|
 |
 |
29th October 2011
Loving Those you Never Meet: The Church and Social Justice
Paul Nicolson SJ
A day of reflection and sharing led by Fr Paul Nicholson SJ, addressing the question of how Jesus’ commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” can apply in a world of 6 billion people, most of whom I will never meet. How does the Church’s social teaching help us to live a fully-human and fully-Christian life in a world of rich and poor, haves and have-nots, developed and developing nations? How does this relate to your own experience, in this country or overseas?
All of us will have had some experience of social justice, and of social injustice, acquired simply from the process of reflective living. This workshop will draw on this experience; but no further specialist experience is expected.
Three key aims:
- To understand why social teaching is an integral part of the Christian church’s message.
- To help participants explore their own call to live “a faith that does justice”.
- To appreciate more fully the links between justice, politics, and spirituality
About the Facilitator
Fr Paul Nicholson SJ is currently Director of Novices for the British, Irish, Dutch and Flemish Provinces of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), based in Birmingham. For several years after ordination in 1988 he was Chair of the Faith and Justice Commission for the Roman Catholic diocese of Lancaster, and then worked in a community development project in inner-city Sunderland. Most recently he was Director of the Loyola Hall spirituality centre on Merseyside. He has a particular interest in the question of how prayer and spirituality can provide an impetus towards social action.