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
Passionist priest Fr Martin Newell, 55, and Ben Buse, a Christian from Bristol, were among a group of nine environmental protesters found guilty on a charge of ‘Public Nuisance’ at a trial at Hove Crown Court last Friday. The nine were part of the Insulate Britain 2021 campaign of nonviolent civil resistance undertaken to demand the UK government insulate Britain’s cold and leaky homes.
The defendants were found guilty by a jury, on a majority verdict of 10-2. on a charge of ‘Public Nuisance’. In September 2021 they blocked a road at Dover Port bringing traffic to a standstill for over two hours.
This was the fifteenth Insulate Britain jury trial, a number of which have resulted in ‘not guilty’ verdicts by juries.
Sentencing will be on June 14th. Defendants in similar cases recently have had a range of sentences including substantial court costs, community service orders and suspended sentences. After saying they planned to do the same again, some were given immediate custodial sentences of a few weeks.
Fr Martin said: “Christians are called to live by the law of God’s Kingdom above all, and God’s laws at times lead us into conflict with human laws. The human court has decided we are ‘guilty’, but in the Kingdom of God there is a higher court. Pope Francis calls us to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. I took part in Insulate Britain in an attempt to take that call seriously. Pope Francis said in Laudato Si that our common home which is the earth is among the most abused and neglected of our neighbours. I live and work with refugees and asylum seekers. So I am acutely aware of the increasing impact of extreme weather resulting from climate change, such as the floods in Congo that recently killed over 400 people from one region. Increasing inequality and fuel poverty within the UK is also a moral scandal that cries to heaven. The Gospel call to hear these urgent cries is what impelled me to take part in the Insulate Britain campaign.”
Ben Buse said: “Science documents our warming world and the increases in extreme weather, as well as it’s unequal impacts. Christian Aid have reported the devastation already happening. It is a justice issue, a refugee issue, a biodiversity issue. Action is required at all levels. Dover Port was an iconic place to call for government action in the run up to COP 26 in Glasgow. 9,500 people also die of cold, uninsulated homes each winter in the UK. Christian faith requires us to tackle problems at the root. We need structural change, laying the foundations for a just, equitable and sustainable future. A future where creation can heal and be restored, anticipating the the time when all will be righted.”
The group point out that the trial comes after a series of unprecedented floods, droughts and heat waves have wreaked havoc across the globe, some of which “would be almost impossible without climate change” according to the ‘World Weather Attribution initiative’ and the UN IPCC report in March warned that only swift and drastic action can avert irrevocable damage.
John Coleby, Director of Caritas Westminster, writes:
I am writing this note as I come to the end of my time as Director of Caritas Westminster. The time of the Spirit compels us to remember the fundamentals of our faith. Jesus is risen; he has shown us how to live and in doing so we experience that love the Father has for all his creation. He has sent us the spirit of love, forgiveness, service and justice to transform us and our world. We are on our own roads to Emmaus or Damascus. It seems to me we have the roadmap and the clues and yet on all levels we struggle to consistently stay on the path. I think this is what it so challenging to live a fully Christian life and why the social teaching of the Church is its best-kept secret.
In recent times, we have seen years of austerity and increasing levels of poverty, the global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, wars in the horn of Africa and North Africa, floods and droughts and fires caused by ongoing environmental degradation. As a worker for social justice one can feel overwhelmed and, at times, without hope. But while these occurrences are disturbing, I do find hope – in the greater part because I have observed and experienced the love, forgiveness, service and fight for justice by ordinary people who are moved by the Spirit to carry on in the face of such challenges and get stuff done and show God to the world.
I see God’s love demonstrated in the quality of relationships we build with people with intellectual disabilities, people in need of food, people excluded because they are deaf, people recovering from domestic abuse and modern slavery, people who are alone and frightened, people seeking sanctuary. I see the commitment to loving neighbour as self and the recognition that as Church we are to listen to all people, thus affirming their dignity and ensuring they are the architects of their own futures. Love is made concrete in acts of service to our fellow human beings and so, together with forgiveness and reconciliation, we seek justice for a fairer world where everybody has a place and where everybody’s story is worthy of being heard and appreciated.
It has been a privilege to work alongside Justice and Peace colleagues during my time as Director of Caritas Westminster. I will cherish your profound questioning and call for radical change so that people may find God’s love in everyone they encounter.
