JPCA

Did you miss the Hikoi mō Te Tiriti action over the past few weeks? You can now read all about our CDA and JPCA whānau: Read our Hikoi mō Te Tiriti journey here. Ake, Ake, Ake…. JPCA 🕊

For a few years in my late teens and early twenties I volunteered for a Catholic homeless street youth mission in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It offered friendship, a hot cuppa and a non-judgmental listening ear for the homeless of Melbourne twice a week. On those nights, our team would meet for prebriefing prayers at a church in Collingwood before making our way to park under the clocks of Flinders Street Station for a couple of hours, then return to Collingwood for a debrief before making our way back to the south-eastern suburbs. It became a ritual of habitual friendship. One …
Read More about God is with us – World Homeless and Mental Health Days 2024

For the month of September, the Social Impact Team this morning hosted prayer for CDA staff at Pompallier Diocesan Centre, Auckland. After an extraordinary week of mourning and celebration it was most appropriate that monthly morning staff prayers should be equally sombre and exuberant, joyful and sad, solemn and spirited. This morning the Social Impact Team were blessed by the presence and participation of our extended whanau from Catholic Social Services Ponsonby and Otara. Prayer began with a moment of silence to acknowledge the recent passings of Kiingi Tuheitia Pooatatau Te Wherowhero VII – Māori King and Paramount Chief of …
Read More about Beautiful Beginnings & Sorrowful Endings: CDA Staff Prayer September 2024

  Please read Commission Media Statement here: Remembering Kiingi Tuheitia Pooatatau Te Wherowhero VII

366 days as the Executive Secretary to the Justice and Peace Commission has been both a psalm and a lament. Inheriting a dynasty now in its eleventh year was not without its quibbles or conflicts, nor has the past year been without pain or loss. Akin to the parable, this seed, which was the final picking of Pat Lythe, has been crushed, cleaned, sieved and reshaped before falling on good ground. The yield and harvest are expected to be fruitful, but this dynasty created over many moons also requires adequate sunlight and time to grow (aren’t parables fun!). As Spring …
Read More about Year One: A Year of Growth

Today it is an honour and a privilege to support and celebrate the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This year’s theme focuses on the right to voluntary isolation and initial contact of indigenous peoples. While we cannot, nor wish to, erase the past we can learn and develop from it.   We all need to know our history and the different legacies it has left to Māori and Tau Iwi. In many parts of the world, indigenous peoples face the loss of land, of language, of culture and identity. We have an opportunity to heal wounds that have …
Read More about International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2024

Remembering Pat…. It is with great sadness we remember and pray for the soul of our dear friend and former Chair to the Justice and Peace Commission, Pat Lythe who passed away this morning after a brief but stoic battle with cancer. There was no mistaking when Pat was in a room or a meeting. Her direct, no nonsense, steadfast, and matronly spirit knew no restraint. Yet, she could exhibit and inhabit a genuine warmth and caring kindness which belied her firm school Ma’am exterior. Her encouraging, tough-love approach could break through the most stubborn and headstrong of personalities, while …
Read More about Vale Dame Pat Lythe