Blog

12/04/2019

John McConville writes our latest blog and tells us of the work 'Marian Action' do with the homeless and marginalised in Glasgow.

Marian Action is a movement that aims to bring the maternal joy and love of Mary to the marginalised. It does this primarily through its spirituality, the members gathering together weekly to pray about the work, and for those whom we come in contact with.

We also have our special prayer, the Angelus, which the members say daily in order to bring Mary's blessing on the movement. The blessings we receive from this spirituality are taken into our work, which currently consists of organising social evenings in two of Glasgow's centres for homeless people, and also organising periodical coffee mornings for the wider homeless community.

Taking into account the fact that Jesus, during His time on earth, spent a great deal of time amongst the downtrodden of society, it seems to me only natural that He would want His love, and that of His mother, to be brought to the most marginilised of society, and indeed that is what struck me most of all when I first got involved with the group- as a youngster back in the 1970s, and also in seeing how the men responded so positively to the care and attention being shown to them by what was then, in a main, a group of young people.

And indeed these many blessings have continued during the years, and indeed decades in which Jesus has used our various services to reach His marginilised- many of our members have remarked on how gratifying it is to be thanked at the end of one of our social nights, and that in fact the gratitude of the people could teach the wider community a thing or two about genuine sincerity.

One example which comes to mind is a lady, who was resident at the women's hostel in Inglefield St. for many years, and who was usually the life and soul of the party, particularly at Christmas, but actually admitted that, in the early days of our work, our social nights had stopped her from commiting suicide.

Marian Action has been in existence since 1972, orginally working in the old council-run hostels. We started by organising bingo nights, but eventually our mission evolved into offering shaving, haircutting, serving Christmas dinners, and other related events. The haircutting and shaving actually came about when we were asking God to show us if there was something else He wanted us to do. At Broad St. hostel one night, our then president was approached by a man who asked if he could cut his hair. When our president replied that he hadn't done anything like that before, the man told him him to "just f*** well cut it". We took that to be a sign from God!

Over many years, we carried out these activities at ten different hostels. We found that the services we offered the people were always well-received, and there are many examples of this having a positive influence on peoples' lives.

After the council hostels closed in the early 2000s, we took our work into Aspire Housing, Partick, and the Talbot Association, Garnethill, where once again Marian Action has been well received by the people.

We realise that our work is but a drop in the ocean in the universal need for God's love to be given in both a practical and emotional way, that there are so many people throughout the world who have been involved in giving of themselves to God's marginilised- people like Mother Theresa, Abbe Pierre of the Emmaus Community, Frederick Ozanam of the SVDP society, and many other lesser-known examples, but we hope that our efforts also contribute some way towards bringing about the advancement of Jesus' love among those who need it.

Our current spiritual base is St. Simon's, Partick, where we hold our weekly meeting on a Tuesday evening. Our hopes for the future include developing our periodic coffee mornings, and also, if possible, to take part in some form of street work- it's been brought to our attention a few times about the amount of rough sleepers there are in the Partick area where we're based, and I would like to try to reach them, possibility through distributing small food parcels, with Bible quotes attached.

This summary is only a brief account of all the many blessings which God has showered on Marian Action through our years of service to Him, as He blesses the poor man in the parable of Dives and Lazarus(Luke 16:19-31) so He blesses the poor and suffering through our efforts, and hopefully He will do so for many years to come. Marian Action is a splendid way to see how love of Jesus and Mary, expressed through both spiriuality and practical means, can transform lives. If you would like to get involved with Marian Action, please email marianaction@rocketmail.com

05/04/2019

A tale of trees for justice and peace

Both Fr Roddy Johnston, Vicar General of the Diocese of Argyll & the Isles, and parish priest of Our Holy Redeemer, Stornoway, and Marian Pallister, Justice and Peace Commissioner for Argyll and the Isles write our blog this week about the meaning and the journey from Stornoway behind the trees that commemorated the 40th anniversary of Justice and Peace Scotland.

When the Justice and Peace Commission decided last year that we should plant trees to commemorate its 40th anniversary, I suggested consulting Fr Roddy Johnston, parish priest in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, and a former forester.

Fr Roddy’s knowledge of trees is as immense as a Scots pine and as intricate as a juniper. I knew he was the man to go to for advice. I took advantage of my visit to Lewis and Harris with the Rohingya refugee photographic exhibition to quiz him on the best trees to represent the work of Justice and Peace Scotland. He brought out a pile of books and shared a mountain of knowledge. He suggested the Scots pine for peace, the juniper for justice.

But his help didn’t stop there.

He offered to source the trees – eight (one for each diocese in Scotland) to be planted at Carfin Grotto and more so that each diocese could plant a 40th anniversary tree on home ground.

