Just Now December, 2008/January, 2009   Give us this day our daily bread How many times have we all said these words?  I probably did not think terribly deeply about them until the other day when, as part of a Churches Together event, I was in a group walking around our town.  We had each been asked to lead a prayer and reflection at different places in the town and my turn came in the market place.  I chose the above phrase as the basis of our   reflection and we then said the prayer together. Why am I mentioning this now?  Well, as Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor says in the article overleaf, we are not economists but we can pick up the effects of the present economic climate, particularly for the poor.  In the Lord’s Prayer we pray quite legitimately for bread to keep ourselves and our families healthy, but we do not pray for great surpluses.  The hidden meaning is that, if we have a surplus, we will    remember those whose situation does not allow them to have their daily bread.  It is an issue of justice. Signs of the Times In Matthew’s Gospel, we are challenged by Jesus to discern the signs of the times. We need to accept Jesus’ challenge and try to discern the signs of the times and then act accordingly.  One of the signs of the times that I discern is a real willingness by people to get involved and help where possible, but they (we) often need assistance to get started.  We are provided with this assistance in many ways. For example, the recent appeal by CAFOD for help in the Congo allowed us to provide support with very positive results.  Students in our schools have again sent Christmas cards to prisoners of conscience, whose names have been provided by ACAT.  If you would like to do this, information about ACAT is printed overleaf.  The livesimply challenge was only meant to last one year but was so well supported by so many people that it has been developed, not dropped.  The next stage, to accept a ’Community Challenge’, is outlined on the back page, a New Year resolution for 2009 perhaps! Good News to end with!  A parishioner in another part of the country was very concerned about an asylum seeker, a Catholic convert, who was about to be returned to her country of origin and her final appeal was to be held in Nottingham.  Could anyone in the Diocese befriend her and accompany her to the appeal hearing?  This was done and her   appeal was successful - another   example of the power of people working together, a very positive sign of the times!  With every best wish for a Happy Christmas from Rosy and me,                                                                               Paul Scola (Fieldworker) Our common bond: a fragile global financial system “Within a few weeks what began as a ‘credit crunch’ turned into a  financial crisis and has now become a global recession. Religious leaders are not normally economists, however, they cannot ignore the damaging human consequences of the rise and fall of economic indicators. Behind the gloomy headlines are cities, neighbourhoods, families, individuals deeply affected by the economic breakdown; and the hardest hit will be the poor: those already struggling to survive. Christians have a paramount concern for the poor. This ‘preferential option for the poor’ is a constant theme in Catholic social teaching. The biblical concept of justice implies that the justice of a community is measured by how it treats the powerless. And a ‘globalised’ world, must consider not only the poor and marginalised in the West, but also the eight hundred   million people outside it who are living in absolute poverty, together with the half a billion who are chronically hungry.” Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor in L'Osservatore Romano. November 2008 (The Roman Observer - the ‘semi-official’ newspaper of the Holy See) Who is my neighbour?- A Church response to social discord linked to gangs, drugs, guns and knives This is a report produced by Churches Together in England. Its recommendations include that churches should develop strategies to better support families, promote listening events for young people and encourage its own members to move back into deprived neighbourhoods; that the Government should empower local people to tackle these issues themselves, and encourage inter-faith and   inter-generational projects; that the police deepen their involvement with Restorative Justice projects and work closer with churches as key partners. To engage with local communities, Bishop Joe Aldred who led the research, is due to present the report in Nottingham and Leicestershire. Details in the accompanying Calendar. Contact the J+P office if you would like to see a copy of the   report or you can download it from   www.churches-together.net
	Advent Prayer   We reclaim this Holy Season – your gift to us: a poor, humble child in a stable – this is your idea of wealth, Creator God – to be surrounded by loved ones and animals in a lowly barn under the limitless stars of the clear night sky. So this Advent, we turn our back on waste, on excess and destruction, we vow to build up lives of simplicity, to use our gifts to nourish each other in loving community as sisters and brothers and to put the ‘waiting back into wanting.’   Livesimply  Community Challenges This new livesimply initiative encourages communities everywhere to take action for justice. Any community can get involved, large or small, from the flower-arrangers and altar servers at church to school tutor groups and religious. The challenges fall into five categories; learning, lobbying, lifestyle change, liturgy, and local action - and are sponsored by livesimply network members. www.livesimply.org.uk   Action by Christians Against Torture The aim of ACAT is to work, as Christians, for the abolition of torture worldwide. It seeks to increase awareness in the Churches and among Christians of the widespread and evil use of torture and the need, for reasons of Christian faith, to campaign for its abolition. There is a list at www.acatuk.org.uk  of those prisoners whom the organisation supports and invites Christmas cards to be sent. Please contact the J+P office if you would like the details and don’t have access to the internet. "Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured." Hebrews 13 v 3 Jan 18 Peace Sunday - Combating Poverty: building Peace "The scandal of poverty reveals the inadequacy of  current systems of human  coexistence in promoting the realisation of the common good. This imposes the need for reflection on the deep roots of material poverty and,     consequently, also on spiritual poverty which makes man indifferent to the suffering of others.” Pope Benedict’s Message for Peace  2009     ...and finally Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Bishop Malcolm will be leading a Diocesan Pilgrimage to The Holy Land from Tuesday 3rd  to Thursday 12th  November 2009.    It will be a comprehensive 10-day pilgrimage based in Jerusalem and Galilee.  For further details please contact: Rev Michael Moore, tel:  01724 844895   New DVD from Amos Trust Bethlehem - Hidden from View A 27 minute film, made with Tim and Mairi Neeves, focuses on the situation in Bethlehem and Hebron and the plight of the local Palestinian community. While geared toward churches, the film also holds a broader appeal. The film contains interviews with both Palestinian Christians and Jewish Israelis including Sami and Jeff, Rev Dr Mitri Raheb, Honey Thalijeh (captain of the Palestinian women's football team) and former Israeli Defence Force Commander Yehuda Shaul from ‘Breaking the Silence’. Extremely clear look at what life is like now in Bethlehem. £5 +p+p  www.amostrust.org    Fairtrade  Are you one of the 4,500 Churches making the connection between trade and poverty and signed up to Fairtrade? Resources; 020 7440 7676