The AGM and Christ the King meeting will be held in London on 21st November 2009.

Amongst the topics for discussion will be the future of the Catholic community in the Church of England following the recent Apostolic Constitution issued by the Vatican.

Society members should have received details via email.  If you have not received these, or are not a member of the Society but would be interested in attending this meeting, please contact us.

The BNP may have won two seats in the European Parliament, but the majority of British people didn’t vote for them and don’t want them there.  Hope Not Hate is running a petition to show what Britain really thinks of these Fascists.  Click here to say “not in my name.”

Several members of the Society were signatories to this letter, sent to the Church Times.  Unfortunately, they chose not to publish it (the interminable debate about the consecration of women as Bishops apparently being more important than massive loss of life in the Holy Land).  We reproduce it here:

At this season of supposed peace and goodwill to all, the Society of
Sacramental Socialists is sorry to have to add its voice to the rising
swell of criticism by all reasonable people, whether Christian or not,
in condemning the ongoing violence in Gaza.

It would be all too easy to recite for the umpteenth time the litany
of wrongdoing from both sides since the second “intifada”: illegal
occupation and annexation of Palestinian land and property,
repression, violence, resistance, suicide attacks, and the grimly
inevitable disproportionate Israeli response in the form of eighteen
Israelis dead from Palestinian rocket “attacks” in eight years on one
side of the border and thousands dead in Israeli retaliation on the
other.

It is undoubtedly important that no one loses sight of what got us to
the point we are now at, but words in themselves are not going to
change much, if anything. No one would realistically expect the US
administration to be critical of Israel. They never are. But weasel
words such as: “Hamas has held the people of Gaza hostage ever since
their illegal coup against the forces of (Palestinian) President
Mahmoud Abbas,” when the reality is that Hamas won the democratic
parliamentary election in Palestine in January 2006, can only serve to
stoke the fires of conflict. So does the use of the emotionally-
charged term “shoah”, holocaust, by the Israeli administration. And so
do sentiments such as “Gaza will not be a picnic. Gaza will be a
graveyard” from Hamas officials. Nothing good will come from these
words.

No. The truth is that only justice for the Palestinian people will
permanently end this conflict. That is not to say that we should not
criticise both sides now for provocation and response and call for an
immediate ceasefire from both those sides. We should, for as we know,
the way to right a wrong is not to commit another wrong: no one’s eye
or tooth has ever been restored through the retaliatory putting out of
someone else’s. An immediate ceasefire is absolutely essential.

And along with the immediate ceasefire, the way forward now is for
both sides to listen to the voice of God, the same God worshipped by
Jew, Muslim, and Christian alike. And as all three faiths can testify
along with their shared Prophets Elijah and Amos, that divine voice
was not to be found in the wind of supersonic fighter planes, nor in
the earthquake of aerial bombardment, nor in the fire of suicide bombs
and machine guns. The still, small voice can only be heard when the
violence and clatter stops, and the Almighty can be heard imploring
his most precious creation to live in justice and peace.

Have a Red one!

The AGM and Christ the King meeting will be held in London on 22nd November 2008.

Theme: “Left in Dark Times and a Ray of Hope from Chicago: Sacramental Socialists and the latest capitalist crisis.”

Society members, please enter your password in the post below for more information.

If you are not a member of the Society, but would be interested in attending this meeting, please contact us.

Christchurch, Pitsmoor (Sheffield) hosts a conference on Christianity, Anarchism and Peacemaking this November.

Click here for more information.

Happy Ascension Day and Happy Mayday to comrades far and near.

As we approach the local elections on Mayday, when the BNP and other Far Right parties are fielding 688 candidates throughout Britain, it’s worth recalling the words of the late +Mervyn Stockwood from 1978:

The National Front is an evil cancer in the body of Britain.  No matter what our politics may be – right, left or centre – we must stand shoulder to shoulder in our opposition to its wickedness.  No Christian who has an informed understanding of the Scriptures can support it.  Its attitude towards racism and to much else is utterly condemned by the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is evil – as evil as Hitler and the Nazis.

Bishops who have issued statements about the Far Right and the forthcoming elections include +Nicholas Reade of Blackburn and +Tom Wright of Durham.  The Baptists, Methodists and URC have also issued a joint statement.