{"id":251,"date":"2023-09-02T10:17:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T09:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/?p=251"},"modified":"2024-01-19T10:20:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T10:20:50","slug":"annual-national-jp-network-conference-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/annual-national-jp-network-conference-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual National J&#038;P Network Conference 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Chuks Nwachukwu, sponsored to attend by SPARK Social Justice<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:51% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/NJPN-attendees.jpg\" alt=\"people at the 2023 NJPN Conference\" class=\"wp-image-254 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/NJPN-attendees.jpg 682w, https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/NJPN-attendees-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>The 45<sup>th<\/sup> Annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network was held on 21 \u2013 23 July 2023 at the Hayes conference centre in Swanwick, Alfreton Derby. With the Theme \u2018Sustainability? Survival or Shutdown\u2019. It was a very great weekend filled with interesting and interactive sessions. This is my second time at the conference, and it was worthwhile.&nbsp; The conference speakers were very resourceful and really inspired everyone. Brian O\u2019Toole who is the director of the Presentation sisters Justice Desk for Ireland and England spoke on the importance of embracing the sustainable development goals. He furthered reiterated on the need to heed to the cry of the earth and to the people kept poor. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Christine Allen, who is the Director of CAFOD, in her contribution said, \u201cWork for justice is part of preaching the Gospel.\u201d Speaking about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) she opined that&nbsp; Catholic Social Teaching went further by addressing the sin of structural injustice. Adding that some people are rich because some people are poor and such injustice is clearly seen in our economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sir John Battle, who is currently chair of Leeds Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission, urged the Catholic church to shift towards action on climate and poverty. He suggested that it was not enough for the bishops to ask people to support the common good. \u201cWe need consistent and sustained advocacy action\u201d if the Church is to be a catalyst for change. He told delegates \u201cAdvocacy attempts to understand the causes of poverty and injustice, and to work on behalf of the poor to change the structures of injustice.\u201d He furthermore said, \u201ca Church that takes risks\u201d is needed rather than \u201csoftly whispered backroom lobbying\u201d. He suggested that Catholics should use <em>Laudato Si\u2019<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Fratelli Tutti<\/em>&nbsp;to combat those seeking to create a division between care for the earth and care for the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am grateful to SPARK and the Leeds Justice and Peace Commission for the opportunity to be at this year\u2019s conference. I urge young people to join me as advocates for our common home<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:51% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/NJPN-attendees-2.jpg\" alt=\"people at 2023 NJPN Confernece\" class=\"wp-image-255 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/NJPN-attendees-2.jpg 682w, https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/NJPN-attendees-2-300x241.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>J&amp;P Commission Chair with Chuks and Anna Marshall (who was also sponsored to attend by SPARK).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are in the sports hall at the Hayes Conference Centre. This is used to host a &#8216;Just Fair&#8217; with stalls from all sorts of organisations working on justice issues like Climate Change and World Development.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-251\" data-postid=\"251\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-251 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Chuks Nwachukwu, sponsored to attend by SPARK Social Justice The 45th Annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network was held on 21 \u2013 23 July 2023 at the Hayes conference centre in Swanwick, Alfreton Derby. With the Theme \u2018Sustainability? Survival or Shutdown\u2019. It was a very great weekend filled with interesting and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,7,9],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cafod","tag-njpn","tag-sustainability","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparksocialjustice.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}