessed Julia Rodzinska, Steve Biko, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi, Edith Cavell, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Bruce Kent and many more

Candles were lit in prayer, ‘a sign of hope against the darkness of war and violence.’

One prayer asked for the intercession of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter: ‘We give thanks for the witness of Franz Jagerstatter who has been beatified and recognised by the Church was a martyrs for peace. We pray that people through out the world will be inspired to followed their conscience . To go against the stream and stand up for peace.”

The final song was ‘Will you come and follow me’ and those present left the church and gathered outside to walk in the interfaith procession, led by Buddhist Rev Gyoro Nagase to the London Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park for the Nagasaki Commemoration Ceremony there.

The service at Holy Apostles can be seen online here: www.churchservices.tv/pimlico/archive/recordings/H4CyzFcltKuvfo3

Pax Christi

Rev Nagase with speakers and participants by the Peace Pagoda Photo: ICN

Source: Jo Siedlecka, ICN

The 79th anniversary of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki was commemorated in London on 9 August 2024, with a procession from Holy Apostles Catholic Church, Pimlico – following the memorial service for Blessed Franz Jagerstatter – to the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park, led by Buddhist monk the Rev Gyoro Nagase with several monks and a nun from the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order.

They were accompanied by representatives from several London churches, Pax Christi, Westminster Justice and Peace, CND and other peace campaigners.

Arriving at the Peace Pagoda they were welcomed by Mr Shigeo Kobayashi from Japan Against Nuclear UK (JAN). After a water sprinkling and blessing by Rev Nagase Shonin, participants chanted chapter 16 from the Lotus Sutra. This was followed by Christian prayers for peace by Catholic Deacon Rev Jon Dal Din, from Southwark Diocese, Unitarian Pastor Rev Fergus O’Connor and Quaker David Stephenson.

All participants then were invited to come forward to offer incense and flowers.

Mr Shigeo Kobayashi then gave a brief address, reflecting on the horrors of war in an atomic age, and calling for prayers for peace and harmony between all peoples and nations. He said that more than 74,000 people had died in Nagasaki, in 1945 but people there now still suffer the consequences of the bombing. He noted that for the first time the ambassadors of the UK and other countries had declined to attend the memorial service in Nagasaki, because the ambassador of Israel had not been invited. ( The Mayor of Nagasaki Shiro Suzuki, said that the reason for not inviting Israel was not political. Commentators suggested it was rather for security reasons.)

The last speaker was Ms Carol Turner, chair of London CND. In her address she warned that we are living in a very dangerous time, particularly with events in the Middle East, bringing us closer to nuclear war than we have ever been since 1945.

As an orange sunset began filled the London sky, the colourful lanterns on the steps of the pagoda, represented souls of the 74,000 people who perished in the bombing in 1945, started to glow.

Singer Brigette Bennett gave a beautiful acapella performance of ‘Song for Peace’ as the crowd slowly dispersed into the night.

Next year will be the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and Westminster Justice & Peace aim to mark the occasion with some special events to inspire future peace-makers. Mark 6th and 9th August 2025 in your diaries now!

Pax Christi

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

100,000 rally for Peace in the Holy Land in Central London

Christian bloc in Mount Street Gardens

Source: Independent Catholic News

More than 100,000 people took part in last Saturday’s National March for Palestine in London. 

The Christian Bloc gathered in Mount Street Gardens next to Farm Street Church for ecumenical prayers, Taize chants and intercessions written by Palestinian Christians, before setting out to Park Lane to join the march through London to Parliament. 

The group included Catholic, Anglican and Methodist clergy and religious, members of the London Catholic Worker, Pax Christi, Christian CND and Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace. 

Weaving their way through the heart of London towards parliament, the Christians marched alongside the Muslim and Jewish bloc, calling for: Ceasefire now; End to the occupation; End to the Apartheid; End to arms sales to Israel; Boycott, divestment and sanctions and Support the ICJ rulings.

A small counter-protest known as ‘Enough is Enough’ took place at Piccadilly Circus, with protesters waving Israeli flags and holding placards of Israeli hostages. 

A group of Holocaust survivors sat at the side of the protest with placards in support of the Palestinian protesters reading: “Holocaust survivor descendants against Gaza genocide.”

At the end of the march, various speakers, including former Labour and now Independent MP Apsana Begum and the chair of Young Labour, Jess Barnard, addressed the crowds from a stage outside Parliament. 

Ms Begum said: “For ourselves, for each other, for our diverse communities across the UK and for the men, women and children of Gaza and all those facing oppression all around the world, solidarity.”

Ms Barnard said: “Starmer we don’t want excuses, we don’t want delay, we don’t want you to say you’re different from the Tories, we want you to smash the Tory legacy of complicity in Israeli war crimes. We want action. No more delay, no more excuses.”

