New Social Action Team forming

Posted September 9, 2007

Dear Friends,

DID YOU KNOW THAT?

  • 57 countries are currently known to hold prisoners of conscience or suspected prisoners of conscience
  • 1 in 3 women are subjected to intimate partner abuse
  • 2 million people are trafficked every year, the majority women and girls
  • 70% of casualties in recent conflicts have been non-combatants
  • Amnesty documented cases of torture or ill-treatment by police, security forces and other government authorities in 102 countries in 2006

(All figures taken from the July/August edition of AMNESTY MAGAZINE)

WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE? IF SO, PLEASE READ ON….

As you may already know, MCC has had a social action ministry in operation for a number of years. To date, this has mainly involved signing letters or postcards during the social time immediately after church on a Sunday. Letters have been written on the basis of information provided by Amnesty International and other reputable organisations in an attempt to achieve justice for prisoners of conscience and victims of other forms of oppression around the world.  We have campaigned, raised money and done research to help with asylum campaigns, submitted evidence to Parliament in response to consultations on the Gender Recognition and Civil Partnership Bills. We have also continued to campaign on gay rights issues.   

As part of the next stage of development of this ministry, we are asking people to sign up to a new Social Action Group, which should provide a more formal structure and focus for the work that we do.

By joining the group, members will be subscribing to the monthly newsletter C4J (Call For Justice), which will be launching in October 2007. This will contain a letter ready to print off, sign and send. In addition to the main letter, the newsletter will also feature a number of other carefully selected cases so that people can compose their own letters on the basis of the details provided, if they so wish.

Signing and writing letters may only seem like a small thing, but it puts pressure on oppressive regimes by showing them that they are under scrutiny and it makes a real difference to the victims’ lives, as the following quote from the Amnesty website reveals: “We could always tell when international protests were taking place… the food rations increased and the beatings were fewer.” - Released prisoner of conscience, Viet Nam.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the new group, please send an e-mail to Steve Gray, our new Social Action coordinator via socialaction@mccmanchester.co.uk, remembering to include your first name and surname in the body of the text. You will then be added to the mailing list and will start receiving the C4J newsletter from October 2007.

Rev Andy Braunston
Pastor: MCC Manchester

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