EUROPE/UNITED KINGDOM - Growing cooperation between Caritas Westminster and Jewish Volunteering Network (JVN)

Monday, 25 July 2016 refugees   caritas   voluntary work  

jvn.org.uk

EUROPE/UNITED KINGDOM – Growing cooperation between Caritas Westminster and Jewish Volunteering Network (JVN)
London (Agenzia Fides) – Growing cooperation between the volunteers of Caritas Westminster and Jewish Volunteering Network (JVN) could open more paths for common action in the field of humanitarian emergencies, and become a valid channel for spreading a culture of encounter and service of the common good. This is the opinion of John Coleby, head of Caritas Westminster, and Ms Leonie Lewis, head of JVN, a body which brings together Jewish volunteering organisations active all over the British Isles and networking with similar organisations in other countries . Recently, in an intervention published by the Israeli media Mr Coleby and Ms Lewis illustrated the potential of interreligious cooperation in charity services, recalling that the two organisations, Caritas Westminster and JVN first combined September 2015, through their similar work dealing with the challenges of refugees in Calais. On that occasion it became clear that they could work together. Interreligious voluntary work – say Coleby and Lewis - can be a complex issue when it comes to faith-based values. The leading members of both bodies in their intervention, agree that the common Jewish-Christian tradition is a source of inspiration for voluntary charitable work in societies today and underline that cooperation and gradually extended shared programmes could be a way of defusing discriminatory and sectarian attitudes and tensions. They said they hoped this cooperation would lead to more faith link-ups in the future, particularly with the Muslim community, establishing the JVN proposition as the go-to volunteering model across all faiths.
(GV) (Agenzia Fides 25/7/2016)


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