The National Justice and Peace Network’s (NJPN) 2022 conference concluded successfully this weekend, with experts, activists and campaigning organisations hosting a series of conversations on the theme of “Hope Is A Verb With Its Sleeves Rolled Up”.
Around 150 delegates listened to speakers including former diplomats, peace campaigners, environmental activists and conflict-resolution experts over the three-day conference, held in Swannick, Derbyshire. The keynote speaker, Philip McDonagh, poet, diplomat and academic, gave a talk reflecting on the concept of hope in the encyclicals of Pope Benedict XVI. Following from the wartime insights of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, McDonagh proposed that Christians help formulate “axioms of the historical imagination” that could “provide a common criterion of evaluation across cultures and from one situation to another”.
Such a proposal could create “community even among people and groups who never interact directly.” Other speakers included Rev Dr Patrick Devine, chair of the Shalom Centre for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation, who presented on his award-winning peace-building work in East Africa. Other events at the conference included workshops on universal credit, prison reform, tax reform and a film showing on activists opposing the destruction of forests for coal mines in Germany and the UK.
The environment was a particular concern of the weekend, with several speakers referring to the climate crisis as a key intersection of justice and peace issues, especially as food shortages and extreme weather events drive poverty and deprivation worldwide. John Paul de Quay of the Ecological Conversion group presented on his organisation's drive to move Catholic parishes and other Christian groups towards ecological and social sustainability. The next national conference, 21-23 July 2023, will focus on the environment even further, taking the theme “Sustainability? Survival or Shutdown”.
The National Justice and Peace Network, founded in 1978, hosts regular networking meetings, distributes a bulletin and regular newsletter, and organises working parties on a range of “justice and peace” issues. Several liturgies marked the weekend, including a Sunday morning Mass and an ecumenical service led by Former Methodist Conference President Ruth Gee. Although NJPN is no longer an official agency of the Catholic Church and works extensively with non-Catholic partners, it remains based on Catholic Social Teaching.
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