The Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice offers an open space for people of goodwill to meet, build relationships and create communities of solidarity through a process of communal discernment. It continues in a new form the mission of the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice, founded in 1979.
Context
The onslaught of corporate globalization, which puts profits before the needs of people and creation,
has prompted groups of people everywhere to promote an alternative vision and to conduct actions to challenge the global system, which favours the power of corporations.
However, even with the growth of social movements and many more voices questioning the current economic model, changing public policy requires openness to alternative ideas. Reaching those in power, whether members of parliament, leaders of corporations, officials at the World Bank, or the media, requires a process of building relationships.
Goal of the Forum
The Forum’s service of bringing people together from similar fields of social responsibility is an effort to provide spaces for reflection and sharing – where people can speak openly and honestly in an atmosphere of trust. The goal is to counteract the growing privatization of people’s faith and deepest convictions, and the tendency to say in public only what is considered “politically-correct”. At the same time the gatherings will aim to nourish people’s spirit and build community.
The Forum, therefore, focuses on relationships and the hope is that such relationships, developed through a process of communal discernment of the signs of the times, will create possibilities for change.
The Forum, therefore, seeks to:
· Facilitate the personal and communal development of those working and acting
for justice in their daily lives;
· Animate the communal reflection of leaders in similar fields of social responsibility;
· Lead theological reflection on justice issues, based on experience gained through
listening to the communities with which it is working;
· Build communities of solidarity.
The Director of the Jesuit Forum, Peter Bisson SJ pbisson@jesuitforum.ca