Justice and Peace
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Jesus’ ministry was jam packed with teaching about issues of justice and peace. So any Christian church will naturally be concerned about justice and peace! At St Mary’s our Justice and Peace Group creates opportunities for the congregation and the wider community to become more closely and effectively engaged in issues falling under the following four broad categories:
We think the way to do this is to offer
Our three-times-a-year bulletin ‘World Watch’ aims to helping readers focus their prayers and action. ....................................................................................................... Christian Aid Clean Water, Sierra Leone Christian Aid week Five Talents Tanzania I am Ronnie Barker Debt free and beyond! Nightstop Northeast World Watch We want your old spectacles Prayers for Justice and Peace Christian Aid
Christian Aid is a Christian organisation that believes the world can and must be swiftly changed so that everyone can live a full life. Christian Aid has a vision – an end to poverty – and we believe that vision can become a reality. St Mary’s has two principal working links with Christian Aid:
Raising money, lowering disease and infant mortality
Robin and Benjamin join members of St Mary's Justice and Peace Group for the presentation of a cheque for £5,000 to Judith Sadler, Christian Aid's Regional Manager, for a Clean, safe water project in Sierra Leone.
Church members and friends raised the money in nine months as partners of Christian Aid, which means they were able to claim 3-to-1 matched funding from the European Union development budget, effectively providing £20,000 for the project.
Through the training of community members in good sanitation practice
and the construction of wells and latrines, the health of people living in the small communities where the project is centred has already started improving. Sixty volunteers from 23 communities have been trained to provide leadership for the project as a whole. Training has also been given to others in hygiene promotion and water pump maintenance.
Five Talents
As a church, we’ve been learning about, and supporting ‘Five Talents’ over the last couple of years. Five Talents is a microfinance initiative set up by the worldwide Anglican church. Working with local partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Five Talents is fighting poverty in the developing world by creating jobs. They do this mainly by making small business loans. The loans start at just £25 – enabling an entrepreneur to start or build a small business, helping him or her, plus family, co-workers and their families. The kind of people who have successfully applied for loans just about survive, but haven’t the money to turn a business idea into a reality that would bring in enough money to feed their families properly, pay for schooling and healthcare, perhaps create a few jobs. People in that situation are unlikely to live anywhere near a bank, and even less likely to get a loan from them any way. Without savings, a bank account or collateral of any kind, the only way they’re likely to get a loan is through a project like ‘Five Talents’. There are over 13,000 individual loans in circulation with the average loan being just £68. The work of Five Talents is constantly monitored by local business advisers to ensure they are lending to people at the lowest poverty levels. It is inspiring to know that such small amounts can make such a big difference to people who would otherwise live in complete poverty, with little hope for a better life. The work of Five Talents helps to develop local economies and encourages independence rather than dependency on grants. Do look at their website, www.fivetalents.org.uk, and read about how tiny loans achieve huge differences, and great satisfaction as loans are repaid and recycled. Sandy Toksvig reported on a Five Talents funded project for BBC Lifeline in Tanzania in 2010.
....................................................................................................... Tanzania ‘Sandy Toksvig visiting Tanzania for BBC Lifeline’
Sandy Toksvig reported on some of the 1,000+ members of Five Talents’ local partner, the Mama Bahati Foundation (MBF). MBF was founded by Bishop Donald Mtetemela in February 2006. Its members are exclusively women, reflecting the Foundation’s belief in combating poverty whilst moving towards gender equality. Many of the women are involved in businesses such as agriculture, handicrafts, retail shops, hair salons, tea rooms and secretarial services. Sandy Toksvig, moved to tears by the strength and drive of these women, described them as ‘the Alan Sugars of Tanzania’. Initial loans averaged £24 (in a country where there are 9 million rural people living in poverty, and where 60% of the population live on less than $2 a day). The loan repayment rate is 92%. I am Ronnie Barker---or am I?
(A story from a Five Talents supporter)
In the well known height, class, wealth sketch, tall, bowler hatted John Cleese was the wealthy, upper class, city gent; medium height, trilby hatted Ronnie Barker was the middle class, white collar worker; and short, cloth capped Ronnie Corbett the poor, lower class, blue collar worker. Everyone knew their place and their station in life.
885 million people don't have access to clean water
Debt Free and Beyond!
