We are the Saint Joseph’s Justice and Peace parish group. Our aim is to work within the Justice and Peace structure to formulate a response to justice issues locally and globally. We aim to do this by encouraging parishioners to take action through prayer, letter writing and/or appropriate non-violent actions.
Within this framework we have recently formed the parish Care of Creation deanery group and are at present recipients of the bronze eco-congregation award. We have formed a deanery group with Saint Bridget’s and Saint Cadoc’s and welcome parishioners from their parish to our meetings. Our aim is to encourage all to lead more environmentally friendly lives in a spiritual and practical way.
All are welcome.
The next meeting of the parish Justice and Peace/Care of Creation Deanery group is on the 25th November at 7.30pm in the Saint Joseph’s small meeting room.
Say No to Assisted Suicide
The current raised concern of the group is the Assisted Dying bills currently going through Holyrood and Westminster parliament.
This bill is proposing that anyone over the age of 16 years old, who is terminally ill, mentally competent and wishes to die can end their life.
The Bishop’s of Scotland have published a pastoral letter, “Called to care, Not to Kill”. They describe the proposals as dangerous and urge us to write to our MPs and MSP in opposition of this bill.
For more details and a letter/email template visit: Assisted Suicide – Catholic Parliamentary Office (rcpolitics.org)
Currently the Assisted dying bill is at Stage 2 at Holyrood and has been given to the lead committee. For more information on what this means and the proposed evidence timetable, click here.
Currently the bill is in the committee stage at the House of Lords in Westminster. For more information on what is happening and recent updates, click here.
About Justice and Peace Scotland
The Scottish Justice and Peace Commission was formed in 1979. Its function is to act as the bishops’ advisory body on issues of social justice, human rights, peace, development and integrity of creation. It also has the responsibility of raising awareness of these issues within the Catholic community in Scotland. It does this through networking and offering support to both existing and newly formed local Justice and Peace groups. Policy is formulated in the context of the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching under the supervision of the Bishops’ Conference.
The constituency of Justice and Peace is over a thousand people out of an active Catholic population in Scotland of slightly less than 200,00. Each of Scotland’s eight dioceses is entitled to send an official representative to the National Commission. There is also space for youth and ecumenical representatives as well as representation from religious, clergy and SCIAF.
There are several ongoing campaigns, including environment, human rights and social justice.
For more information on Justice and Peace and their campaigns, see justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk.
To read their current newsletter click here.
Justice & Peace Scotland join new international campaign to stop foreign complicity in Israel’s illegal settlement project
Justice & Peace Scotland has joined more than 80 civil society organisations worldwide to launch a new campaign, Stop Trade With Settlements, calling on governments to ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
The Trading with Illegal Settlements report issued today to launch the campaign details how foreign states and corporations sustain Israel’s prolonged occupation by trading with illegal settlements despite their status being recognised as a grave violation of international law.
For more information Click Here.
Turn Debt into Hope
More than 240,000 people globally have signed the Turn Debt Into Hope petition for debt justice placing people and planet before
profits.
This Jubilee Year – with its Biblical origins in debt forgiveness – join them in
calling for relief for 54 countries whose
development is crippled by repayments.
- Click here to sign the petition.
Dignity Not Detention
Those inside centres such as Dungavel, treated differently from nationals simply because of their origins, do not know how long they will remain there as their cases are heard, with the UK the only country in Europe where unlimited detention exists.
Justice & Peace Scotland will never turn its back on the stranger.
The next gathering is on Sunday, 30th November – Dignity Not Detention,
Solidarity Gathering, Dungavel IRC, 1pm to 1.45pm
No to Nuclear Weapons
More than £300 billion globally has been spent on nuclear weapons over the past five years. Leading to “shameful” reductions on how the world’s treasures could be deployed for the betterment of people and the planet. That was one of the messages delivered by Archbishop William Nolan at the No To Nuclear Weapons peace gathering at the South Gate of HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane at the start of this month.
Organised by Justice & Peace Scotland it served as a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which is estimated to have caused more than 210,000 deaths.
