A record number of Christians from different denominations – clergy, religious and laypeople – gathered for prayers at St Anselm & St Cecilia’s Catholic church in Holborn on Saturday 5th October 2024, before joining the 20th National March, from Russell Square to Whitehall, to appeal to the government to stop arming Israel and demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Israel and Iran.
The prayers were led by Revd Sam Fletcher, an Anglican priest from Exeter, and Colette Joyce, Westminster Justice and Peace Coo-ordinator.
The Jewish Bloc was also the largest ever.
Organisers say more than 300,000 people took part in the demonstration.
John Sloboda, academic, musician, and co-founder of Iraq Body Count , told ICN: “As a British Catholic I consider that participating in these marches and rallies is an important act of witness that I can offer, in the face of the ongoing decimation of the Palestinian people.
“What our taxes are paying for goes against everything I hold dear as a Christian. Marching together with fellow Christians jointly asserting “not in our name” brings some relief and encouragement, in the face what would otherwise be an overwhelming sense of despair about our country and the ultra-timid role our church leaders are playing at this potentially apocalyptic juncture in world history…” More
Our schools reopen, our parishes restart catechetical programmes, search for new volunteers and, in some cases, welcome new priests.
The work of Justice and Peace goes on in and out of season as does the Church’s mission in the world but a new year is also an opportunity to pause, reflect, discern priorities, and, strengthened hopefully by holidays, we take up our work again with a new enthusiasm.
One event which aims to draw together as many as possible involved in the work of Justice and Peace in our diocese is our inaugural lecture at Farm Street Church on November 1st by Baroness Scotland, the Commonwealth Secretary General. Baroness Scotland has a huge experience and an enormous heart for putting Catholic Teaching into action. We really hope you can make it.
Photo: Holy Family Church in Gaza (Mazur/CBCEW.org.uk)
Bishops of the Holy Land Coordination have issued a statement after two Christian women were killed in a sniper attack on the Holy Family Church compound in Gaza on 16th December 2023.
Holy Land Coordination Statement
The Bishops of the Holy Land Coordination were profoundly shocked and distressed at the killing by snipers on 16th December of two Christian women sheltering in the compound of the Holy Family church, Gaza. Messages were sent immediately to the Patriarch, His Eminence Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and to the Parish Priest, Fr Gabriel Romanelli.
The Holy Land Coordination has been warmly welcomed by priests and parishioners on numerous occasions. We have witnessed firsthand the faith and commitment of the few parishioners who remain; and the dedicated care by the Missionaries of Charity of some fifty profoundly disabled people who live in the convent alongside the church.
The desecration of this compound and the destruction of the Sisters’ convent, ‘signalled’, according to the Patriarch, ‘as a place of worship since before the beginning of the war’, is profoundly disturbing. The shooting in cold blood of Nahida Anton and Samar Antoun, a mother and daughter seeking to enter the convent is unfathomable.
The Holy Land Coordination bishops represent a broad sweep of countries, each bishop committed to a just peace for all and to holding the plight of Christians of the Holy Land at the forefront of their governments’ concerns. We visit the Holy Land regularly to reassure these Christians that they are not forgotten. We seek also to understand better, and at first hand, the realities experienced by the people of three Abrahamic faiths sharing this Land; to fathom the possibility of hope in a two-state solution.
The atrocities perpetrated against Israeli Jews on 7th October and the subsequent killing by the Israeli Defence Force of nearly 20,000 Gazans, of whom 70% were women and children, would appear profoundly to jeopardise the prospects of any such resolution of this deep-seated conflict. Yet, the approaching celebration of Our Saviour’s birth two thousand years ago in the heart of the West Bank should serve as an incentive to people of faith, across the globe, to call down the Holy Spirit ever more fervently to move the hearts of all who can bring influence to bear on these lands and to find a way to cease the hostilities from all sides.
Bishop Nicholas Hudson (Chair of the Holy Land Coordination) Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster England and Wales
Bishop Nicolo Anselmi Bishop of Rimini Italy
Archbishop Udo Bentz Archbishop-elect of Paderborn Germany
Bishop Pierre Burcher Bishop Emeritus of Reykjavik Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Bishop Christopher Chessun Anglican Bishop of Southwark Church of England
Bishop Michel Dubost Bishop Emeritus of Evry-Corbeil-Essonnes France
Archbishop Richard Gagnon Archbishop of Winnipeg Canada
Bishop William Kenney Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Birmingham England and Wales
Bishop Declan Lang Bishop of Clifton England and Wales
Bishop Donal McKeown Bishop of Derry Ireland
Archbishop William Nolan Archbishop of Glasgow Scotland
Archbishop Joan Enric Vives i Sicilia Bishop of Urgell and Co-Prince of Andorra Spain
Bishop Sithembele Sipuka Bishop of Mthatha South Africa
Bishop Paul Terrio Bishop Emeritus of St Paul Canada
Since 1998, the Bishops’ Conference’s Department for International Affairs has organised the annual meeting of the Coordination of Episcopal Conferences in Support of the Church of the Holy Land.
Diocese of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission 