Feb 2010 Preparing for the General Election Over the coming weeks as key organisations such as Church Action on Poverty and CAFOD publicise their election materials, the Commission intends to make selections available to parish contacts. This is to inform people from our faith perspective and encourage everyone to feel able to contribute to local radio phone-ins, local newspaper correspondence and husting meetings with candidates. Already you can see ‘Faith in Politics’ on the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website www.ctbi.org.uk/pdf_view.php?id=423   ‘We should remember that encyclicals are not just addressed to the great and the good, but also to each one of us, “all people of goodwill”. Politicians have to respond to their citizens. And if we want them to change, to act, on climate change, on the environment, on poverty – if we want new ethical values in our politics and economy – then we too have responsibilities: to make our wishes plain, to get out and make the case to other members of the public who may not agree with us, and to live responsible, sustainable lives ourselves’. Tim Aldred Advocacy Manager Progressio   To register for CAFOD election materials go to http://www.cafod.org.uk/election   ‘World Poverty Day' Watch out especially for this day which the three main parties have agreed to have soon after the the election is called. This commitment has been made to ‘Bond’ - the network of 150 civil society organisations including CAFOD. The day will give party leaders the opportunity to put forward their views on international development and for the differences between their policies to be made clear. The Bond manifesto Vote Global sets out a set of demands based on ending world poverty, inequality and stopping climate chaos. Membership of political parties is falling whilst membership of special interest and campaigning groups is rising. Political parties need to make sure they listen to and represent people’s wider political interests. www.bond.org.uk/data/files/resources/501/Vote-Global-UK-international-development-manifesto.pdf   Citizens for Sanctuary An alliance of faith, citizen and refugee groups is celebrating success after the UK Border Agency and Nottingham City Council responded positively to their campaign for local reporting for local people seeking sanctuary, at a meeting in the Council House in January. An election campaign can be found at http://sanctuarypledge.org.uk   This asks politicians to act responsibly using the word ‘sanctuary’ instead of ‘asylum’ as this term has been found to be understood positively by the public. The main concern is to bring an end to the detention of children and families for immigration reasons.   How to get food at an affordable price and have more control over where it comes from. www.sustainweb.org/foodcoops/ Alissa Pemberton is the East Midlands advisor. alissa@sustainweb.org            Money back for renewable energy! From April 1st households or communities which install low-carbon technology such as solar photovoltaic (pv) panels and wind turbines up to 5 megawatts will be paid for the electricity they generate, even if they use it themselves. Retrofit PV electricity will be paid at 41.3p kWh. The average cost is 13p kWh so the initial investment (+ savings on bills) will be more attractive.   The 50th Anniversary celebration of what has been achieved and what continues to be achieved in tackling poverty worldwide. How are you celebrating it?                   www.cafod.org.uk/fastday A special Lenten fast Give up harsh words: use generous ones. Give up unhappiness: take up gratitude. Give up anger: take up gentleness and patience. Give up pessimism: take up hope and optimism. Give up worrying: take up trust in God. Give up complaining: value what you have. Give up stress: take up prayer. Give up judging others: discover Jesus within them. Give up sorrow and bitterness: fill your heart with joy. Give up selfishness: take up compassion for others. Give up being unforgiving: learn reconciliation. Give up words: fill yourself with silence, and listen to others. Anonymous, Latin America www.cafod.org.uk/worship/lent-and-easter   The Big Swap        165 million cups of tea are drunk in the UK every day. Tetley, PG Tips, Typhoo, Twinings and Yorkshire Tea account for 72% of the UK tea market. All of them have taken steps to improve practice in the tea sector but so far none of them have become Fairtrade. If just one of these brands went Fairtrade it could make a real difference to the lives of thousands of small-scale farmers and workers. Fairtrade is the only scheme which guarantees tea producers a minimum price for their tea and gives an extra premium payment to invest in their community. You can send an email to the companies here: www.makeitfair.org.uk/take-action/   ‘If the global credit crunch has done anything, then it has shown how irresponsible behaviour by a few can have a massive impact on the many, and more often than not on those least able to address the problems that arise. Once we recognise that such systems are human, this empowers us to believe that they can change so as to take into account those who are in greatest need. The Catholic tradition of striving for the common good is global and universal in extent. The belief that all human beings have a right for their basic needs to be met is also universally held across different cultures and traditions. This is the essence of what we mean by natural law being embedded in different human societies’. Celia Deane-Drummond in ‘Seeds of Hope – facing the challenge of climate justice’. Pub. CAFOD £5.00   ‘Peace News’ There were four highlights to the day I spent at the ‘Winter Gathering’. Sr. Susan is the first member of a ‘Catholic Worker Community’ I have met. The Dorothy Day-inspired Oxford house sounded a relaxed place of welcome.  Hearing the legendary co-founder of ‘food not bombs’ Keith McHenry speak about the international movement was inspirational – ‘how to turn your yard into a garden and your neighbourhood into a community’ had a lot to say to the low-carbon, peak-oil challenges that many groups are now addressing. By his own admission George Farebrother ‘became radicalized’ late in life in the campaign against nuclear weapons. At his initiative 3.8 million declarations of conscience were collected. This led to the 1996 Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice which went 90% of the way to recognising that nuclear weapons are illegal. Citizens creating law remains his focus in the Institute for Law and Peace (InLAP). One way to do this is by engaging with officials within the Ministry of Defence. I was glad to hear that there is support available for getting beyond the ‘Britain would never do anything illegal’ routine response. If you are interested in knowing more, please contact Rosy at the J+P Office.
	Enough for all – 12 Baskets This is one of the downloadable resources for Poverty and Homelessness Action Week Sat 30 Jan- Sun 7 Feb It presents ‘loads of ways to share stuff better and help each other through the recession. The recession is not just a crisis but also a time for us to explore new ways of doing things. We have had enough of an economic system built on greed and selfishness. There is another way. There us a growing gap between rich and poor. This is not only immoral, it is bad for all of us, harming our health and happiness. But we can close that gap. There is enough for all. Enough food, enough resources, enough money, enough homes, enough love, enough joy. But there is only enough if we don’t retreat into our shells. We must greet our neighbours, give what we can, and share our ideas, hopes, goods and skills. Our churches and communities contain a wealth of skills and resources, including many we don’t know about yet. Can we rediscover and share them? www.actionweek.org.uk   Is our search for security and prosperity costing the earth? This was the theme of  Pope Benedict’s  message for Peace Sunday 2010 Jan 17th   • In 2009 the UK budget for defence was £38 billion yet the budget for work to reduce UK carbon emissions was £1.4 billion. • Many recent wars and conflicts have been about access to resources - oil in Iraq, water in Northern Kenya and Israel and Palestine, minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They have cost thousands of lives. • Wars cause direct harm to the earth: damaging water supplies and causing water shortages, destroying farm lands and food supplies. Whole life-systems are affected. • The heavy military use of oil and other fossil fuels in war and war preparations contributes to climate change. www.paxchristi.org.uk/index.html for downloadable resources   Sweat Shops A new report, Let’s Clean Up Fashion 2009, issued by two organisations, Labour behind the Label and War on Want, has exposed leading British fashion retailers who have failed to ensure a living wage for their workers. It shows that the majority of workers in the global fashion industry rarely earn more than two dollars a day in an industry worth over £36 billion a year in the UK alone. Many have to work excessive hours just to get this meagre amount and have no possibility to earn the wages needed to properly feed, clothe, house and educate their families. The report looks at 25 top brands and concludes that low wages are a result of a ‘race-to-the bottom’ to keep prices as low as possible in order to maintain sales and market share. Most of the retailers you can think of are in the report and while some say they have plans to improve the lot of the sweat shop workers many either failed to give information or admitted that they had no plans to taken any action. Companies which have made some progress towards a ‘living wage’ were Gap, Marks & Spencer, Monsoon Accessorize, New Look, Next and Primark To read the report go to www.waronwant.org/letscleanupfashion2009                      Celebrating the Changing Face of our Diocese At the 25th Anniversary event of the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ), Archbishop Vincent Nichols urged everyone to act on the challenge laid down by Pope Benedict’s latest Encyclical ‘Caritas in Veritate’ to use globalisation to make us brothers and sisters. Iona Thomas from Sacred Heart Parish, Leicester, represented Nottingham Diocese at the day. In a phone call before the event she reflected with me on the continuing need to recognize the difficulties which people can encounter in this society where racism and intolerance are still present. In his talk, John Battle MP said “The Church has to mix solidarity and prayer together in real action. We must reach out to neighbours so community can be built between brothers and sisters in their own neighbourhoods.” The impact of Islamaphobia was raised by Khola Hasan who works in the area of Interfaith Dialogue. He said that Muslims continue to be portrayed as violent and extreme while ‘the amazing amount of charitable work’ in which they are involved was ‘does not make the news.”  This point had been made at our own Diocesan Assembly ‘One Body, many parts’ last month. Bishop Malcolm in referring to people of faiths other than Christian, promoted a ‘dialogue of life’ ‘where people work together for common local purposes as well as some national issues where we share common values’. If you are a member of an organization and are willing to represent the Justice and Peace Commission at events, please get in touch with the Office and tell us– your part-time fieldworkers can’t get to everything! (specially when we’re trying to increase our use of public transport!)     126 Boxes for Seafarers! North East Lincs J+P group wrapped all these gifts for Christmas  distribution by the Immingham Mission.   As part of Justice and Peace work to implement the Diocesan Commitment to the Environment, we are promoting the 10:10 Campaign. This is aiming for a reduction of 10% in carbon emissions during 2010.   About two-thirds of the average 14-tonne annual total per person in the UK comes from the way we run our homes, our personal transport and the things we buy. If you have already committed to this in your household, your office or your church please let us know how it’s going. Whatever the outcomes in Copenhagen we know that cuts need to happen now. www.1010uk.org
	Autumn 2009 Learning Opportunities Would you like to explore a variety of J&P issues? Could a learning event raise awareness of these issues in your parish? Might it result in more people being involved? Included in the mailing is an outline of a number of short learning modules which the J&P team can put on in your parish. The first module on Catholic Social Teaching we see as the base module on which the others are built. The other churches have called Catholic Social Teaching our best kept secret because it is rooted firmly in the Bible and made relevant to the world today. Caritas in Veritate is an excellent example, well received and praised across the Christian churches. The other modules are suggestions only. We are prepared to design modules to respond to any ideas you may have. The sessions would last about two hours. They would be participative aiming to create situations which allow participants to experience the reality of life for people struggling to improve their lives. We are keen to look at local issues as well as problems in the wider world. In looking at local issues, such as homelessness for example, we would want to involve people working on the ground with homeless people. This could be an opportunity to work with other churches or groups in your area. Please call the J&P team for further information and to discuss your ideas. ‘Canticles and Compost’ I’d never been on a ‘Catholic People’s Week’ event before. The title attracted me. I found the eco-study centre Ringsfield Hall in Suffolk a house full of beauty. The grounds are set up to provide a ‘free-range’ experience for the school groups who come in term time. That suited us too. Mike Monaghan kept our focus on the inspiration of St Francis. We returned several times to the Canticle of Brother Sun. Once it was for night prayer at the fire-pit, led by the young people, another time my sister shared her birthday gift of rose-oil - each person anointed another participant after we had considered the verse on ‘sister death’. Challenge came in the Carbon Footprint exercise and the Green audits we did. Recognition was given to the fact that at the moment it is easier being planet-friendly if you’re retired and fortunate enough to be physically active with a sufficient income to make low-carbon choices but so much more difficult if jobs require a lot of travelling. As Mike said; ‘I’m only putting the facts, it’s for you to make conclusions.’ After one session where Mike got us to face up to the new epoch in which we are living when not just the carbon cycle but the global water and nitrogen cycles have also been contorted by the industrial processes of the last 200 years, he announced that despite this critical state of God’s earth he had still been able to make a list of 50 reasons to give hope! On a slow return to the Midlands we stayed at a B+B which had grown produce for local shops until the late 80’s when Supermarket dominance destroyed the business – a feature which the film ‘A Farm for the Future’* dealing with issues of food security, touches on. But the next day we ate at a pub which was producing bio-dynamically 85% of the food it sold. That day we had the chance to visit the Swaffham Eco-tech Centre – local people had campaigned for wind power and have been benefiting from it for 10 years! Rosy www.ringsfield-hall.co.uk www.catholicpeoplesweeks.org.uk  * a dvd of this can be borrowed from the office.   Great news: the government is delaying the decision on the next stage of Trident replacement. It has decided to wait until after the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference which takes place in May of next year. The Conference is likely to have the most serious international discussion on nuclear disarmament for decades. Real progress is possible and the government's delay decision makes a positive contribution to the Conference's prospects. More is being heard from the Government about Trident replacement not being affordable. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) says the UK government decision to revoke five arms export licences to Israel is a welcome move but far too little, far too late. The licences cover spare parts for guns on the Sa'ar ships which fired into civilian settlements on the Gaza coastline during Israel's assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009. The move comes after a review of UK arms exports to Israel by Foreign Secretary David Miliband. CAAT spokesperson Kaye Stearman said ‘This episode shows that we don't know how UK components, whether exported directly to Israel or via the US, will be used. The only effective and ethical action is an immediate embargo on arms and components - this would help to protect the people of Gaza and the West Bank and send a meaningful message to the Israeli government about its policy towards the Occupied Territories.’ Citizens for Sanctuary Nottingham is one of 19 places around the country where Campaign Action Teams have been set up with the intention of implementing the recommendations of the Independent Asylum Commission of 2008. These use a methodology developed by the London Citizens Foundation to campaign for changes which are both worthwhile and winnable. Diocesan J+P is taking an active part in this initiative.   Lord of energy Lord of energy, teach us to pray … Our Creator - source of all power, we want to align ourselves like iron filings to your magnet. We want to be drawn to your intent; to live in a society that responds to your beckoning, to feel the surge of your life-giving energy. Grant us wisdom in our use of physical energy. Help us to live by the standards we choose, not those of others: to focus our desire on you, not the fake comforts of modern living, to be satisfied by a sense of your love, not our own power or status. Because we know that your way is the only true way, that everything we love and are is a gift from you, and that to know you as our Creator is to glimpse eternity. A prayer by John Polhill taken from the materials for the Climate Change Day of Prayer suggested as 4th October. www.christian-ecology.org.uk/day-of-prayer.htm   SUMMER 2009 National Justice and Peace Conference ‘On the road together’ - the Conference title for the annual gathering of the Justice and Peace Network had a special meaning for my companion. Having been in UK for 10 years seeking sanctuary after fleeing Zimbabwe, he had only just received refusal of his claim and was returning to his accommodation to await eviction. However, from all over the country we heard how refugees and migrants are finding fellowship in their local communities – Don Flynn with 35 years experience of following immigration issues told us that churches are significant players in providing practical responses to need. He believes that the call to regularise the status of undocumented migrants and overhaul the asylum system which at present ‘is incapable of identifying people in need of protection’ will have support in the next parliament. From 'London Citizens' lead organiser Neil Jamieson we heard how Christians are supporting actions to counter destitution which can be regarded as the current ‘policy of starvation’ for failed asylum seekers. When my companion is evicted he has been assured by a wide network of compassionate Christians that they will continue to accompany him. Bishop Patrick Lynch spoke of such a pastoral approach as being directly inspired by the Emmaus story – listening, walking-with and sharing, leading to empowerment and hope. Rosy Townsend Social Housing MP Bob Laxton was among 60+ MPs who had the policy calls of the ‘Get Fair’ Coalition brought to their attention in the recent Constituency Lobby. The issue of the failure of social housing supply to meet the needs of the population was raised with him by members of the Derby Churches Justice and Peace Group. The UK already had a housing crisis, the impact of the recession is making it worse. The poorer the area, the longer the waiting lists. Alastair Murray of ‘Housing Justice’ made clear when he spoke at the Nottingham Cathedral ‘Changing Face of Britain’ event in June that stress on availability of affordable housing leads to the ‘scapegoating’ of vulnerable sections of society. Myths circulate about migrants from new EU states getting social benefits immediately on arrival in the UK whereas they are entitled to no support for the 1st 52 weeks. Get Fair’s call for the Government to invest an additional £6.35 bn over the next two years to build 100,000 new social rented homes received the response of an investment of £1.5bn to build only 20,000 new affordable homes in the ‘Building Britain’s Future’ plans at the end of the month.     God's love calls us to move beyond the limited and the ephemeral, it gives us the courage to continue seeking and working for the benefit of all, even if this cannot be achieved immediately and if what we are able to achieve, alongside political authorities and those working in the field of economics, is always less than we might wish.  