Sunday, 28 October 2012

Call to action - World Toilet Day

All this term we've been talking about stepping out and being more radical. In that spirit, on Saturday 17th November, we are going to put our dignity aside for the sake of the 2.5 billion people who still don't have access to adequate sanitation (that's nearly two fifths of the world's population) to mark World Toilet Day. But don't worry, our indignity will be nothing compared with those who don't have toilets - we will just be wearing them!


We'll have a fair amount of freedom in the shopping centre and will be eye-catching in our costumes. Hopefully our enthusiasm for the cause will make it possible to engage people in conversation or at the very least, raise a smile and get them digging in their pockets. We will supply you with t shirts, balloons, stickers etc and also be able to give you some useful, thought provoking facts.

The day will start at 10am and we'd be thrilled if you could join us and support this venture, even if it's only for a short time. According to the Brent Cross management it's possible to raise really good sums of money and the more on team the better.

Please contact me (Elaine) on 07932 646 496 to let me know when you can come so I can arrange where to meet you.

Go on - be brave and join us standing against poor sanitation.


Monday, 22 October 2012

Looking Out

While our cafe sessions this term are exploring what it means to be an ordinary radical, our autumn pub sessions will look at how we can develop and improve the network itself.


Wednesday 7th November, 8pm
JM has grown from an idea to a community of 20-30 people that meet regularly and another 20-30 that follow us on social media or receive our weekly emails updates. That's very exciting, but we want more. We dream of filling Coffee Republic with 40 people every month, of being able to make a tangible impact on issues we get behind and empowering even more people to find out how to act on their passion to see more social justice in our world.

At this pub session we'll be at the Bohemia sharing tips on how we talk to friends and colleagues about being part of Justice Matters and other ideas for reaching a wider audience.

It promises be another awesome evening - see you there!

Sunday, 21 October 2012

Lecture: Terrorism, National Security & Civil Liberties


The East Barnet Anglican-Methodist Partnership Annual Social Justice Lecture
"Terrorism, National Security and Civil Liberties"
Speaker: Lord Carlile of Berriew QC (former government advisor on anti-terrorism legislation)

Tuesday, 6th November 2012 - 7.30pm at Brookside Methodist Church, 2 Cat Hill, East Barnet EN4 8JB.

For further information, contact Revd Colin Smith.
020 8449 8386 / CASMITH1898@aol.com

Boom! Whizz! Crackle!

Join us for this unofficial JM gathering - the annual bonfire and fireworks display at Totteridge Cricket Club.


Friday 2nd November
Gates open at 5pm, entertainment and stalls from 6pm, bonfire lit at 6:30pm and fantastic fireworks display at 7:15pm. Fully licensed bar, hot dogs, burgers, mulled wine, soup, and much more. Adult tickets ate £7 in advance or £10 on the gate.

Call 020-3519-2779 or go to Cricket Club for tickets.

Hope to see you there!

Caroline Burns on being an Ordinary Radical

In Part Two of our series, The Rough Guide to being an Ordinary Radical, we heard from Caroline Burns, Bolivia coordinator for Food for the Hungry. Caroline spoke passionately about her experience of following a call to Bolivia, where she spent several years working outside her comfort zone to promote nutrition and basic health, while at the same time overhauling the management and finances of the project she was leading there.


She made no apology for speaking boldly about her faith and the part it has played in her journey into becoming an Ordinary Radical. For Caroline, believing and trusting in God played a vital role in her decision to embark on such an adventure. As she described it, "to be ordinary is to operate in your own ability; to be an ordinary radical, is to reach beyond what we can achieve by our own strength and operate instead by faith".

Like Wendy in last month's cafe session, Caroline urged listeners to discover their passion through talking to others and then to embrace opportunities to get involved with that passion. In other words, learning to say "yes". You may not know where that yes will lead, but Caroline encouraged us with a verse from Proverbs: "Trust in the LORD with all our heart and lean not on your own understanding."


In this way, she also encouraged us with the words of Oswald Chambers, not to dwell on the scale of the challenge ahead but rather to draw inspiration from what has already come to pass:
"The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all [efforts to foster peace and justice] is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost [a response to the saving sacrifice] of Jesus Christ."

Join us next month for the third and final session in this brilliant series, when we'll have the fantastic Mr Ash Chafe sharing his experiences of life as an ordinary radical living on a local estate. That's Wednesday 21st November at Coffee Republic in N Finchley from 7:30pm.

Do also join us for our pub session on the 7th November, when we'll be discussion how we Look Out to invite and include new members into the network. We have a vision to be a community of thirty to forty people regularly coming together to be inspired and equipped to change the world (plus plenty more connected into us via email, Facebook and the website). Come along to share your ideas for expanding our reach and get some tips on how to talk to others about JM. Full details to follow shortly.

