‘Everything is connected’
– Laudato Si’
Social justice in action is living out the Gospel as a reality in today’s world.
In the Archdiocese of Wellington, our mahi is grounded in Catholic Social Teaching and the missionary call of the 2017 Synod of the Archdiocese of Wellington.
We are all called to love our neighbour and our common home through concrete actions. Parish communities throughout the Archdiocese engage already in many activities of care and support. Today, however issues of inequity and injustice are growing, and it can feel overwhelming to know where to begin to respond.
Social justice in action will look different in different communities. It involves listening and discerning carefully, then responding to issues, often complex and overlapping, including loneliness, housing stress, cost of living, ecological harm, disability and more.
Our Community Engagement Lead is available to support parishes with social justice formation and outreach to the wider community, tailored to local situations. Here is some of what is on offer.
Parish Leadership and Pastoral Planning Support
- Support for parish leadership teams to understand local aspirations, surface opportunities, and co-design parish ecology, justice and peace projects and activities.
Social Justice Analysis and Community Facilitation
- Workshops, hui and other community-led facilitation to provide formation in Catholic Social Teaching and ecology, justice and peace topics.
- Discernment of key local issues and responses including through social analysis (see-judge-act) and gift mapping.
- Best practice volunteer framework support for community outreach.
- Referral identification—support for mapping to other community groups and social support services in the local context.
Connecting Community Outreach Initiatives
- Connecting parishes to a growing kete of projects and initiatives, that the parish community can join, partner with, adapt and deliver in their local context e.g. Benefit Impacts, Friendship Projects.
- Connecting parishes with trusted community partners.
- Sharing and amplifying stories of social justice in action to inspire, strengthen and grow more action throughout the Archdiocese.
Please contact Deirdre Meskill, d.meskill@cadw.nz to discuss how we can support your parish’s social justice and community outreach mahi.
