Two decades with Westminster Justice and Peace Commission

Sr Elizabeth O'Donohoe

Elizabeth O'Donohoe, a Sister of the Holy Cross, is retiring as a member of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission. She wrote in their recent e-bulletin:

I cannot remember the year that Fr. Pat Davies invited me to join the newly formed Westminster Justice & Peace Commission, but it was around the turn of the new century. I already knew and had worked with Sheila Gallagher who had been a prime mover in setting the Commission up. Both he and she were visionaries of a Church committed to the mission given it by Christ - to do justice and live peace as essential to its calling: and certainly not as an add-on.

As a member of Westminster Interfaith, I joined the Commission to represent the Church's implicit and explicit commitment to inter-faith activity. My appointment of three years has, as in the case of many others who have since been co-opted, stretched out to well beyond that. Nearly 20 years later I have now called "time."

When I first reported the setting up of the new Commission to my Parish Justice & Peace Group, the reception came across as quite hostile: was it to be an unneeded layer of bureaucracy? A further talking shop? What would its business be with local groups? Frankly, I had no idea, but I trusted the initiative which had grown out of the North London Network of J&P Groups, where folk worked, as much as possible, together (even ecumenically) - not alone. And meeting three times a year with representatives of CAFOD, CARJ, Aid to the Church in Need, Pax Christi, Israel Palestine, Asylum Seekers and representatives of local Parish groups … familiarised me with the work going on in a sprawling patchwork of dedicated people within the Diocese, and in the process I found I was in the company of terrific Christian people, with a trained focus.

From year to year the Commission adopted specific foci: The Hundred Days of Peace associated with the ancient Olympics became a serious endeavour in 2012. Barbara Kentish was by then the Field Worker and Fr Joe Ryan, its Chair. I remember it so well because the chance to work both ecumenically and inter-faith was grasped with both hands, and we co-led All-Night-Vigils with Anglicans and Methodists, staged Athletics for all-comers together with a Mosque in Finsbury Park, and more. COP 21 was marked in 2015 by abundant promotion of the need for Care of the Environment, and as a part of that some hardy Commission members cycled from London to Paris to take part on the spot. In the wake of the publication of Laudato Si', the commission set up a Climate Sub-committee and I was fortunate to serve on that, again dove-tailing with those from other Churches and other Faiths where possible.

In the past 12 months I have known that the time has come for me to resign from the Commission, which is again in fresh and capable leadership. I am aware that I have received support for the work of Westminster Interfaith and been given more than I gave. These days, every area of the Commission's work reaches out beyond denominational boundaries and is informed by the common need of all people, of all Faith traditions, to benefit from its work (and indeed to work with it) as it represents the Catholic Church's commitment to do Justice and to live Peace.