Practical steps to change the world

During this term, we have been collecting simple actions that each of us can do to make a difference to the world we live in. Ryan has kindly typed these up, so here we have a top 25 Everyday Tips for Ordinary Radicals.

  1. Switch your energy provider to one that uses more renewables.
  2. “Soap-up” before running shower.
  3. Cut down on petrol ‘fill-ups’ (conserve fuel).
  4. Allotment sharing, or collective sharing of your fruit and veg harvest.
  5. Do some gardening for the elderly in exchange for growing fruit and veg in their garden.
  6. Use E-Cloths.
  7. Buy ecover washing up liquid and clothes washing liquid. You can even get refills from local natural food and health stores - so it saves plastic too.
  8. Send less to landfill less - get a compost bin.
  9. Turn off unnecessary lights at home.
  10. Turn off plug sockets that aren't in use (eg. mobile phone chargers).
  11. Don’t leave TV on standby – switch it off when you're not using it.
  12. Eat meat sparingly (say, once or twice a week). Its very energy and water intensive to farm.
  13. Go vegetarian, vegan or pescetarian.
  14. Make your own cleaning products for bathroom / kitchen / glass / floors (lemons and limes have natural cleaning properties).
  15. Buy organic food.
  16. Recycle.
  17. Walk or cycle to places rather than driving.
  18. Don’t waste paper - use portable electronics rather than printing things out that you only need once.
  19. Reuse old paper by tearing it into quarters and using it for shopping lists and fridge notes.
  20. Research the ethics of your supermarket. Consider switching to Waitrose, M&S or Sainsburys.
  21. Make your own clothes.
  22. Get involved in clothes swaps.
  23. Shop at charity shops - supports people in need and extends the life of discarded clothing. The ones that in affluent areas often have top fashion labels and barely worn items!
  24. Convert car engines into being fuelled by recycled vegetable oil from restaurants (bit more effort but great idea!)
  25. Don’t get a lawn mower – get a goat! You get a mowed lawn without the cost of fuel plus regular milk - what's not to like?! To be fair, this probably isn't too practical for most of us, but Urban Shepherding is a real thing. Perhaps a more practical response is to share a lawn mower with your neighbour - after all, how many mowers does one street need?
At the end of our last gathering, Victoria challenged us to commit to doing one of these by the next time we meet. We'll be looking forward to hearing what people get up to when we meet in November. 

Which one will you do?


Sunday, 14 October 2012

The redemptive struggle to forgive

I found this article in today's Independent inspiring and challenging. What do you think? What would you have done in each of these situations?


"Eric Lomax, who died on Monday aged 93, was one of thousands of British soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942 and forced to build the 418-mile railway to Burma. He was tortured until there was not a patch of unbruised skin between his shoulders and knees; 900 blows in six hours broke arms and ribs. At night he was confined to a cage coated in his own excrement.

Somehow he survived. But back in Scotland, Lomax was tormented for decades by nightmares. Post-traumatic stress led to estrangement from his father and the breakdown of his marriage. The mental scars refused to fade...

... Anger, hurt and bitterness is the commonest response to cruelty. It fuels sectarianism in Iran, resistance in Afghanistan and the blood feuds of Syria. Often it does not abate. When the killers of James Bulger were released, eight years after the murder, the dead toddler's mother said: "I never knew I had so much hate in me." Winnie Johnson, the mother of one of the victims of the Moors murderers, could not forgive for almost half a century until she died recently...

... Eric Lomax was different. He set out almost 50 years after the war to meet [his captor and tormentor], his heart filled with utter loathing and hate. But something extraordinary happened. "When we met, Nagase greeted me with a formal bow," he wrote on the website of the Forgiveness Project. "I took his hand and said in Japanese, 'Good morning, Mr Nagase, how are you?' He was trembling and crying, and he said over and over again: 'I am so sorry, so very sorry'. Lomax found himself saying: "We both survived."

Forgiveness turned to a friendship of nearly two decades."


From The ultimate heroism is forgiving the enemy - Comment - Voices - The Independent:

Bringing joy to dark places

While it is definitely too early to be thinking about Christmas (though Tesco and others don't seem to have got the memo), it could be worth thinking about getting behind this fantastic campaign already...

"Sadly, there will also be children in the UK who won’t enjoy the basic luxuries a cosy family home; they will be spending Christmas in a refuge, having escaped domestic abuse – often with few of their toys, games or clothes from the home they have fled. Which is why domestic violence charity Refuge – Red’s partners in the Speak Up Save A Life campaign – run an annual Christmas Present appeal.


Every year, Refuge try to ensure that every woman and child in their refuges receive a minimum of two to three presents each to unwrap on Christmas day. As Refuge say, 'The Christmas gift initiative is vital to ensure that refuges became places of joy on a day that has the potential to very bleak and hard.'

