Justice Mail is an online platform enabling local churches to learn about and support campaigns related to peace and justice issues. Developed by a small team in Birmingham and elsewhere, Trust funding enabled the development of the Justice Mail website.
St Peter’s College Saltley Trust Project Report
Justice Mail Website
5 February 2014
Justice Mail is a church-based organisation of email activists which has two main purposes: 1) To encourage local congregations to get more involved in issues of justice and peace; and 2) To strengthen the campaigns being waged by various UK NGOs. Each email list has its own manager and requests for action are sent out to subscribers of each list once every other week. Actions are selected from an approved list of campaigning bodies such as Christian Aid, Church Action on Poverty, War on Want, Oxfam, the World Development Movement, Greenpeace and many others.
On 5 October 2012 the Saltley Trust gave a grant of £680 to meet the costs of a website for Justice Mail. At that time the Justice Mail organisation had been in action for several years, operating by word of mouth and through email. There were five local groups functioning. The website was created by Dave Gray of Insite Connections in Keele, who has maintained an active helping hand since then. The website went live on 8 January 2013 and was launched locally in the various member churches over the next couple of months www.justicemail.org.uk.
By the end of the year 2013, three additional groups had been added. The complete list is as follows:
All Saints’ Church, Kings Heath, Birmingham
All Saints’ Church, Wingerworth, Derby
St Bartholomew’s Church, Wilmslow
Bradgate cluster of churches, Leicestershire
Church of the Martyrs, Leicester
Lichfield Diocese
Mansfield Deanery, Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham
The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham
It is significant that the group now includes for the first time a deanery group of churches and even a diocese, with the intention of encouraging local churches in that diocese to start their own groups. It is also important to note that the list based in The Queen’s Foundation includes 80 students many of whom are preparing for ordained ministry in a range of denominations. Two of the lists have been created by former Queen’s students. Growth during the year has been significant, and many comments made both verbally and by email encourage us to believe that the objectives of Justice Mail are being achieved. We hope in the year ahead to attract new lists from denominations other than The Church of England, and to steadily expand our work from the Midlands to the South and North of the country.
John Hull
Secretary of Justice Mail
The Queen’s Foundation, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2QH