NJPN North West Justice & Peace E-Bulletin, March 2018

Fr Godric Timney and Paul Kelly with St Anne's hard-working parishioners and their livesimply award

The latest newsletter from North-West Justice and Peace looks at issues ranging from aid agencies and safeguarding and human trafficking initiatives, to the acquittal of Christian activists protesting the arms trade. There is also a look at the work of schools in the North-West on Global Citizenship and guidance for prison visiting. Fairtrade Fortnight 26 February - 12 March will be celebrated, and large-scale signing of a petition to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. The newsletter's diary is extensive and useful.

A Liverpool parish recently won the Livesimply Award. Members of the community from St Anne's, Ormskirk, have been busy planning and completing initiatives to change their everyday actions to become more environmentally friendly and in solidarity with people in poverty. Last July, the church held a weekend of events which saw the parish sharing a lunch with a group of local asylum seekers, the children's group creating environment-themed artwork and other members of the community making individual pledges to go green. As well as this, the church holds annual collections for Asylum Link Merseyside, a charity supporting asylum seekers, and have hosted a Fairtrade breakfast, a 'swap shop' and even organised a botanical survey of the church gardens.

Fr Godric Timney, parish priest at St Anne's, said: "I am delighted that St Anne's has been awarded the livesimply award by CAFOD. For many years our parish has contributed thousands of pounds to the work of CAFOD and over the past year a group of committed parishioners has been encouraging us live simply by avoiding waste and using our resources thoughtfully. Receiving an award is but a stimulus to taking Pope Francis' constant encouragement to care deeply for our environment."

Paul Kelly of the NJPN Environment Working Group was one of the assessors.

The March 2018 newsletter is available at: www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/njpn-north-west/news-from-the-north-west-4/