AGM 2023
This year’s AGM took place on Saturday 17th June at 10.30 am at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church. This proved once again to be an excellent venue, with easy access from most parts of the country, and the technology to make it a hybrid meeting.
You can read the excellent report which appeared in Independent Catholic News (18/6/23)
Archbishop Malcom McMahon of Liverpool, President of Pax Christi England and Wales, encouraged members at their AGM in London on Saturday to “remain faithful to Christ’s teaching and to the peace movement.” He complimented the staff and executive for work on such issues as the war in Ukraine and added that “it’s so important that we keep going and don’t give up.” Representatives of the National Ju… Read More
Independent Catholic News
Elections to the Executive Committee
Under our Constitution, the Executive Committee consists of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Treasurer, six ordinary members and a number of ex-officio positions (President, Secretary, National Chaplain and a staff member). In addition, the Committee may co-opt up to 3 members to serve on the Committee for one year.
John Dowbekin, who retired from his role as Treasurer and from the Executive, was thanked for his service.
Matt Jeziorski had been nominated as Treasurer, Joan Sharples as Vice chair and Sr Lucia McGuckin, HFB, as an ordinary member. These nominations were accepted.
The current members of the committee are:
Ann Farr (Chair)
Joan Sharples (Vice Chair)
Matt Jeziorski (Treasurer)
Maria Lee
Fr Joe Ryan
Kathryn Lydon
Sr Lucia McGuckin
Peace Award
Four people were given Pax Christi Peace Awards celebrating their work and witness as peacemakers. Martin and Jan were able to receive their awards in person from Archbishop Malcolm McMahon, OP, Pax Christi’s President.
Martin Birdseye:
‘Martin Birdseye has been a longstanding active member of Pax Christi and a dedicated campaigner with Christian CND and has served on its executive committee for many years…He is a modest but persistent campaigner; his expertise has been focussed on nuclear weapons and on the moral issues surrounding British defence policy. He created and disseminated ‘The Nuclear Morality Flowchart’ which has been translated into several languages, including Chinese. Christian CND presented the Iranian Ambassador at the UN with a copy in Farsi.’
Jan Harper:
‘Jan has been a long standing member of Pax Christi and has served on the Pax Christi’s executive. Never one to make a fuss, she is a quiet dedicated peacemaker, believing passionately in justice, in following the path of nonviolence, in ridding the world of both nuclear and conventional weapons and in combatting militarism.
For more than 20 years Jan has organised the meetings of the Pax Christi Liverpool group; she has invited speakers; held film nights; organised petitions and letters to MPs, held stalls and activities against injustices. All of this has been accompanied by prayer and Days of Reflection.’
Sally Reynolds:
Sally was ‘one of the founder members of the Abingdon Peace Group in the 1980’s’, still holding the group together and also ‘a long standing active member of the Movement for the Abolition of War’. ‘She brings the Quaker values of quiet persistence, integrity and serenity to all her peace work.’
Jennifer Rowlands:
Jennifer is ‘currently Head of Religious Studies at Bellerive Catholic College, Liverpool, Jennifer is a longstanding member of Pax Christi. Throughout her teaching career she has shown an outstanding commitment to promoting peace through education.’
The medal was created by Natasha Radcliffe and is called the P. E. A. C. E. (Please Engage All Communities on Earth) medal.
EGM November 2022
Members of Pax Christi England and Wales met in London on Saturday 19 November for an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss and vote on the changes to their constitution proposed by the constitution working group.
The working group – made up of Matt Jeziorski, Valerie Flessati, and John Dowbekin – was established after the 2020 AGM with a remit to tidy up this constitution and present their recommendations to the membership for ratification.
Some recommendations of the working group called Pax Christi back to the constitution where practice had diverged. Elsewhere the recommendations acknowledged that practice had rightly moved on and the constitution needed updating to reflect this. In other places the context in which Pax Christi operates had changed and the recommendations reflected this. There were also tweaks to clarify, correct grammar, remove ambiguity, or to reorder the presentation of the document.
In all 29 proposals were considered by the EGM and all 29 met the threshold of 75% to approve an amendment to the constitution. There were 13 members present at the meeting and another 13 voted in advance of the meeting or appointed a proxy.
Click here to download a detailed presentation of the results.
During and before the EGM some good suggestions were made to improve the constitution. These ideas were for things beyond the remit of the working party’s review, but all ideas have been recorded and will be considered ahead of the next AGM.
Many thanks to Valerie, John, and Matt for undertaking this work on behalf of the membership over the past two years and to all the members who attended the EGM, voted in advance, or shared comments, ideas, or questions.
You can read the revised constitution here.
