Report from Northampton Diocese Justice & Peace Commission

Fr John Danford, Sacred Heart Church, Leighton Buzzard on Peace Sunday

A J&P activist from Leighton Buzzard, Tessa Wiseman gave the following presentation at Saturday’s meeting of the National Justice and Peace Network in Milton Keynes.

Our Commission was originally formed in 1986 and we now meet roughly four times a year, with the support of Bishop Peter Doyle. Normally 8-12 people will go to the meetings. The diocese is a rural diocese with a Catholic population of about 3%.

Our main activity as a Commission is our Conference that we hold annually. Our keynote speech is normally on the theology of Justice and Peace in a variety of aspects.

This year’s workshops are on Mental Health issues and the Church and on our Covenant with the Poor. This was suggested originally by the Bishop as something for us to focus on and we hope to finally promote it in the Diocese at the Conference in the workshop. We hope that all parishes in the Diocese will engage with the initiative. Previous workshops have included Interfaith, Sex trafficking, Climate justice, Pax Christi and Catholic Social Teaching on working with Prisoners and Prisons.

The ‘Walking Humbly’ process promoted by Bishop Peter as part of the Diocese Development plan identified J&P as being integral to every thriving Catholic Community. We have a variety of groups in the Diocese all engaged in a wide range of Justice and Peace issues.

In Northampton, the ecumenical Christian Network for Justice and Peace has been active for 16 years covering topics such as Palestine, land grabs and food speculation.

The parishes in Northampton are also involved in the Northampton soup kitchen. The Parish of Holy Family and St Johns in Luton has had a group for almost 30 years and have had enormous success fundraising (£90k over three decades) as well as a very successful Traidcraft stall selling over £5,000 of Fairtrade goods each year. Members of their group have been very active in the successful campaign to make Luton a Fairtrade town. The campaign has been organised by faith groups within the town. Sr Maire Hayes is very involved in Interfaith Dialogue in Luton through the Luton Council of Faiths. A ‘Sacred Space’ has been created in local WoodLand Trust property and there is a structured dialogue between women of different faiths.

The Central Bedfordshire Pastoral Area has organised a series of Pilgrimage Walks this Lent walking from one Parish to the next so that all parishes will be visited (today is the 2nd walk). This is to raise awareness of the Hungry for Change and IF campaigns as well as raising funds for CAFOD. Dunstable has recently opened a Food Bank and the impetus for action was from Christians including at the Catholic Church. The parish in Leighton Buzzard marked Poverty and Homelessness Action Week with a food collection for the local Homeless Service, as well as trying to mark other days such as Peace Sunday.

There is an active group in Slough in the South of the Diocese, involved in the London Soup Run and offering support to those in detention in Heathrow.

In some areas the Union of Catholic Mothers and Catholic Women’s League are involved in Justice and Peace issues without being integrated into the Commission.