Saint Joseph’s Justice and Peace
The Saint Joseph’s Justice and Peace group was one of the first to be formed after the formation of the Justice and Peace commission.
We have had much success over the years, campaigning through letter writing and lobbying. We have also moved to hosting open evening talks on a range of topics. These are under the heading of Integrating Life and Faith.
Current campaigns
War in Gaza
We are praying for all those affected in the war in Gaza and hope that the current ceasefire agreement shall allow for some peace in the region.
The following statement was released in April 2024 in time for Father Gabriel Romanelli’s visit Glasgow from Arch Bishop Nolan and Rev. Sally Foster-Fulton, Moderator of the Church of Scotland. Click here to read the statement in full.
The Church of Scotland moderator wrote to the new foreign secretary on the war in Gaza. Click here to read the full letter.
SCIAF
A SCIAF campaign appealing for spiritual and financial support for the people in Gaza and encouraging us to write to MPs condemning the violence, calling for an immediate ceasefire and asking for signatories to their petition.
To sign the petition and more details visit: What does 2024 have in store for Gaza? | SCIAF
Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)
We are currently concerned about the proposed bill of introducing ‘Safe Access Zones’ around abortion clinics. This “buffer zone” law would be the most extreme of its kind in the world and anticipates criminalising ‘audible prayer‘ and ‘silent vigils‘ and will even criminalise certain actions within private homes.
We are encouraged to write to our local MSPs to show our opposition to this ban.
This has been made an act in the Scottish Government.
Conversion Therapy Ban
The Scottish Government is consulting on banning so-called “gay conversion therapy” with a view to bringing forward legislation
The Scottish Bishops are not alone in raising concerns that, as it stands, it will have the effect of criminalising sensitive conversations between parents and their children as well as mainstream prayer, preaching and pastoral conversations which uphold church teaching on sexual ethics and gender.
For more information click here
There is currently a bill coming through the UK parliament which is in it’s second reading. To read the bill and current status, click here.
Care of Creation Group (Deanery Group)
The newly formed parish deanery group, with Saint Cadoc’s and Saint Bridget’s hopes to heighten awareness of environmental issues and respond by leading more environmentally friendly lives. We use references from the Holy Father encyclical “Laudato Si” and “Laudato Deum”. Working within the eco-congregation framework we are hoping to work our way to a silver award in the future.
More information about eco-congregation and its aims can be found here: ecocongregationscotland.org.
As part of our aim to live more green lives, the Deanery group has become part of the East Renfrewshire Eco Hub network. Our hope is we can better connect with all communities in our local area to work towards reducing our carbon footprint.
Our mission
The East Renfrewshire Climate Action Hub (ERCAH) was set up to bring together people, community groups, and organisations across the area to support joined up, community-led climate action.
The Hub aims to encourage collaboration, facilitate knowledge and resource sharing, and support groups and individuals on starting their climate action journeys. Our goal is to improve community wellbeing and help create a climate-ready East Renfrewshire.
Who we are
ERCAH is facilitated by Voluntary Action East Renfrewshire SCIO. We are part of a national network of hubs funded by the Scottish Government. The goal of the hubs is to help Scotland make a fair and just transition to Net Zero.
More information on the Scottish Government’s community-led climate action and Net Zero programme can be found here.
Current Events
The scrapping of Climate Targets by the Scottish Government
On the 18th of April 2024, the Scottish government announced that it was scrapping the target of reducing emissions by 75% by 2030. The 2045 target of Net Zero will remain in place. The government had missed 8 out of 12 of their annual targets and were warned that this made the flagship goal unachievable. This is of great concern to us as we are required to act now to prevent significant impact to our world.
As a community, we must focus on making active choices in our lives, that are better for our environment and promote a green lifestyle. This can be achieved in several ways. As your eco-committee we hope we can provide information and assistance to help live a more eco way of life.
Meeting details and recent minutes
The next meeting of the parish Justice and Peace/Care of Creation Deanery group is on the 25th November at 7.30pm in the Saint Joseph’s small meeting room.
Click Here to access the most recent minutes
Previous minutes
Contact us
We welcome all new members, please contact John Seenan if you are interested.
Telephone: 01416442725.