Norwich church justice forum challenge issued
Those attending the Faith, Peace and Justice Forum hosted in St Catherine’s Church in Mile Cross Norwich on September 14 came away challenged and inspired to take a message back to their churches and meeting houses of the need to prioritise issues of social justice.
Organiser Lee Marsden’s call for participants to take seriously Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s injunction to ‘not simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, [but] we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself’ was taken up throughout the day with a series of powerful and inspiring sessions on some of the key issues of social justice today.
Rev Chris Howson spoke passionately about the value of liberation theology applied in local contexts and the importance of listening to local communities. Rev Howson gave a vivid description of the challenges around immigration and Islamophobia in Sunderland and the night of the riots in Sunderland and how he was able to work with others to prevent the far right burning down the local mosque and breaking into the grounds of Sunderland Minister to break up gravestones to throw at the police.
He called on churches to listen to the experience of people who feel their oppression. The message of Luke 4: 18-19 is a message of liberation, that we are to be ‘liberated from oppressors and to be liberated to be who we are meant to be’. Attendees were invited to think about what they can do in their own contexts and reassured that the church can do great things when it listens to people.
Kate Doran-Smith, Head of Network for Hope into Action UK, addressing the issues of homelessness and the housing crisis, charted a 20-year decline in public service delivery. She highlighted the shortage of two million houses that are needed, pointing to the right-to-buy scheme which had sold off much of the social housing stock while only replacing 4% with new properties. 150,000 Airbnb’s in London have further depleted housing stock.
Ms Doran-Smith compared homelessness to an iceberg, where the visible evidence of rough sleeping masks the greater reality of people precariously housed, sofa surfing, living in cars and in abusive situations. She identified a poverty of resources, a poverty of identity, and a poverty of relationships each contributing to homelessness. She demonstrated that the Hope into Action model in housing people experiencing homelessness is successful because the organisation does the landlord and benefits roles with the tenant while churches befriend and develop the supportive relationships, which are so important in a sense of belonging.
In the afternoon, sessions by Lee Marsden and pioneer priest Vanessa Elston focussed on violence and the climate catastrophe. Professor Marsden highlighted the 20 current world conflicts taking place and the need for a Christian voice advocating a revolutionary pacifism, true to Jesus’ teaching on non-violence, in an increasingly violent world. Contrasting the pacifism of the early church with the justification of war by churches since the fourth century, Marsden argued that the church should speak truth to power rather than seeking to protect its own position. In speaking from the Sermon on the Mount, attendees were invited to consider what loving our enemies and offering no violent resistance to those who persecute us might look like.
Vanessa Elston talked about her own awakening to the climate catastrophe through her involvement with Christian Climate Action and Extinction Rebellion. In a passionate address, Rev Elston critiqued our linear economy of “take – use – throw away” and emphasised that the climate emergency is not about the size of population but how we live our lives, and that what we do impacts everyone else. A Christian voice should be advocating for a changed economics that argues that everything we do economically must take into account its impact on destroying the planet.
Rather than succumbing to despair that leads to doing nothing, or a positivism which believes we can leave it all to science and technological progress, a post-tragic response recognises how sin has impacted our natural world through policies pursued in a fallen world. Vanessa called for repentance, to recognise that we are all part of a relational creation, and a need to enter in to a deeper journey of change where everything speaks to us of God and creation.
The day concluded with a rendition of ‘Hope in the Dark’ written and performed by Mile Cross Green Councillor and composer Charlie Caine and the Common Lot choir. With the multitude of social justice issues discussed, attendees were reminded by Chris Howson, that not everyone can do everything but we are called to do what we can. In a world that at times seems very dark, Christians are called to work alongside those of other faiths, and none, to be that hope in the dark, and in doing so shine the light of Jesus.
St Catherine’s Church will be hosting future events on behalf of the Faith, Peace and Justice Forum, and anyone interested can contact Lee Marsden l.b.marsden01@gmail.com to be kept informed.
Pictured above is the conference being addressed by Rev Vanessa Elston and, below, Kate Doran-Smith.