Four arrests were made during the march. The Metropolitan Police said one arrest was made for directing a Nazi salute towards a counter-protester. A second was made for a placard suspected of supporting a proscribed organisation. Two further arrests were made for having an offensive placard.

John Sloboda, from Christians for Palestine told ICN: “It was really noticeable how peaceful the march and rally was, with lots of song and comradeship. The ‘confrontation’ with a small group of Israeli flag-wavers was marked simply by people singing even louder. 

“It was also noticeable how low-key the policing was, and how the marchers were enabled to mingle with tourists and passers by. The police know that these marches are exactly what they claim to be: demonstrations of peaceful solidarity with the Palestinian people, attended by people representing the full diversity of our society in age, ethnicity, and religion.”

For more information about Christians For Palestine, see:  https://christiansforpalestine.com/

6 & 9 August 2024 – Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembered

Westminster Justice and Peace will be joining Pax Christi UK for the annual commemorations of the events of August 1945 when two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan, killing over 150,000 people instantly and causing devastating long-term effects for millions more.

You are invited to join us as we unite our prayers with peacemakers around the world and call for an end to all nuclear weapons so that they can never be used again.

WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

6 August, 11.00am-1.00pm: Hiroshima Day – Vigil at Westminster Cathedral

Hiroshima Day Liturgy

Hiroshima Day Scripture Reading

Hiroshima Day Reading

Hiroshima Day Reflection

9 August, 11.00am-1.00pm: Nagasaki Day – Vigil at Westminster Cathedral

Nagasaki Day Liturgy

Nagasaki Day Scripture Reading

Nagasaki Day Reading

St Albans

4 August, 3-4pm: Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial Service, St. Albans Cathedral

Members of St Alban and St Stephen Catholic Church Justice and Peace Group will be among the participants at the annual ecumenical Hiroshima and Nagasaki Memorial Service on Sunday 4th August 2024. Meet at 2.50pm at Abbey Peace Pillar, Sumpter Yard, St Albans Cathedral.

Online

6 August, 8.00-9.00pm: Hiroshima Day Online Prayer Vigil

The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and Christian CND invite us to join their online prayer vigil on Hiroshima Day. The vigil starts at 8.00pm and you can register here:

APF and CCND Online Prayer Vigil Registration

Interfaith Walk and Peace Pagoda Vigil

9 August 2024, from c. 7:30pm: Interfaith Peace Walk from Holy Apostles Pimlico to the London Peace Pagoda

Nagasaki Day coincides with the anniversary of an important martyr for peace, Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, and every year Pax Christi combines these two anniversaries with an ecumenical service, followed by an interfaith walk and vigil.

This year the service will take place at the Holy Apostles Church in Pimlico, in memory of the 81st anniversary of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter’s execution in 1943 for refusing to serve in Hitler’s army. 

Following the service, there will be an interfaith Peace Walk to the London Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park for a Lantern-Lighting Ceremony around the pagoda (not in the Thames!) This will begin when the peace walkers arrive at the Peace Pagoda, to commemorate the 79th Anniversary for victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and all wars. The ceremony seeks to reflect on the horrors of war in an atomic age, and to pray together for peace and harmony between all peoples and nations. 

All are very welcome to join us at any point in the evening for the service, walk or vigil and to offer flowers and incense.

Pax Christi Website

Nagasaki Remembered

Christians for Palestine – Ceasefire Now rally, Saturday 3rd August, 12.15pm

All are welcome to join the Christian Bloc for prayers in Mount Street Gardens W1K 2TH (outside Farm Street Church, Mayfair), this Saturday 3 August 2024 at 12.15pm, ahead of the latest national march for peace in Gaza. Westminster Justice and Peace and Pax Christi will be among the groups represented.

Prayers begin at 12.30pm and will be led by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ.

We will join the main march in Park Lane at 1pm. A shorter walk is also available from Green Park station.

Marchers will be demanding an immediate, permanent ceasefire; a just settlement to end apartheid and occupation and calling for the UK government stop arming Israel.

LEEDS

Christians for Palestine will also be gathering on the same day in Leeds outside the Cathedral in Cookridge Street, LS2 8BE at 12.45pm.

Christians for Palestine Facebook Page

To join the mailing list for details of upcoming marches write to
ChristiansForPalestineUK@gmail.com

NJPN: Annual Conference focus on ‘Just Politics’

Source: Anne Peacey, NJPN

Fr Dominic Robinson SJ (Chair), Colette Joyce (Co-ordinator) and Khurram Daniel (Office Volunteer) will be among those heading to the National Justice and Peace Network Conference this weekend from the Diocese of Westminster.

The votes have been cast, the people have spoken, indicating a desire for change. There will be difficult and challenging times ahead for our newly-elected government and for all who wish to see a kinder, more gentle and respectful form of interaction throughout society.

The NJPN conference -19-21July in Derbyshire – with the title ‘Just Politics’, comes at an opportune moment for people of faith, to consider our responsibility in building a common home where we can all feel safe and valued, and none are excluded. As well as offering congratulations and good wishes to those who will represent us, we will seek to challenge any lack of truth and integrity in the public space.

