Westminster Justice and Peace will be joining Christians of all denominations alongside Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and secular peace campaigners in Russell Square this Saturday, 8 June, before marching to Whitehall. We will be calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza, and appealing for the UK and US to stop arming Israel.
Pax Christi will be leading prayers in Bloomsbury Square Gardens at 12noon. The march will begin moving at 12.30. The rally is expected to end in Whitehall at around 4.30pm.
With the General Election looming, the organisers want to show all political parties that they must act to #StopGazaGenocide if they want our vote.
The Prime Minister has called a General Election to be held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 4 July 2024. This is an opportunity for the Catholic community to exercise active citizenship and contribute to the building up of God’s Kingdom of “love, justice and peace”. (Gaudium et Spes, 39)
The Church does not tell people which party to vote for and, as our bishops reminded us prior to a previous election, “a general election must never be confused with a single-issue referendum” (The Common Good, 65), but the Church gives us the principles by which we can discern which candidate and which party will best advance the common good.
This month’s E-Bulletin contains resources that are designed to be useful to Christians preparing for the General Election on 4 July…
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With the UK general election due on Thursday, 4 July, politicians will be looking for our votes. We have a responsibility as Catholics to use our vote to make sure that parties commit to tackling issues such as poverty, injustice and human dignity. The Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) offer a guide to issues for the election www.cbcew.org.uk/election24/ as do CAFOD together with the Saint Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) cafod.org.uk/encounter. These sites provide information on a range of topics from a Catholic Christian perspective to help us ask key questions of local candidates and parties who need our votes. Please ensure you are registered to vote by 18 June and have suitable Photo ID, which you will need this year for the first time.
Creation Cries Out – Ecumenical Service: 11am, Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception (Farm Street Church), 114 Mount St, Mayfair, London, W1K 3AH. Includes children’s outdoor nature-based church.
You are invited to join us for the biggest ever march to protect the natural world and tackle the climate emergency. Westminster Justice & Peace will be gathering with thousands of others in London for a family-friendly, legal march to demand that UK politicians show strong domestic and global nature and climate leadership.
Why are we marching?
Creation is in crisis. Nature in the UK is in long-term decline and without radical change we’re set to lose even more precious habitats and species. That is why we’re joining a coalition of nature and climate organisations at a mass demonstration calling on politicians from all parties to act now for nature, people and climate.
The vision is for a huge creative, family-friendly and legal mass gathering with Chris Packham and other nature defenders in a united call to protect and restore our natural world.
It is an opportunity for some creative campaigning with speeches from activists and conservationists, as well as entertainers and performance artists, all highlighting the beauty of UK wildlife and the need to protect it.
Creation Cries Out Service
We’ll be meeting at 11am for a ecumenical service with nature-based messy church for children at the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, 114 Mount St, Mayfair, London W1K 3AH before leaving together to join the main march at noon. The Creation Cries Out service is a collaboration between A Rocha UK, Green Christian, Christian Climate Action, and Operation Noah and other groups.
Join us to add your voice to the call to halt biodiversity decline and stabilise our climate for the benefit of all future generations.
Restore Nature Now March and Rally
After the service we will join the Restore Nature Now mass demonstration.
Through Restore Nature Now a wide-range of dozens of nature, wildlife and climate groups from the RSPB to Butterfly Conservation and Woodland Trust are joining together, united in calls for politicians to support action to restore nature by:
Providing more funding to ensure a nature-friendly farming approach
Making polluters pay for the damage they do to the environment
Creating more space for nature by expanding and improving protected areas and public land
Putting a legal right to a healthy environment in law – clean air and water and access to nature for all communities
Delivering fair and effective climate action that means we at least halve UK emissions by 2030.
More than 10,000 people took part in a peaceful, last-minute rally in Downing Street yesterday, (Tuesday 28 May), in response to Israel’s horrific attacks on the tented refugee camp in Rafah, southern Gaza yesterday, which killed at least 50 people, mostly women and children, and injured hundreds more.
Speakers demanded an immediate halt to all arms sales to Israel and called for Israel to follow the ICJ Directives. They praised the Jewish peace demonstrators in Israel and all the students who have risen up around the world appealing for an end to the onslaught and justice for the Palestinian people.