The charity have a gift list at John Lewis for the appeal so it could not be simpler. You can go as small as a counting block for £2.99, to as big as a pair of roller blades for £40. Whatever you pick, you will know that there’s a child in a refuge somewhere who will have a present to open on Christmas morning – thanks to you."

(Source: Red Online - John Lewis Refuge gift list)

In addition, the Prison Ministry at St Barnabas Church is also running the Angel Tree Project again this year - another opportunity to bring light and hope to dark places this winter. We'll share more details about this opportunity as and when we know more.

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Update - 08.10.12

This being the second week in the month, there is no official gathering, but I know some of you have begun to gather in 2to4 Groups and other smaller settings, which is great. If you are interested in finding out more and/or joining something like that, let us know - we'd be pleased to help facilitate.

If you like classical music, Ian has send us details of a charity concert happening tomorrow evening in aid of Barnet Carers and the Barnet Alzheimer's Fund. Details are available in the post below if you are interested.

We look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday (the 17th) at Coffee Republic for our next cafe session. Caroline Burns will be our guest speaker, sharing her experiences of a life less ordinary working with disadvantaged communities in Bolivia. Our last gathering when we heard from Wendy was inspiring - be sure not to miss this equally exciting session. We want as many people as possible to benefit from this series (and the community in general), so why not bring a friend...?

7:30pm at 778 North Finchley High Road.


Have a great week everyone - see you soon!

Charity concert

If you like a spot of classical music and raising money for good local causes, then why not pop along to Henrietta Barnett School tomorrow evening and enjoy both! Tickets are available on the door.


Thanks to Ian for sharing this - let us know if you go along or if you have anything else you'd like to promote...

Saturday, 6 October 2012

Building community

A few photos from our recent pub gathering. One half of the Justice Matters strap line is "building community" (the other half being "bringing hope" if you hadn't noticed). Just 18 months ago, this was just an aspiration. Today we have a mailing list of 50 people, 60 followers on Facebook and between 15 and 25 people regularly attending our gatherings.



Its great fun to be part of such a dynamic and diverse community and there's room for more. Come along to our next session and see for yourself...

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

Government Advocacy Training Day

"Would you like to learn the best way to get your MP's attention? Do you want advice on how to raise awareness in your community?"

The following message was posted on our Facebook Page by International Justice Mission UK. It looks like an interesting training opportunity - anyone interested in going?

"Given your interest in issues of social justice, I thought you might be interested in an event we’re holding on Sat 13th October. It’s an informal and relaxed afternoon consisting of workshops about engaging your MP and your local community in issues of social justice. It will finish with an address by Labour MP Stephen Timms. It’s going to be a great event so I hope you’ll be able to make it! You can get full details and book your place here: www.ijmuk.org/advocacy-training."


Shared from the Justice Matters Facebook Page

JM this evening

Looking forward to seeing you tonight. Just to let you know, though I had planned for us to be out and about for the first part of this evening's gathering, if it proves to be pouring down with rain, we will revised that part of the plan and stay in the safety of the pub. So don't let the rain be a reason not to come along...

8pm at the Bohemia, 762-764 North Finchley High Road.

See you later...

Monday, 1 October 2012

October Update

Its the start of a new month and another chance to get together and explore what it means to "learn to do right [and] seek justice". We had an excellent first session of our new theme, with practical tips on reducing your water impact from Dave Farnworth and inspiring real-life stories from Wendy, who challenged us to consider what disturbs us and find out how to get involved in solving it. For her, that has meant stepping out in faith to work alongside clubbers, addicts, sex workers and trafficked women. In each case, it was about stepping out and being willing to embrace opportunities and connections. What would embracing an opportunity to step out mean for you?


Our pub gatherings this term will compliment the theme of the cafe sessions, looking at how we can develop Justice Matters sessions to be even better at equipping and encouraging its members to be effective, ordinary radicals. The first of these will be this Wednesday, so make sure you come along and add your ideas to the mix. More information about the session is available in the post below.


That's all for now - have a great week and see you at The Bohemia on Wednesday.

Reduce you water impact

At our cafe session on 19th September, Dave Farnworth shared some excellent practical tips on ways to reduce your water impact. Why not give one of them a go?

  • Use a 'hippo' or expanding crystals to reduce the water used in flushing the loo
  • Know where your stop cock is
  • Get an eco shower head and timer to reduce the water you use in the shower 
  • Use a directional head spray on kitchen tap
  • Use water gel granules for hanging baskets / potted plants (reduces watering by up to four times)
  • Use 'Ecozone' magnets or similar to reduce limescale in your washing machine or dishwasher
  • Consider using a water meter - you can always have it uninstalled after a year if its not cost effective

For more information: