Hexham and Newcastle Diocese: All Rise Picture Exhibition

Newcastle mother and child . Photo by Tom Quibell

St Cuthbert's and St Joseph's Parish in North Shields, saw the launch on 6 June of the 'All Rise' documentary photo exhibition. The photographer Tom Quibell created the exhibition. Over 60 people attended the including the local MP, the Rt Hon, Sir Alan Campbell, Chief Whip to the Cabinet.

This project pulls together images from North Tyneside, telling stories of how lives are being changed through the association with Citizens UK. People are engaging with local and national issues, in big and small ways, in personal growth and agency, connected to the principles of community organising and Catholic Social Teaching.

The exhibition displays how powerful ordinary people can be in organising for change.

Working with St Cuthbert's Primary, St Thomas More High School and Parent Action, the parish is an active member of the North Tyneside Hub of Tyne and Wear Citizens. Working together, the hub has successfully campaigned for road traffic calming measures, improved a local park, the installation of dog muck bins, cheaper bus fares for 23,000 young people in the North East, improving local mental health provision for young people and enabling a refugee family from Iraq to reside in an empty presbytery as part of the Government Resettlement Programme.

During the last election, the hub was given a pledge by the then Labour candidate, Sir Alan Campell, that he would support every school in England having a school-based counsellor.

The images seek to reflect the reality, emotion, and something of the parish's essence. The exhibition portrays the strong multi-cultural dimension of the parish at a time when parishioners are experiencing an increase in racist abuse. At the launch, one of the parishioners testified that she had been spat at recently while walking to church.

The exhibition manifests features shared by many coastal towns, which have witnessed urban decay but can still demonstrate great natural beauty. The exhibition also testifies to a community that is open and welcoming. Inspired by the Second Vatican, it seeks to be rooted in the diverse riches of the tradition, yet open to and willing to engage with the world around it.

The exhibition is in many ways an unexpected but welcome invitation from an external organisation to the local Catholic community, that says that we appreciate who you are as a community, and that your witness should be known by others. This invitation acknowledges we are complex web of relationship, of social, political, economic, geographical, global and demographic factors.

No Catholic community can be disconnected from those realities, but this exhibition reminds me that we are not powerless in changing the collective impact of all these factors. My 10 years in this parish and being involved in Community Organising, has shown that if we are willing to work with civic society, seeking the common good, change is possible, with communities and their members deepening relationships within and beyond our church walls.

Fr Chris Hughes is parish priest of St Cuthbert's and St Joseph's Parish in North Shields, Hexham and Newcastle Diocese.