God gives us the strength to fight and to suffer for love of the common good, because he is our All, our greatest hope. Pope Benedict XVI Caritas in Veritate   Currency Trading Interested in reforms of Financial markets? Impatient that the 0.7% of national income promised as Aid way back in 1970 has never been achieved? Concerned about meeting the Millennium Development Goals? Then join the campaign to establish the case for a Currency Transaction Levy to help raise billions of pounds by a levy of 0.005% on all currency trading. A ten-minute film can be viewed at; www.stampoutpoverty.org/film/?bw=512 $3,000 bn worth of currency is traded every day but the currency market unlike other financial markets is currently exempt from taxation. If there was a Sterling Stamp Duty of less than one hundredth of one per cent it would raise in the region of £2bn a year.   Nuclear Hope Bruce Kent Vice President of Pax Christi has welcomed the outline agreement by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev  to cut back their nations' stockpiles of nuclear weapons "The Obama-Medvedev agreement on nuclear weapons is a very positive sign indeed. In Cairo President Obama made clear  America's commitment to seek a world in which no nation holds nuclear weapons. This agreement, and his previous cut in funding for a new US nuclear warhead, are positive signs that he is serious. It sends the right signals to the participants at next year's Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty review conference. Nuclear abolition is now on the agenda of the world's most powerful state. This new initiative should be responded to positively by the British Government. It is absurd for Britain to be planning, at vast expense, to renew Trident and thus remain a nuclear power for the next 50 years".   Our Climate is in Our Hands The parish of St Francis Long Eaton recently held a mid-week evening liturgy based on CAFOD Climate Justice material. Members of the Justice and Peace Group spoke at all masses over one weekend. and afterwards parishioners signed the CAFOD Action cards. Encouraged by everyone’s response they took the campaign action to Long Eaton Community Carnival. Children drew round their hands on a roll of lining paper while other people found out about the need to put poor communities at the heart of the agenda of December’s United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen. The parish group is planning to have more liturgies on environmental justice in the autumn and build support for the Climate March on December 5th.   DO LET US KNOW WHAT JUSTICE AND PEACE ACTIVITIES YOUR PARISH IS INVOLVED WITH!   Tipping Point for Fairtrade? Cadbury’s flagship brand Dairy Milk is now available in shops as a Fairtrade certified product. 300 million bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk are sold each year in the UK and Ireland, so this will be a tipping point for Fairtrade. For the cocoa farmers of Kuapa Kokoo co-op in Ghana, where Cadbury already sources its cocoa, the move will see their Fairtrade sales triple. They will sell a much larger percentage of their cocoa as Fairtrade, getting a fairer price and a much greater range of farmer and community support. The increase in sales will also help existing certified farming groups such as Belize Sugar Cane Farmers’ Association. This development is also set, to help secure the future of cocoa farming in India, Indonesia and the Caribbean, where the industry is facing ever increasing challenges. There is still a great distance to go to make every chocolate bar fairtrade. Even with this increase in sales, the fairtrade market will account for only one twelfth of the cocoa sold - even in Ghana.   ‘Hidden from View’ Parishioners of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Bulwell enjoyed a Tea provided by the Justice and Peace Group after Saturday vigil Mass in July before a showing of this short film about Bethlehem. One response which was discussed to what was shown about life under the Israeli occupation was to contact local supermarkets to ask them to stop stocking products which may have been grown on land taken by the illegal settlements.   Are you involved in Transition? A key feature of the Transition movement which is addressing the two challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change is its emphasis on resilient communities. Basic to this is the development of local food production, local energy sources, transport and sustainable housing. The current economic instability is driven by the idea of continuous growth, which uses up the Earth’s finite resources and is caused by the monetary policy of lending with interest, which makes growth necessary to recover debt. Community banks could provide loans to savers without interest, as practised in a number of successful banking schemes in Sweden, Switzerland and other countries. Several Transition communities now issue local currencies, though there is no blueprint for success. As the Transition website puts it: "Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale. What we are convinced of is this: if we wait for governments, it’ll be too little, too late. If we act as individuals, it will be too little. If we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time." www.transitiontowns.org   Please contact your Justice and Peace Fieldworkers Rosy Townsend and Tony Prior with any requests for support. We look forward to visiting your Parish.   ·