Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God

A Solidarity Sunday resource booklet has been prepared by Churches Together in Westminster to help churches focus on those in developing countries who are suffering from the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is hoped this will encourage congregations to engage actively with Christian organisations worldwide in their work with vulnerable communities. This should surely be a part of our response to the universal gift of God that we remember and celebrate in Christmastide.

The booklet has been arranged as a series of daily readings around key themes:

• Day One Impact of coronavirus on people in fragile countries
• Day Two Health, shelter and survival
• Day Three Poverty and livelihoods
• Day Four Education and children
• Day Five Violence against women and girls, and gender inequality
• Day Six Impact on those with disabilities
• Day Seven Loss of rights and freedoms
• Day Eight Impact on peace processes and conflict

CTiW encourage churches to make the booklet available to their congregations and consider holding a Solidarity Sunday service to introduce the booklet and encourage support for the organisations listed in the booklet’s appendix. Solidarity Sunday is about reminding ourselves and each other that there is so much good we can do - through giving, through prayer and through powerful demonstrations of unity.

The booklet is available from http://ctiw.london/2020/coronavirus-solidarity-booklet-letter/

I have written the reflection on peace processes and conflict:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5.9)

When, in a festive spirit of munificence, Peter Kennard and Neville Brody collaborated to produce a new artwork for our troubled times entitled ‘Peace on Earth’, they reached for Christian imagery. Based on a painting from the National Gallery of the Virgin Mary praying, ‘Peace on Earth’ replaced the Virgin’s halo with the CND Peace symbol and her face with planet Earth.

A New Year gift in 2016, the image was made available as a free download, the idea being to give something back at that time of year, and as a designer; with that something being an image to make people think, that wasn’t too horrific for them to put on a wall.

Kennard said:

‘At the heart of mobilising positive, peaceful activism is a radical, subversive generosity on the part of artists and designers, which runs counter to any social structure that privileges the ‘I’ over the ‘we’, and refutes the unfestive – but nonetheless accurate – observation that we may no longer know how to give without counting the cost.

Giving breaks the cycle of greed, and encourages people to be generous, community-minded and constructive. It’s about doing something for the sake of change, for the common good – which is what the original peace symbol was about. There’s a refreshing positivity to giving freely, which runs counter to one’s normal transactions in the world.

Anyone who’s been involved in the best bits of peaceful activism knows that mobilising positive human energy is life affirming. Like singing in a Christmas choir, one of the reasons to go on a march is to be there in a group of people who believe the human race isn’t doomed after all.

As artist Jimmy Durham says, ‘Humanity is not a completed project,’ meaning both that we are still here and that we need to try harder. Artists and designers have a long tradition of bending the tools of their trade to that cause, beating swords into aesthetic ploughshares.’[i]

In these thoughts and in this image Kennard draws deeply on scripture and Christian imagery to describe the prayerful, generous, incarnational, transformational (instruments of war into implements of peace), community-building and environmentally-focused peace-making which Jesus said can be named as characteristic of God’s children. Our dual challenge is to become involved in such peace-making ourselves – particularly in this time of increasing nationalism – and also to name such peace-making and the peacemakers themselves as being part of God’s peaceable kingdom yet to come in full; on earth as it is in heaven.

[i] https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/rca-stories/peace-on-earth/

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John & Yoko Plastic Ono Band + Harlem Community Choir - Happy Xmas (War Is Over).

CTiW Solidarity Resources booklet

Churches Together in Westminster has prepared a Solidarity Resources booklet for churches. Here is my letter introducing the booklet to our members:

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of all people across the globe. We, in the wealthy countries of the G20, need to recognise and take responsibility for the fact that our progress, quality and way of life is at the expense of the people of the least developed countries.

The coronavirus pandemic is not a great equaliser as some have claimed. This pandemic has reminded us that we are all connected, and that to be well and healthy we depend on others, and on our communities. In fact, unequal systems of power double down in a crisis.

The danger is that, even with a vaccine, for some time to come our focus in the UK will shift almost entirely to domestic issues and to our own recovery. This will not be a quick process but has already led to claims that we cannot afford to support the most vulnerable countries at the level we did before, thus casting them adrift.

Pope Francis has said, ‘We exist only in relationships: with God the Creator, with our brothers and sisters as members of a common family, and with all of God’s creatures within our common home.’ As a global Christian family we need to embody Pope Francis’ prophetic words as we unite to
pray and take action for our common home during this season of global pandemic.

Lucy Olofinjana writes for Churches Together in England & Wales that we need to:

‘Unite with Christians from all continents to ask for a coronavirus response that embraces sharing, not plundering. Learn the importance of living out Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 12, ‘If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness.’ Let’s seek to make this a reality as we go about life as part of God’s family. Let’s ‘rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn’ (Romans 12:15) – being real and honest with one another, and truly being there for each other, in the good times and the bad. Because, after all, we are family.’

This resource booklet has been prepared by Churches Together in Westminster to help our members focus on those in developing countries who are suffering from the COVID-19 Pandemic. We hope we will all encourage our congregations to engage actively with Christian organisations worldwide in their work with vulnerable communities. This should surely be a part of our response to the universal gift of God that we remember and celebrate in Christmastide.

This booklet has been arranged as a series of daily readings around key themes:

• Day One Impact of coronavirus on people in fragile countries
• Day Two Health, shelter and survival
• Day Three Poverty and livelihoods
• Day Four Education and children
• Day Five Violence against women and girls, and gender inequality
• Day Six Impact on those with disabilities
• Day Seven Loss of rights and freedoms
• Day Eight Impact on peace processes and conflict

We encourage you to make the booklet available to your congregations and consider holding a Solidarity Sunday service to introduce the booklet and encourage support for the organisations listed in the booklet’s appendix. Solidarity Sunday is about reminding ourselves and each other that there is so much good we can do - through giving, through prayer and through powerful demonstrations of unity.

