Working for Justice in Wellington
Jesus speaks of a vision for a restored earth that he calls The Kingdom of God. He says it’s subtle like a small seed, precious like a lost treasure, and mysterious like a wind. He talked of it as an alternative economy where all people, rich and poor, have enough to live and thrive together. He talked of it as a family that orphans get adopted into. He said it’s a place where it doesn’t matter what class, gender or race you identify with, but all are invited to the table. That’s the kind of world followers of Jesus are meant to work to create.
Justice isn’t about charity or making us feel better, it’s about returning what we’ve taken to those who don’t have enough. As the Catholic activist Dorothy Day said, “If you have two coats you’ve stolen one from the poor.”
We want to rebalance the scales and to put things right. St Iraneus said “The glory of God is man fully alive.” We believe that when we restore the world and it’s people that everything starts to more accurately reflect who God is and that makes others want to know him too.
We do this by running a number of creative initiatives such as live-in homes of hospitality (chapters) where people seek to live alongside the urban poor. One of our key initiatives is The Free Store, Wellington, a community that collects and redistributes over 250,000 items of surplus café food to hungry inner-city Wellingtonians each year. More about this can be seen in the video below...