Fr Dominic and Colette write: We thank John for his time of service on the Westminster Justice and Peace Commission and for all his good work establishing and leading Caritas Westminster over the past eleven years. We wish him well for the next chapter of his life and look forward to welcoming the new Director in due course.
Kew Gardens, Victoria Gate, TW9 3JR, United Kingdom (map)
All are welcome to join the Farm Street Parish Outing to Kew Gardens on Thursday 1st June, 11am-4pm.
We will be accompanied by the Westminster Justice and Peace Co-ordinator, Colette Joyce.
We will visit the Plants of the Qur’an exhibition in the morning with time to explore the gardens in the afternoon. 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 11.00am where we will begin and end the day with prayers. You can bring a picnic or buy food in the café for lunch. Please email Fr Dominic Robinson – dominicrobinson@rcdow.org.uk – to let us know you are coming or just join us on the day.
The Laudato Si’ Research Institute, based at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, in collaboration with the Randeree Charitable Trust, celebrated on 23rd May 2023 at Westminster Cathedral Hall the launch of the book: Al-Ḥamdu li’llāhi Rabbi’l-ʿĀlamīn ‘Praise to God, Lord of the Worlds’: An Introduction to Qur’anic Ecology and Resonances with Laudato Si’.
This study, written by Qur’anic hermeneutics scholar Farhana Mayer, unpacks the multiple resonances of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ with the Qur’an. It demonstrates significant common ground on perceptions of the natural world as a precious part of God’s creation, the interrelatedness of all creation, the understanding of humankind as the being in whom earth and spirit are conjoined, the need for divine guidance, and others. The book dwells especially on the most beautiful names of God – the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Lord-Nurturer, the Kind, the Nourisher, the Guide – and on ethical and ecological principles for human action that can be derived from these.
During the event, Bishop John Sherrington, the Auxiliary Bishop for Westminster, responded to the book by highlighting many areas that resonate with the Catholic Social Teaching tradition. He noted that speaking of ‘resonances’ instead of the usual ‘similarities and differences’ between faiths was more uniting. This need to deepen our common ground in the face of our complex contemporary ecological challenges was emphasised by all panellists.
Fazlun Khalid, a pioneer of Islamic ecological thought, argued that over the course of the last two centuries humanity has shifted from a focus on the divine to a focus on the human, and latterly to a focus on the mechanistic. One particular sentence from the Laudato Si’ encyclical – “there can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself” (§118) was cited many times. All faiths need to work together to turn the tide of what Laudato Si’ calls “the modern myth of unlimited material progress” (§78) and to rediscover humanity’s place in creation, and balance (mizan in the Qur’an), in reference to a forthcoming milestone document Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth, for all Muslims worldwide. The virtues of moderation and learning to live with less were mentioned as central to this rebalancing of humanity’s relationship with the earth.
Rabiah Mali, founder of the Green Deen Tribe, which seeks to heal the wounds of separation and lack of access to nature for Muslim women, shared in her contribution how overcoming a sense of fear of being in nature as an unsafe place – which has been the experience for many women in the world – was fundamental. That the same word is used in Arabic for compassion (raḥim) and for a woman’s womb is a powerful way of seeing the presence of the divine in all life that is germinating in nature.
Colette Joyce, the Justice and Peace coordinator of the Westminster Diocese, in response to a question about the usefulness of conceptual work for practical action, highlighted the importance of concepts in the formation of people. Concepts, as described in this book, include mercy, integrity, equitability, and others, and are essential for people to be formed in mercy, integrity, or what Christian ethics would call virtue formation.
For Fr Damian Howard SJ, Provincial of the Jesuits in Britain, the formation of virtues, and deep listening to each other in a way that is transformative, provides a way forward for further Christian-Muslim collaboration. He commented, “Farhana Mayer’s book is quite exceptional. Here is a distinguished Muslim theologian who has set herself the task of listening with incredible sensitivity to the text of a papal encyclical and allowing it to spark off reflections and what she calls “resonances” in her own religious tradition. I have never come across anything like it as a gesture of hospitality and bridge-building between Catholicism and Islam.”
There is only one home, and we are one family. The LSRI hopes that this book – the Qur’anic Resonances of Laudato Si’ – will be a means to bring that family closer as together we seek to care for our common home.
It is the fruit of the Qur’anic Resonances of Laudato Si’ project, part of the Christian-Muslim Dialogue on Integral Ecology research cluster at the LSRI that aims to explore the comparative perspective between Christian and Muslim traditions.
Diocese of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission 