PSJ (Peace and Social Justice) action has long been a part of Unitarianism in Auckland. A small active group of members decided that they wanted to do more than talk about issues, they felt they needed to walk that talk. To do this, they decided to start building a special Peace and Social Justice Fund, and from 2006 onwards regular pledging by these members began. The aim has been to focus efforts where the PSJ group felt they could make a real difference.
Also much of About Us / Our History / The communion of Unitarian Saints is concerned with Peace and Social Justice issues.
For as long as I have been giving sermons I’ve been guided by the maxim that it is the preacher’s job “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
I
always thought it came from some saint of the distant past; turns out
that it was by Finley
Peter Dunne, an Irish humourist who wrote a column for a Chicago
newspaper. In 1901 he had this to say about newspapers, not
preachers, although they seem to have a number of commonalities:
Our Peace and Social Justice
(PSJ) sponsorship of the Glen Taylor School, which enables their
participation in the Duffy Books in Homes programme, continues to
reward us with great satisfaction. The children are thriving with the
supplied books. PSJ representatives will attend a role model assembly
at the school in March and I’m sure Brenda and Gary will provide
more details on that after we’ve been.
We
are writing to express our deep concern after hearing of the distress
experienced by many of the victims and their supporters at the first
hearing of the alleged perpetrator of the March 15 2019 Mosque
attacks.
If you live in Aotearoa New Zealand there are a few positives that have resulted from the horror of March 15, which doesn’t mean the price wasn’t way too high. New gun laws passed nearly unanimously within a couple weeks that have banned automatic and semiautomatic weapons. National and international efforts are ongoing to reign in social media as platforms for hate speech. In depth debates to distinguish free speech from hate speech fill public discourse. And in my mind, a greater recognition by non-Muslims that Muslims are not the threat they have been painted to be since 9/11 and continue to be by Trump and other politicians. They are more often the victims of violence than its perpetrators. They need protection from every religion’s far right fundamentalists as much as anybody else. The outpouring of support for the victims and the Muslim community shown at vigils, burying the local mosques with flowers of condolence, the raising of money for the victims’ families, concerts in support of the Muslim community, the government’s paying for the funerals and fast-tracking visa applications, non-Muslim women wearing hijabs in solidarity with their sisters, and mosques opening their doors to their non-Muslim neighbours to share their faith to build bridges have been transforming acts. We are not who we used to be. From my perspective, we are better than we used to be before March 15.
We’re very pleased that 3 of the Indian Students we gave sanctuary from deportation in 2017 have been granted permission to return to this country; although saddened that 1 has had permission refused.