Category: Campaigns

Stop Trident march and rally. On 27 February hundreds of people of faith, including Pax Christi members from around the country, London and Glasgow Catholic Workers, Justice and and Peace Scotland,  gathered for prayer at Hinde Street Methodist Church before setting off on the Stop Trident march to Trafalgar Square.

• Read more from the Catholic Universe and Independent Catholic News .  See more photographs here .  Photographs from CND here 
•  A very good little film of the day with lots of good reasons why we should not renew Trident

• Text of Bishop Stephen’s speech given at the rally on 27 February .
• Background and text to Multifaith Statement on Nuclear Weapons that was read at the rally

Now we must all continue to pray, write letters and speak out against plans to renew and replace Trident.  These resources may be of some help  to you in writing to your Bishop or faith leader, your  MP, and local press.

• Trident, deterrence and nuclear policy.  A briefing from Dr Philip Webber, Scientists for Global Responsibility, January 2016 

• Don’t Bank on the Bomb: A global report on the finance  of nuclear weapons producers.   The report identifies 382 banks, insurance companies and pension funds which have made USD 493 billion available to nuclear weapons producers since January 2012. Produced by PAX Netherlands and ICAN.  November 2015
• Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, statement on decommissioning of nuclear weapons.  November 2006 
• Resource leaflet Catholic Church and Nuclear Weapons. For use at meetings/handing out at events (Revised, January 2015)

To mark International Women’s Day we thought it would be good to acknowledge and celebrate the peacemaking work of  the women we know. Sisters, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, friends around the world contribute to peace in the family, in the community and the world. Help to celebrate women peacemakers by writing to women you know – and some you don’t – on this day.  We have produced postcards and have provided contact details of Pax Christi  and other women peacemakers around the world. (See below)

Why not get a group together to work on this, and make it a social event.

See our  postcard  They can be ordered in sets of 10 for £2.00.  Our latest newsletter on Women Peacemakers with addresses

 

 

Pax Christi is very distressed at the decision to expand airstrikes in Syria. Many of our members lobbied their Members of Parliament right up to the last moment, urging them not to vote in support of airstrikes. We affirm Pax Christi International’s statement:  “…it is so easy to use armed violence in revenge, to justify it as the best way to solve ongoing bloody conflicts, and to offer it to citizens as the only source of security; however, military operations distract us from core components of this terror…”

We will be monitoring the impact of the air strikes and will continue to work with our sister peace organisations to challenge the causes of war and the tools that fuel wars and make them more likely, such as the global arms trade and the increased use of drone warfare.

From Exec member Paul McGowan: Peace activists must not be downhearted…
We need to make sure that ALL elements of the Motion are given equal importance: the Vienna talks, support for refugees, post-conflict planning, sources of finance and weapons for IS AND the other militias, civilian casualties, no UK combat troops, three-monthly reports to Parliament. Imaginatively harnessed, these aspects could form a solid structure which holds the Government to account on a permanent basis, to ensure that the public is kept fully informed at all times.

• From war on terror to war on ISIS, article from SIPRI 18 December, 2015
• ISIS-first strategy, doomed to fail: PAX Netherlands Syria Alert, 4 December 2015
• Britain in Syria – a gift to ISIS Prof Paul Rogers, 3 December 2015
• NEW: No moral case for bombing Syria: Archbishop Barry Morgan: Wales 1 December 2015
• Video Bombing Syria to please our allies  is a dangerous game: Rev Giles Fraser 2 December 2015

Here you can find  prayer and action resources  for  this time.

Here  a range of ‘other voices’, articles and comments following  Paris attacks.