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Justice and Peace Group
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About us
Parish Justice & Peace Group: Overview of 2023
The Justice & Peace group at St Dominic's has been part of the parish for over twenty years. We work to reflect on the issues of the day and to assist our parish to play its part in responding to the call of the Gospel to work for a more just and peace-filled world. We meet on the last Monday of each month at 7.30pm for approximately an hour. The meetings are not overly formal and we discuss a range of current social issues.
We are always looking for new members and you would be more than welcome to join the group. Why not just come along, meet us and see if the work we do is something that would interest you - contact Fr Kevin at kevin.toomey@op.org.au
2023 Activities
During 2023 our Parish Social Justice Group continued to promote Social Justice in our parish community and beyond.
One of our areas of focus was in developing our own understanding of Justice & Peace issues, and sharing that with the parish. To that end:
We authored a number of feature items in our weekly parish Dominican, namely in relation to
Laudato Si’ week
NATSICC Sunday
Grandparents and Elderly
Social Justice Sunday - focus on Bishops’ statement
Season of Creation
Prisoner Sunday
Disability Sunday
And a parish blog item on modern slavery
We organised a forum at St Dominic’s on Sunday 15 October where Fr Bruce Duncan presented on the 60th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris.
There were also some activities In service of the broader community:
A proportion of the Vodaphone rental received by the parish has for some years been allocated to address pressing human needs. We advised the Parish Priest on the distribution of these funds. We also oversaw the sale of Timor Leste coffee at the parish, and the distribution of the financial surplus to projects in Timor Leste.
The third annual Mental Health Liturgy with the Canterbury Council of Churches was held on Sunday 29 October, at St Dunstan’s, with Professor David Kissane AC as the main speaker. St Dominic’s J&P initiated this series and contributed to the organisation this year.
A working group initiated work on the development of a parish action plan in response to Pope Francis 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si’ – Care for our Common Home.
Thanks to the St Dominic's team that collected food at Middle Camberwell Woolworths on Saturday, 6 May 2023. We were part of a Boroondara-wide effort that made a significant contribution to those in need in our neighbourhood, as together we collected around two thousand shopping bags of food for Camcare, Salvation Army, etc for people in Boroondara. The Hope for Boroondara food drive was also a great example of Christian witness in the community, and of cooperation across the Christian communities of Boroondara: it was organised by St Hilary's Anglican Church in Kew, and our own team include people from Deepdene Catholic parish and from the nearby East Camberwell Baptist Church.
Following the 2020 Social Justice Statement from the Australian Bishops on Mental Health and their earlier document on parish support for mental health, St Dominic’s parish has adopted mental health as one of our pastoral priorities. Click here to open our portal.
Submit your suggestions
Let us know which social justice issues you feel strongly about