One campaigner said: “Our government and the Labour leadership have provided support for Israel as it commits genocide. They have blood on their hands.”
Among the crowds were several representatives from Christians for Palestine.
Colette Joyce from Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace told ICN: “We cannot carry on being complicit while unprotected civilians die in tent camps from military strikes, after having been moved many times already, in search of safety in Gaza.
“We stood outside Number 10 Downing Street today with our banner saying: ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’ – because our shared humanity calls out for a better response, one that does not ask the most vulnerable to pay the highest price.”
Join us on Sunday, 9 June, at St John’s in Waterloo, London, from 1 pm – 4 pm, to kick off the Great Big Green Week. Featuring face-painting, a treasure hunt, recycling rounders, a butterfly puzzle, clothes & toy swap stalls, music, dance, a photo exhibition, and more. Bring a plant-based picnic to share!
Do you want to know what “climate justice” means? Are you keen to find out how a justice-centered approach addresses the climate crisis? Are you looking for a welcoming space where you can bring your unique spiritual and/or religious motivations to tackle the climate emergency? If you’re based in the UK, these workshops are designed to help you address these questions and be part of a community of action.
25 May, 10.30am-3.00pm: CARJ 40th Anniversary Event Amigo Hall at St George’s Cathedral London SE1 7H.CARJ was established 40 years ago on 16 June 1984 at a meeting of approximately 25 ‘founding members’ from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. To mark this important anniversary, CARJ are launching a new ‘Racial Justice Agenda for Change.’ Open to all and free to attend, with lunch served and a Sung Mass to end the day at 3.00pm. Email your interest to info@carj.org.ukhttps://www.carj.org.uk/
25 May, 3.00pm: CARJ 40th Anniversary Mass St George’s Cathedral Southwark, Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7HY. https://www.carj.org.uk/
Kew Gardens, Victoria Gate, TW9 3JR, United Kingdom (map)
All are welcome to join the Justice and Peace Outing to Kew Gardens on Sunday 2nd June 2024
Join Fr Dominic Robinson SJ and Colette Joyce on an exploration of the world famous botanical gardens to see Marc Quinn’s sculpture exhibition, ‘Light and Life’. All are welcome. No prior connection to Justice & Peace needed!
Marc Quinn has long been interested in the links between nature and humanity, and this exhibition brings that complex relationship to life. The mirrored effect of many of the stainless-steel sculptures blurs the boundaries between the viewer, the sculpture and the landscape, giving every visitor a unique experience of the artworks. Their reflection encourages viewers to see themselves as a part of the artwork and a part of the landscape.
Please purchase your own tickets in advance via the Kew website (there are different pricing options) or on arrival.
The meeting point is just inside the ticket barriers at the Victoria Gate entrance at 12.30pm where we will begin the day with prayers and a picnic lunch.
We will have lunch together near the Victoria Gate café. Drinks, sandwiches and cakes are available to purchase in the café or bring a picnic with you.
Please contact Colette Joyce – colettejoyce@rcdow.org.uk/ 07593 434 905 – or Fr Dominic Robinson – dominicrobinson@rcdow.org.uk / 07840 868 568 – to let us know you are coming or just join us on the day. Call us on arrival if you have any difficulty finding us!
Christians For Palestine will be praying and marching again on Saturday, 18 May, for peace in the Holy Land.
76 years since the Nakba began, it is still happening right now with increasing violence. Palestinians are still being slaughtered every day in Gaza and occupied Palestine, and new atrocities by the Israeli military and settlers continue to emerge.
People in Gaza are being ordered to “evacuate”, but with nowhere safe to go, evacuation is really a death march to neighbourhoods already obliterated by the bombing. There are no safe places. No aid whatsoever has entered Gaza for days and people are starving to death. This has to stop. The people in power must be forced to make it stop.
Despite the ICJ ruling and a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire, the UK covenant continues to arm Israel, in violation of international law.
So once again we demand a permanent ceasefire and immediate suspension of all UK arms contracts with Israel.
We’re walking a shorter section of the route this time to make it more accessible
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.
Diocese of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission 