• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Joint Public Issues Team

Churches working for peace and justice

  • Home Page
  • Who We Are
    • Six hopes for society
  • Issues
    • Economy
      • Tax Justice
      • Reset The Debt
      • Living Wage
    • Environment
      • Net Zero In My Neighbourhood
    • Poverty and Inequality
      • The Cost of Living Crisis
      • Universal Credit
      • Truth and Lies
      • Enough
      • Rethink Sanctions
      • Faith in Foodbanks
      • Housing and Homelessness
    • Asylum and Migration
      • Refugees
      • End Hostility
      • The Asylum System
    • Peacemaking
      • The Arms Trade
      • Nuclear Weapons
      • Drones
      • Peacemaking resources
    • Politics and Elections
      • Elections
      • Meet Your MP
      • Art of the Possible
      • Brexit
    • Other Issues
      • International Development
      • Modern Slavery and Exploitation
        • Forced labour in fashion
  • Get Involved
    • JPIT Conference 2022
    • Newsletter
    • Events
    • Walking with Micah
  • Resources
    • Advent
    • 10 Minutes on… podcast
    • Politics in the Pulpit?
    • Stay and Pray
    • Season of Creation
    • Prayers
    • Public Issues Calendar
    • Poetry
    • Small Group Resources
  • Blog

Questioning injustice

Blog · 2 February, 2018

JPIT’s newest team member, Simeon Mitchell, introduces himself.

For as long as I can remember, I have had more questions than answers. Why can’t I walk on the grass? How do I know that I’m real and not just in a dream? Why is the sea blue when water isn’t?

As I grew older and was exposed to some of the realities of the world, many of my questions became more pointed and focused on issues of injustice. Why is a quarter of the world hungry when the planet produces enough food to feed everyone? Why do we spend so much money on weapons if we don’t want there to be wars? Why doesn’t someone change the system if it doesn’t work?


When I learned more about the Christian faith in which I’d been brought up, I discovered echoes of my questions in the raging of the prophets and the laments of the psalmists, and encountered a Son of Man who answered them with his actions as well as his words. I also discovered a community which does not settle for the world as it is, but is inspired to work towards realising the vision of God’s kingdom.

Fired up by my questions and encouraged by my faith, I got involved: in church, in campaigns and causes, in politics. My political awakening coincided with the fall of Berlin Wall, when I saw the potential of ordinary people to bring about change – an experience later reinforced by my participation in the Jubilee 2000 movement for debt cancellation.

Eventually my involvement led to opportunities to pursue a career working in organisations concerned with social justice – focused on housing and homelessness, then fair trade, then, for the last sixteen years or so, on global poverty and international development. I have held various responsibilities, but a strand running through it all has been a passion to engage Christians in thinking through the implications of our faith for responding to the realities of the world we live in. For allowing our questions to drive our ideals and our activism. And to walk a path of discipleship which means offering answers and alternatives, too.

It is therefore enormously exciting for me to be joining the Joint Public Issues Team, which since its formation has offered such powerful and prophetic witness on behalf of the churches across a range of vital issues, and to be working for the URC, with its strong commitment to generous inclusivity and to speaking out in conscience on matters of justice and peace.

I am still full of questions, and I am looking forward to working with our church members, colleagues and partners to help people engage with some of the issues facing our society today – not only by demanding answers from those who hold power and responsibility (which includes all of us, of course), but also by playing a part in proposing solutions as well.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Faith, Meet the Team

Simeon Mitchell

I became interim JPIT Team Leader in April 2021, and have the privilege and responsibility of coordinating the work of the team. I was previously Deputy Team Leader, and have been Secretary for Church and Society for the United Reformed Church since January 2018. My background is in international development and enabling Christians and churches to respond to issues of global poverty and injustice. I live in Oxford with my wife and three children, and am a preacher and lay leader in my local church.

Previous Post: « Response to the Government consultation on gambling machines
Next Post: Celebrating the Representation of the People Act »

Primary Sidebar

Search

Recent Posts

  • JPIT’s Review of 2022
  • What does Government Support for Asylum Seekers really provide?
  • God with Us – the Refugees of Calais and Dunkirk
  • How can we respond to COP27?
  • Statement on the conclusion of the COP27 Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
  • COP27 – what should we be looking for?
  • “He has filled the hungry with good things” – What we need from the Autumn Budget
  • What are the stories we should tell about the humanitarian crisis at Manston Airport Asylum centre?
  • How can we be sure that the products we buy are not the result of modern slavery?
  • Why I hate Warm Banks (and why my church is opening one)
  • How does our theology call us to challenge Poverty?
  • Introducing Alfie
  • Biden says nuclear risk is the highest since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Churches respond to risk to benefit levels
  • Briefing on the ‘Mini Budget’ for the Enough to Live group
  • Introducing Hazel
  • Introducing Hannah
  • An energy cap announcement in three parts: the good, the absent and the ugly
  • Afghanistan and the UK – One Year On from the Fall Of Kabul
  • Inflation, interest rates and the poorest

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

Footer

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Quick links

Stay and Pray
Politics in the Pulpit
Faith in Politics podcast
Public Issues Calendar
Useful Links

Our work

About Us
Meet the Team
Join the Team 
Internship
Our Newsletter

Contact us

25 Marylebone Road
London NW1 5JR

Tel: 020 7916 8632

enquiries@jpit.uk

Copyright © 2023 · Showcase Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in