Justice and Peace

We are a small group of people who meet regularly to consider how best to help our Parish to become more aware of the Social Teaching of the Church,  including Pope Francis’ call in Laudato Si to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. We try to encourage the members of the Parish to respond to particular social justice needs or issues, local, national and international, as they arise.

Many justice and peace initiatives are an established part of our Parish life: Regular CAFOD and Missio collections, Fair trade Stall (Holy Rood has been a Fair Trade Parish for fifteen years) and monthly collection for Swindon Food Collective. In addition, there is now a bi-monthly collection of coffee, tea, sugar and biscuits to enable The Harbour Project for refugees and asylum seekers to offer hospitality. Individuals in the Parish are involved with fundraising and volunteering for The Medaille Trust, the Sleep Out for Threshold Housing Link and the Women’s Refuge. We have begun to organise occasional masses specially providing for those who have hearing loss and held an evening with the film “Global Healing” to consider the environmental challenges facing our world.

In the autumn of 2019, we held a Parish collection after a presentation at mass, in order to raise money to buy a Defibrillator for the church and organised three training sessions for parishioners. The Defibrillator is now in place in church, in case of a medical emergency. Although we have not been able to be in church during lockdown we were very pleased that, with the help of The Harbour Project, we still managed to facilitate the donation of house contents to a young refugee girl and her child who were allocated an unfurnished flat!

It is important for us to work together with other Christians to address issues of poverty and inequality in our town, so we maintain a Help and Advice board in church which is a source of information about the many agencies that can respond to particular needs.

If you would like to join us please contact us via the Parish office or by email:

swindon.holyrood@cliftondiocese.com

Links:

www.swindoncatholicdeanery.co.uk Deanery Justice and Peace Group

Justiceandpeace@cliftondiocese.com Diocesan Justice and Peace Group

www.justice-and-peace.org.uk National Justice and Peace Network