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 a parish eco-committee and are presently 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.
JOIN US ON OUR PILGRIMAGE OF THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO
The Care of Creation group invites you to the ‘virtual pilgrimage’ of the Camino de Santiago. Beginning on the 26th June 2024, we are encouraging all parishioners, who are able, to walk or cycle to church and to log the distance. You can also log any walks throughout the week too.
Together with Saint Cadoc’s and Saint Bridget’s, we hope we can generate enough miles to complete the entire Camino.
We hope you can all take part.
Visit Camino de Santiago – Saint Joseph’s Parish (stjosephclarkston.com) for more details and track our current position.
To log your distance travelled, there are log sheets in the church porches or you can submit through the online form on the located on the Camino page, linked above or click the image.
Faslane Peace Vigil
J&P would like to invite you to join us at our upcoming Faslane Peace Witness Vigil on Saturday 3rd August. The vigil will be led by Archbishop Nolan, President of Justice & Peace Scotland; Right Rev Shaw Paterson, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; and Bishop Andrew Swift, Bishop of the Diocese of Brechin of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Key details are below and in the attached flyer –
Date: Sat 3rd August
Time: 10.30am – 12pm
Location: South Gate, Faslane Naval Base
The Peace Vigil will take place on the weekend before the commemoration of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 6th and we are delighted to have three Christian faith leaders leading the vigil to mark this occasion.
We hope you can join us but whether you are able to make it or not, we would be grateful for any help you can provide in spreading the word to promote the Peace Vigil by sharing the flyer in your parishes, with your contacts or on social media (please tag us if you do the latter!). Very many thanks in advance – it is most appreciated.
Season of creation Conference 2024
The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration to pray and respond together to the cry of Creation. This year’s theme is “hope and act for creation”. The CCO is hosting the Conference to allow parishioners from across the country to come together and explore how we may hope and act for creation in our own dioceses and parishes and how we can act on the message of Pope Francis to care for our common home.
The key details are:
Date: Sat 7th September 2024
Time: 10am – 3pm
Location: St. Margaret’s, Raploch, Stirling
Tickets (booking is essential but free): www.tinyurl.com/46wmt9ah
The conference programme will include inputs from both J&P Scotland and SCIAF as well as a Keynote Address from Ben Wilson, Director of Public Engagement at SCIAF and member of the Holy See delegation at COP28, along with opportunities for networking and planning on how we can foster care for creation and Laudato Si activity in our parishes.
JUSTICE AND PEACE SCOTLAND STATEMENT ON THE PASSAGE OF ‘THE SAFETY OF
RWANDA (ASYLUM AND IMMIGRATION) BILL’ – 24th APRIL 2024
Justice & Peace Scotland are dismayed at the passing of the Safety of Rwanda Bill. This marks a terrible day for the upholding of international law, respect for human rights, and the progression of UK politics. Refugees and all who come to our shores are made in the image and likeness of God and should be treated with the dignity they deserve, not cruelty and inhumanity.
The Rwanda scheme would enable the Government to forcibly expel people seeking asylum – including children, torture survivors, and victims of war – putting them at grave risk of further harm and human rights abuses. People will be removed to a country they have no connection to, despite the ruling of our own country’s Supreme Court that it is unsafe for them.
It is a human right to seek asylum and those who come to the decision to leave their homes behind do not make the choice lightly. Human beings seeking asylum or migrating for a better life do so because of problems that other human beings create: they move because of violence, war, torture, oppression, persecution, political instability, poverty, hunger, and ultimately because they have no alternative.
The passing of this morally questionable act, that serves to only further traumatise some of the most vulnerable members of society, betrays who we are as a nation that has historically provided refuge to those in need, and undermines long-standing UK values of hospitality, welcome, friendship, and compassion.
The Rwanda scheme evidences a blatant disregard for international law as it violates the UK’s international legal obligations as a state party to the Refugee Convention. Protecting refugees requires cooperation and responsibility sharing from all countries, not just those adjacent to crisis zones, as clearly defined in the Convention and its associated legal instruments. The UK government, instead of continuing to sow seeds of division and hostility, should be pursuing practical measures to address irregular flows of refugees and migrants, based on international cooperation and respect for international human rights law.
In place of this inhumane and cruel policy, we echo calls for a new plan for supporting
refugees and an approach to asylum in the UK that is fair, kind, and gets the system working again for everyone. Specifically, we call for hospitable alternatives to the Rwanda plan that will safeguard refugees and their rights such as provision of a humanitarian visa scheme, allowing people to travel easily and access protection quickly; the expansion and better management of country resettlement schemes, such as those implemented for Syrians and Ukrainians; and the opportunity for those in need to apply for asylum before arriving in the UK, all of which would eliminate the need for people to travel here via irregular means.
Justice and Peace Scotland
e-mail: office@justiceandpeacescotland.org
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.
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
Say No to Assisted Suicide
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 MSP in opposition of this bill.
For more details and a letter/email template visit: Assisted Suicide – Catholic Parliamentary Office (rcpolitics.org)
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.
As of the 30th of April, the bill has been passed through the first round in the main parliament. It will now be redebated by a cross part committee of MSPs.
We are encouraged to write to our local MSPs to show our opposition to this ban.
For more details visit: www.spuc.org.uk/Article/385516/Scottish-Bill-proposes-massive-fines-for-pro-life-vigils
or for an email/letter template:
Buffer Zones – Catholic Parliamentary Office
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.
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.
WALK THE VIRTUAL CAMINO WITH US
The Care of Creation group invite you to the ‘virtual walk’ of the Camino de Santiago. Beginning on the 26th June 2024, we are encouraging all parishioners, who are able, to walk or cycle to church and to log the distance. You can also log any walks throughout the week too.
Together with Saint Cadoc’s and Saint Bridget’s, we hope we can generate enough miles to complete the entire Camino.
We hope you can all take part. Visit Camino de Santiago – Saint Joseph’s Parish (stjosephclarkston.com) for more details or if you wish to log your distance travelled online click on the link above.
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
We are currently in our summer recess.
Our next meeting: Tuesday 24th September in Saint Joseph’s meeting room at 7:30pm.
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.