In early 2010, Christians Against Poverty (CAP) launched a centre offering free debt counselling, advice and support to people in the Whitley Bay area. In partnership with Acorn Community Church, CAP works with all members of the local community (regardless of religious belief) negotiating with creditors to work out a realistic budget for clients, which prioritises food and essential bills to ensure they will be debt free within five years. CAP aims to show God’s love in action by providing sustainable poverty relief, bringing hope and a solution to otherwise hopeless situations. CAP’s unique ‘hands on’ approach empowers people to help themselves out of poverty, bringing release from fear, oppression and worry generated by overwhelming debts. CAP also teaches vital budgeting skills to last a lifetime. Before coming to CAP:
90% of clients say that since contacting CAP, their lives have changed for the better. Here’s what some clients say:
Centre Manager, Julia Wilthew says ‘The worst thing someone in debt can do is stay silent; being in debt is nothing to be ashamed of. So anyone in financial difficulty is urged to contact CAP on 0800 328 0006.’
More information can be gained from www.capuk.org or contacting Julia Wilthew on 07944241862 or email juliawilthew@capuk.org. .....................................................................................................................................................
Nightstop North east
On Homelessness Sunday Paul Marriott, Chief Executive of DePaul UK, was interviewed at our main service about DePaul’s work with young people, particularly in Whitley Bay, where the Trust manages projects originally set up in the 90s by Churches Acting Together. In a moving and inspiring talk, one of the newer initiatives Paul described was the Nightstop scheme. Nightstop provides emergency accommodation in the homes of local volunteers for young people aged 16-25 on a night by night basis. The scheme has volunteers across the North East, including Whitley Bay. Each volunteer provides a private bedroom, an evening meal and breakfast, washing facilities and toiletries. Nightstop staff assist the young person to find a longer term solution to his or her housing need and to address any other issues they may have. This could involve referring a young person to housing providers and specialist services, as well as providing day to day support whilst they are using the service. Young people can also be assisted to return home if appropriate. Nightstop has recently achieved 1,000 night-stays in the North East in its first two years, but is still looking for more hosts. If you’d like to know more, please ring DePaul UK’s Whitley Bay office, on 0191 253 6161. There’s an excellent You Tube clip at www.depauluk.org/projects/nightstop-north-east/. ....................................................................................................... We want your old spectacles
www.robinsonoptometrists.co.uk Judith and Nigel Robinson, local ophthalmologists and part of the St Mary’s community, can make excellent use of your old spectacles (at their practice in Monkseaton, or via St Mary’s Church Office). The spectacles go to Vision Aid Overseas (VAO), and via them to people in developing countries where spectacles are too expensive or simply not available. After delivery to VAO Headquarters in Crawley, the spectacles are rough sorted to eliminate any which are clearly unsuitable before being passed to one of their partner prisons. Selected prisoners are trained by VAO volunteers to carry out a more detailed examination of the spectacles before grading the lenses and packing them. VAO provides optical instruments, hand tools and packing materials to the prisoners for whom such work is a valuable step towards rehabilitation. So you see (as it were!), your gift of old spectacles, worthless to you, can achieve more than one helpful result. Please be conscientious – most of us spectacle wearers have an old pair tucked away somewhere – seek them out! And don’t stop there: spread the word to your family and friends. .......................................................................................................
Prayers for Justice and Peace Make your ways known upon earth, Lord God, your saving power among all peoples. Renew your Church in holiness and help us to serve you with joy. Guide the leaders of this and every nation, that justice may prevail throughout the world. Let not the needy be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor be taken away. Make us instruments of your peace and let your glory be over all the earth.
Lord God, you hold both heaven and earth in a single peace. Let the design of your great love shine on the waste of our anger and sorrow, and give peace to your Church, peace among nations, peace in our homes, and peace in our hearts, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Grant us, Lord God, a vision of our land as your love would make it: a land where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor; - a land where the benefits of civilised life are shared, and everyone can enjoy them; - a land where different races and cultures live in tolerance and mutual respect; - a land where peace is built with justice, and justice is guided by love. And give us the inspiration and courage to build it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Holy God, we bow in humble prayer knowing that we have failed you again and again. We long for peace but we do not live as a people of peace. We long for justice but we act unjustly. We expect forgiveness but we fail to forgive. We make promises and do not keep them. We see suffering and expect others to act. Please forgive us, we pray. Help us to offer worship which is unblemished, to live lives which are filled with righteousness and to build communities of justice and hope. through Jesus Christ our Lord.http://robinsonoptometrists.co.uk/ |
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