The Archdiocese of Liverpool Social Action Conference

Reflection written by William Reay, Agents of Change young leader and participant in the Social Action Conference

The Liverpool Social Action conference is an annual event in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, bringing together people in faith-based charities, volunteers, and anyone with a particular interest in social justice advocacy and Catholic social teaching. The theme for this year was ‘Humanitas: Flourishing in Action’.

A small group of us met at the cathedral at 8:30 am in the morning, about 1 hour before the conference started we set up our workshop  so we were prepared and could focus on the talks. It then got to 9:30 am, we all sat down in our seats and were welcomed by Lucy Raurer, part of the Social Action Team and Archbishop of Liverpool John Sherrington.

The first talk was on ‘The Church of Living Stones’ by Fr Maximillian Martin, who is a Franciscan friar serving as the provincial custos for the Order of Friars Minor Conventual  and resides with the Greyfriars in Liverpool. I found the talk really interesting as I was able to learn much more about Saint Francis of Assisi and his life of poverty. The next talk was about ‘From Service to Communion: Exploring Humanitas for Our Time’ by Jenny Sinclair, the founder and director of Together for the Common Good (T4CG) The audience responded well to this, when  speaking  to people around me about what we heard somebody commented on how they are going to use those messages in their everyday life, everyone engaged well.

After the talks, there were 3 workshops and the first one was called ‘Everyday Human Kindness – Simple Actions for Racial Justice and Community Success’ by Justin Malewezi The founder of The Racial Justice House and a member of the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ). The next workshop was ‘Why Laudato Si Still Matters – Integral Ecology and Human’ by John Paul de Quay who is the co-founder of the Ecological Conversion Group Charity and The Journey to 2030 Project. The final workshop, which I helped lead was by the Agents of Change Young Leaders, with Million Minutes.

Our workshop was called ‘In Our Words’  During the workshop, wepened with a  prayer, by Sotaar and short speeches Firstly by Dylan on ‘Where I see my Faith Misunderstood’ and secondly by Emily  on ‘How my Faith Leads me to Love, Serve and Act’ bWe then split into three breakout groups, to discuss what had been heard and then shared our thoughts with the rest of the room. Finally, we finished the workshop with a prayer, lead by myself, thanking all those who had attended the workshops, the Million Minutes team and blessing all the young people who want to have their voices heard.

Following the workshops , we then returned to our chairs where Dcn. John Sargent led a 20-minutes of conversations in the spirit I really enjoyed this as it was a very peaceful way to reflect and consider everything that we had heard. We then had some lunch before heading into the final talk which was called ‘Manifesto for Hope & Our Communities: A Renewed Vision of Human Society’ by Revd. James Green who is the CEO of Together Liverpool, a charity supporting churches and communities to develop practical responses to poverty, exclusion and social need. I really enjoyed reading parts of the manifesto and discussing our own communities and the problems they face.

Next, we had a panel discussion with five panel members, chairing the session was  Cllr Jane Corbett, who is the counselor for Everton West Ward. The five panel members were, Professor Iain Buchan who is a professor at The University of Liverpool, Tiffany St James who is the Chief AI officer at the Liverpool City Region, Francis Stewart who is part of the Centre for Catholic Social Thought & Practice (CCSTP), Cllr Portia Fahey who is also a counselor for Everton North Ward, and  Jenny Sinclair, Founder and Director of T4CG and the co-host of the Leaving Egypt podcastand Revd. Phil Jump  Regional Minister and Team Leader of the North Western Baptist Association and chair of Churches Together in the‍ Merseyside Region (CTMR) Overall, I found the panel very inspiring and noticed that everyone involved interacted with interesting and thoughtful questions.

Finally, Dcn. John Sargent ended the event with a final reflection on the day as a whole and Lucy Raurer thanked us for coming, initiating a round of applause for those who contributed and attended the event.