I was to transport them to the central belt, as the planting would follow closely on my next visit to Lewis and Harris – this time with my SCIAF badge in my lapel to deliver this year’s Lent talk. Fr Roddy gave me care instructions and dispatched me on the ferry with a Morrison’s bag for life containing the infant trees. I handed them over to Frances Gallagher, who organised the Carfin event (see elsewhere on the website), in the Costco car park in Glasgow’s Springburn. I felt like their mother.

And I also brought a message from Fr Roddy, who we can’t thank enough for his generosity. He says:

‘Happy 40th birthday to Justice and Peace.

There is always a need for people who care enough about the well-being of societies across the world and the Catholic Church in Scotland must continue to play an active role in promoting Justice and Peace.

As a symbol of the Church’s commitment to continuing this work, the Bishops of Scotland are planting Juniper and Pine trees. These trees are indigenous to Scotland:

The Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) is the National Tree for Scotland and can survive in what is often a hostile environment. It was once the main species of tree in the Caledonian Forests which covered much of the Highlands.
The Juniper (Juniperus communis) is a tree that is seldom planted today. Its timber is not favoured as being good to work with. In myth and legend, because of the way it grows, with twists and turns, it is associated with the way life is – often meandering but always returning to what is true.

For as long as humans have been on this planet, trees have come to symbolise something special, whether it is life, health, vigour, or the spirit of something. In the Garden of Eden there was a tree of life and a tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is the hope that these trees, planted at Carfin, will be a symbol of Justice and Peace for many generations to come.

“There is always hope for a tree.” (Job 14:7)’

29/03/2019

The Holy Land: How should we respond to Bishops’ calls for prayer, awareness and action?

This week in our blog, Mike Mineter reflects on the situation in the Holy Land and asks ‘How can we help bring about justice for all in the Holy Land?‘

Each year the English-speaking bishops visit the Holy Land, and on their return issue a communiqué. In 2017 they began, “For fifty years the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza have languished under occupation, violating the human dignity of both Palestinians and Israelis. ...As Bishops we implore Christians in our home countries to recognise our own responsibility for prayer, awareness and action.” (http://catholicnews.org.uk/hlc-final-communique-2017 )

Exploring how we can respond was one focus of the St Andrews and Edinburgh Archdiocese’ Caritas, Justice and Peace commission, when we met in February. We had just heard how our country has been ill-served by media obstructing awareness, and propagating false values in relation to refugees. With exceptions, Israel and Palestine have also been misrepresented in the media for many years. In consequence, distinguishing fact and spin is difficult, especially those who have not visited.

This year, the Bishops wrote, “Along with other Palestinian Arab citizens and migrants living in Israel, many Christians find themselves systematically discriminated against and marginalised. Those we met expressed particular concern about the Nation State Law….the misery of occupation has been deepened by severe cuts to humanitarian funding by the US government.

...we commit ourselves through prayer, pilgrimage and practical solidarity...”

(http://www.catholicnews.org.uk/Home/News/HLC19-Final-Communique)

Some Jewish organisations in Israel and other countries are among those who have been calling Israel to a deeper expression of Judaism, with rights for all in the land. You can read the Nation State Law here:

https://knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/BasicLawNationState.pdf

In my visits to the West Bank, I have met Christians whose lives are dominated by settlers and Israeli forces through increasing violence, permits, checkpoints, settlements, roads only for Israelis, demolitions, control of water and imposed unpredictability. Even in this context, these Palestinians said, “We would not displace the settlers. Many have known nowhere else. We will not do to them what Israel tries to do to us. The occupation and the oppression must cease; there is land enough for us all.”

Christian Palestinians in 2009 spoke out in the Kairos Palestine document, “A Moment of Truth; A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering.” As decades earlier in South Africa, the term Kairos conveys a faith-based hope of transformation in a desperate time, ripe for change. The document is a call for the international community and especially the churches, to act to bring about a just future for all in the land. It calls us to recognise and challenge theologies that claim to justify oppression and exclusion.

How can we help bring about justice for all in the Holy Land?

We can form a network by sharing knowledge, resources; planning events of awareness and solidarity in every parish. (contact mike.mineter@gmail.com )

We can challenge the media, when they fail to report adequately continuing protests such as the “March of Return,” when Israeli forces shot Palestinian journalists, medics and children. (e.g. here https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=11988);

We can write to politicians to call for action – as I was told by a Palestinian, “not to bring Israel to its knees but to its senses.”

We can shop to support Palestinians, see hadeel.org,

We can join Sabeel-Kairos, http://sabeel-kairos.org.uk

We can visit.

We can keep informed (e.g reading UN reports, https://www.ochaopt.org/reports)

We can read the Bishops’ communiques and do what they ask.

We must pray.

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