The 2024 annual weekend conference of the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales (NJPN) will gather around 160 Justice and Peace campaigners from across England and Wales. This 46th annual conference includes talks, workshops, a Just Fair Market with stalls from charities and organisations, and opportunities for networking and prayer. It will be a process, using the Pastoral Cycle and involving listening, discussion and discerning, sharing outcomes, commitment to action, with all aspects brought together in liturgical celebration.

The conference will hear the views of key speakers:

The Right Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford, will open the conference and explore some of the dynamics of public discourse, the implications for individuals and society, some possible solutions and opportunities for Christians and the Church to play a positive role.

On Saturday morning, Molly Scott Cato, Professor Emerita of Green Economics and former member of the European Parliament, will consider how the failure to make good judgements is undermining our democracies.

Steve Whiting, former manager of the Quaker programme ‘Turning the Tide’, will take the process forward.

John Battle will chair the conference, considering the issues in light of Catholic Social Teaching.

There is to be a discussion between the young adults present around their hopes and dreams for the future.

Two workshop sessions will cover a range of local, national and global issues, related to the conference theme. They include:

Using our Catholic voice to engage with newly-elected MPs (CAFOD and SVP),

‘Voices from the margins’ (Columbans),

‘Neoliberalism – how can we challenge fatalism and build hope?’ (Hexham and Newcastle Diocese),

Laudato Si’ and the Sustainable Development Goals, (Presentation Sisters),

‘Nonviolence – A Route to a just politics’ (Pax Christi England and Wales),

‘Do Justice: a Vision for Spiritual and Civic Renewal in England and Wales’ (CSAN),

‘Being There: An Incarnational Approach’ (Christians Aware),

‘Resetting Democracy? A matter of Faith’ (Society of Friends).

There are activities for children and young people throughout the Conference.

The Sunday morning interactive session will bring together all that has been experienced during the weekend, with a commitment to working to achieve a more resilient, hopeful relational and inclusive society in which all may flourish.

The Conference Mass will be celebrated by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Chair of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission. Conference Liturgy will be led by the Lay Benedictines.

Conference Hashtag: #JustPolitics2024

National Justice and Peace Network

Tablet Webinars on Catholic Social Teaching, Summer School 2024

Join The Tablet team with host, Professor Anna Rowlands, St Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice for a series of four webinars which make up this year’s Tablet Summer School, focusing in on Catholic Social Teaching.

The webinars are split into four distinct themes and each webinar has an expert panel who will explore the topic in some depth and will be available to answer any questions you may have.

The webinars will be staged as follows:-

17th July – Catholic Social Teaching and The Common Good with speakers:- Jon Cruddas, a former Labour MP; Sr Gemma Simmonds CJ a senior lecturer in pastoral theology at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge, and Sr Helen Alford, an economist and dean of social sciences at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Acquinas in Rome, Italy.

24th July – Catholic Social Teaching and Poverty in 2024 with speakers:- Fr Chris Hughes, Parish Priest Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle; Jenny Sinclair, Founder and Director of Together for the Common Good and Patrick O’Dowd, Director of Caritas Diocese of Salford.

31st July – Catholic Social Teaching and Migration – Fair, Just and Sustainable with speaker:- Dr Sophie Cartwright, a Research Associate at the Centre for Criminology Oxford University and the senior policy officer at the Jesuit Refugee Service UK.

7th August – Catholic Social Teaching and the Environment with speakers: – Dr Carmody Grey, Assistant Professor of Catholic Theology at Durham University, Dr Barnabas Asprey, Assistant Professor at St Mary’s Seminary and University and Christine Allen, Director at Cafod.

All webinars take place between 6pm and 7pm BST. If you can not make the webinar in person, then please note, all webinars are recorded so we can send you the recording post the event, to watch in your own time. Just send us your booking number and we will send you the recording.  It couldn’t be easier.

Tickets cost £12.50 or £45.50 for the series.

If you would like to book a ticket for any or all of the webinars in this series, then simply click here or go to www.thetablet.co.uk/events

NEXT PRAYER VIGIL FOR MIGRANTS OUTSIDE THE HOME OFFICE: MONDAY 15TH JULY 2024, 12.30-1.30PM

A monthly Memorial Prayer Vigil for refugees and asylum-seekers takes place on the 3rd Monday of every month outside the Home Office, SW1P 4DF, 12:30pm to 1:30pm.

Praying for

  • Those who died trying to reach the UK
  • Victims of current wars
  • Those in detention and who are homeless
  • The UK to be a more welcoming nation
July 2024 Home Office VigilDownload

Sign up to receive email news & alerts of changes or cancellation at: homeofficevigil@gmail.com

Co-sponsored by Westminster Justice and Peace Commission
London Catholic Worker and
London Churches Refugee Fund