A celebration of solidarity organised by Farm Street Church with CTiW can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=XvJ4mE5C3AY. The service includes a sermon preached by Revd Tricia Hillas, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, testimony and readings from homeless guests of the Central London Catholic Churches service at Farm Street, and prayers from Churches Together in Westminster.

We hope you will organise your own Solidarity Sunday service and will be happy to provide any support, ideas or advice that would assist.

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World Day of the Poor 2020 - Churches Together in Westminster.

CTiW Advent & Solidarity Sunday services

 

Churches Together in Westminster joined together with St James Piccadilly for their annual Advent Service. This online service was organised by St James Piccadilly and led by Revd Lucy Winkett with contributions from members of the CTiW Executive Committee and the congregation of St James Piccadilly. This was a moving and challenging service which helpfully focused our thoughts on the core themes of Advent itself, rather than treating it just as preparation for Christmas.

CTiW also observed Solidarity Sunday and World Day of the Poor today to mark our commitment to those most vulnerable in the Coronavirus pandemic – and those who are responding. Solidarity Sunday is about reminding ourselves and each other that there is so much good we can do - through giving, through prayer and through powerful demonstrations of unity.

In his message for the fourth World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis wrote that ‘keeping our gaze fixed on the poor is difficult, but that it is more necessary than ever if we are to give proper direction to our personal life and the life of society. Until we revive our sense of responsibility for our neighbour and for every person, grave economic, financial and political crises will continue.’ The Pope reminds us that prayer to God and solidarity with the poor are inseparable.

This was a celebration of solidarity with a sermon preached by Revd Tricia Hillas, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons. The service included testimony and readings from homeless guests of the Central London Catholic Churches service at Farm Street and prayers from CTiW, including Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Revd Jonathan Evens, Revd Joan Ishibashi, Revd Dr Simon Woodman and Minister Belinda Letby. The service also included music from the Farm Street choir.

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The Choir of Farm Street Church, Mayfair - I Say We Are Wound With Mercy.

CTiW: Advent Service & Solidarity Sunday

Churches Together in Westminster Advent Service - Sunday 29 November, 6.00 pm, St James Piccadilly - on YouTube.

Churches Together in Westminster join together with St James Piccadilly for their annual Advent Service. An online service led by Revd Lucy Winkett with readings by members of the CTiW Executive Committee.

CTiW will also observe Solidarity Sunday and World Day of the Poor on 6 December, to mark our commitment to those most vulnerable in the Coronavirus pandemic – and those who are responding. Solidarity Sunday is about reminding ourselves and each other that there is so much good we can do - through giving, through prayer and through powerful demonstrations of unity.

In his message for the fourth World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis writes that ‘keeping our gaze fixed on the poor is difficult, but that it is more necessary than ever if we are to give proper direction to our personal life and the life of society. Until we revive our sense of responsibility for our neighbour and for every person, grave economic, financial and political crises will continue.’ The Pope reminds us that prayer to God and solidarity with the poor are inseparable.

The Diocese of Westminster are holding a special service on that day and all CTiW members, including St Martin's, are invited to attend. You are invited to join this United Service for the World Day of the Poor: A celebration of solidarity at Farm Street Church. The service will be held online at https://www.farmstreet.org.uk/livestream at 3pm on Sunday 6 December.

CTiW are producing a Resources Booklet of Readings, Reflections, and Prayers to help individuals and churches reflect upon and raise awareness of how the pandemic is impacting the vulnerable of the world. This booklet is arranged as a series of daily themes on specific issues. It will have information on organisations working abroad, and how you can support them.

 

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Arvo Part - The Deer's Cry.

Solidarity Sunday 15 November: Remembering our Global Neighbours

Solidarity Sunday 15 November: Remembering our Global Neighbours

Churches Together in Westminster will observe a Solidarity Sunday on 15 November, to mark our commitment to those most vulnerable in the Coronavirus pandemic – and those who are responding.

It is about reminding ourselves and each other that there is so much good we can do - through giving, through prayer and through powerful demonstrations of unity.

The date coincides with the Roman Catholic World Day of the Poor. In his message for the fourth World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis writes that ‘keeping our gaze fixed on the poor is difficult, but that it is more necessary than ever if we are to give proper direction to our personal life and the life of society. Until we revive our sense of responsibility for our neighbour and for every person, grave economic, financial and political crises will continue.’ The Pope reminds us that prayer to God and solidarity with the poor are inseparable.

The Diocese of Westminster are holding a special service on that day in which all CTiW members are invited to participate. We are pleased to announce an invitation to join this Ecumenical World Day of the Poor Service. It is a celebration of solidarity to be held at Farm Street Church at 3pm on Sunday, November 15th. The service will be livestreamed on https://www.farmstreet.org.uk/livestream.

If you cannot join in that service, we urge you all to mark Solidarity Sunday in your own churches.

We are producing a Resources Booklet of Readings, Reflections, and Prayers to help individuals and churches reflect upon and raise awareness of how the pandemic is impacting the vulnerable of the world. This booklet is arranged as a series of daily themes on specific issues. It will have information on organisations working abroad, and how you can support them. The booklet will be sent out to all our Members in early November.

Let us join together in support and solidarity with our Global Neighbours, for Christ has no body now on earth but ours.

By Rev’d Joan Ishibashi & Gillian Dare

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Eric Whitacre - Hope Faith Life Love.