Attendees: Father Bryan (FB), Mary O’Mahoney, Madeleine Howell, Simon Howell, Owen Clutton, Breda Ford, Roger Wright, Ellen Wright, Doreen Hairs, Caroline Price , Ted Lams , ??, ??, Paul Elliston, Rachel Elliston, David McCabe.
Father Bryan opened the meeting with a prayer from Just One Year by Timothy Radcliffe.
David asked those present to fill out a personal ranking form of various J&P issues that the group could become involved with. These will be collected and added together to form a group/parish ranking for action. The contact details forms would be available in the Church porch and could be left in the brown envelope pinned to the noticeboard. David had also printed some more “introductory packs”, containing a diary of J&P events throughout 2008, a summary of Catholic Social Teaching, a list of 116(!) J&P actions that we can all take, and other information.
Paul / Rachel Elliston presentation
Paul & Rachel will be flying to Peru to begin post-earthquake reconstruction work as part of the BMS World Mission.
They began by asking what Justice & Peace means to us. The answers were: Fair shares for all, removing inequalities, a fair legal system, fair working conditions, a free press, democracy, human rights, somewhere to live, minority rights, toleration and religious freedom.
They also discussed the biblical meaning of “shalom”, the concept of total peace and harmony in your relationship with God and other people.
Paul then quoted Pope John Paul II when in 2004 he discussed the Justice & Peace Council of 1967 and the importance of equality for all the human race, “ especially it’s poorest members”.
It is this interaction with the poor that is at the heart of the Bible, with poverty mentioned in it more than 2,000 times. Indeed Luke 4:16-21, often regarded as Jesus’ “mission statement”, mentions “bringing good news to the poor”.
We then split into pairs to study different passages from the New Testament related to Justice and Peace. From these we got the themes:
Awareness of others and our response to them, not searching for issues but being ready to deal with any that might come our way, holding wealth lightly, generosity, selfless giving, care for the under priviliged, God’s priorities are different from man’s, J&P work should begin and end with God, balancing God with wealth/material things, life isn’t possessions, focus on the outsider, recognising spiritual poverty, the pursuit of wealth alone is distructive.
Justice and Peace work was part of Jesus’ mission, therefore it should be part of ours.
Paul & Rachel then told us about their mission: They have signed up for a medium-term project (2-4 years) to help the reconstruction work in Chincha Alta, about 150 miles south of Lima, after the earthquake which struck there on 15th August 2007. In the nearby town of Pisco 80% of the buildings were destroyed in two minutes, the equivalent of two-thirds of Bromley Borough or an area twelve times the size of Petts Wood and Knoll. Schools, hospitals and roads were all destroyed in that area.
The ten areas of focus that they have been given by the Baptist representative in Lima are:
Provide training in textiles for local businesses, initiate guinea-pig (the national dish!) breeding programmes, develop home vegetable gardens, provide IT training, provide health education, educate the people in disaster prevention, undertake a child abuse prevention programme, set up self-help addiction prevention groups with familial help, and set up art and craft work for sale.
Obviously this is a wide ranging list and they would be grateful for any prayers or practical help that they can be given.
Specifically they would like us to pray that:
Their visas would soon be granted so that they can start work, that they would aquire the language quickly, that they would collect useful information ready for their roles, for their general preparation including what best to take, and that they are refreshed before they go, spiritually and otherwise.
We can follow the story at www.paulandrach.com and e-mail them at paul@paulandrach.com or rachel@paulandrach.com.
David mentioned that the Year Six parents at St James’ Primary School were thinking of raising funds to sponsor a teacher in the developing world. Paul said that in Peru the government normally provided the school building but that everything else including the teacher had to be paid for by the pupils’ families. He would let the group know if we could set up such a scheme in Chincha Alta.
The group then moved on to review action points from the previous meeting:
Hull Parish
Father Bryan said that nothing had happened since the change of Parish Priest in November. The previous PP had split our Parish’s original collection of £2,000 between three of the most needy Catholic families in the area.
Action: FB to telephone the new PP again.
Other Parish abroad?
We agreed that we should focus our efforts on the aid work in Peru, at least for the time being.
CAFOD/Fairtrade
David announced that Maria Jones had volunteered to become the CAFOD representative for the parish. He also reminded those present that Friday 15th February was the CAFOD Lenten fast day. FB confirmed that the second collection this Sunday will be for the CAFOD fast day.
David again mentioned the group’s original intention to make St James a Fairtrade Parish:
Fair Trade Parishes serve Fair Trade tea and coffee at all parish events and meetings, agree to promote Fair Trade more via posters, a stall or regular event, and organise an event once a year in Fair Trade fortnight (This year 25th Feb-9th Mar).
It had since been brought to his and Madeleine’s attention that Fair Trade tea and coffee had been tried in the parish previously and that parishoners had not liked them. The group however felt that Fair Trade products had greatly improved over the years and that they should be given “another chance”. It was decided that the Wednesday, 27th February coffee morning in the Social Centre after Mass should feature Fair Trade-only products. FB would talk about Fair Trade at the previous Sunday’s Mass if David would provide some background information.
Action: Madeleine / Caroline to organise 27th February coffee morning as part of Fairtrade Fortnight.
FB to speak about FairTrade at Sunday, 24th February Mass, David to provide FB with Fair Trade history.
David repeated the idea of asking another Petts Wood Church group to hold a stall in the Social Centre once a month after Parade Mass. We could then gauge demand and decide whether we wanted to start our own stall in the future.
Action: Madeleine to contact other Church group.
Homelessness
We again discussed the needs of the Manna Centre and how they are grateful for mugs, second-hand towels, men’s clothes and even furniture, which they would collect. FB agreed that we could organise a collection of clothes and other items and store them in the church or Social Centre until collected. This will probably be organised prior to Holy Week.
Action: Madeleine / David to organise with FB.
David mentioned other forthcoming events:
The Women’s World Day of Prayer on 7th March, for which the CWL are organising an event.
The Live Simply Event taking place in Manchester on 14th/15th March, which as FB pointed out unfortunately coincides with the peformances of the St John’s Passion!
The date of the next meeting, Tuesday 11th March, coincides with the Passover meal being organised by Doreen and FB.
Therefore that J&P meeting will form part of this larger celebration.
The next J&P meeting after this will follow the second Tuesday of each month rule (excluding August/December) and will therefore take place on Tuesday, 8th April.
Meeting concluded at 9.50pm