The Just1 2009 StandUps Against Poverty and for the UN Millennium Development Goals
This page tells you how whole dioceses can make a big contribution
Over 500 schools and nearly 600 churches with over 250,000 pupils, teachers, and parishioners in Portsmouth RC, Hexham & Newcastle RC, Blackburn CofE, and Hallam RC dioceses have been automatically enrolled as StandUp Schools as their bishops invite everyone to be counted as whole StandUp Dioceses


 

Bishop, be an angel this year
think of inviting the whole diocese
to stand up against poverty

St Andup's enlightening ideas for all dioceses

• just invite all your schools to stand up for a couple of minutes
  and share the Six Promises to the Poor on Friday 16th October
  (not, it's not compulsory)
   

• and invite your parishes to follow their example during usual worship
  anytime on the Saturday and Sunday 17-18th October
  (not, it's not compulsory)
   

• send in now your guesstimated Diocese Count
  to be included in the Just1 StandUps total
  as a contribution to the total of 100+million people
  standing up against poverty worldwide on those three days
  (not, it's not compulsory)

Why stand up and be counted?
Here's what a Diocesan Director of Education and
a Head of Pastoral Formation have to say.


It offers a simple but powerful way of showing solidarity
with a cause with which young people have a great affinity. It offers another opportunity to engage our students in the ongoing discussion
about important issues of justice for the poor and marginalized.
 

For me the question isn’t ‘Why should we stand up?’ but ‘Is there any reason why we shouldn’t stand up?’  StandUp is a wonderful way for worshipping communities across dioceses to demonstrate their solidarity with the poor throughout the world.

Anglican Dioceses
 in England, Wales,
Scotland and Ireland

Roman Catholic Dioceses
in England, Wales,
Scotland and Ireland

Conductor of Just1 StandsUps Hugh Gibbons says...

Thanks so much for your interest in this year's StandUps Against Poverty.

Whether Roman Catholic or Anglican, becoming and being a StandUp Diocese is a simple, free, unfussy idea for letting hundreds of thousands of people of all ages stand up together and show some values that they share. It's a peaceful rally that fits easily into a normal Friday to Sunday.

For the Churches, it's an ideal opportunity to show that they are at the forefront of humanitarian concern.  The StandUps idea is in the wake and spirit of MakePovertyHistory - but taking place not out on the streets but inside schools during the school day and churches during their usual services.

So it's something very different that dioceses won't want to miss out on.

You'll find the full lists of all known dioceses in the four home countries set out page below.  (And in case you think separate pages for the two denominations is having like a wall in heaven, I can tell you it's simply a matter of not crowding everything on to one web page. Just1 is meant to be about as ecumenical as possible, welcoming in everyone to stand up against poverty, of any faith or none.)

• Anglican Dioceses in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland
• Roman Catholic Dioceses in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland

Our very first StandUp Diocese?  Portsmouth.  So it's a pat on the back and well done to the Right Reverend Crispian Hollis who gave an instant Count Us In when the idea was put to him. (It may have helped that Pompey won the day before...)
 
 

It's easy to become a StandUp Diocese. 
Just say Count Us In. Then meet these easy requirements

• Tell all your parishes and schools the good news - and invite them to get 16-18 October into their diaries.  It's compulsory, and any which don't want to join can simply opt out.
• Give Just1 your Diocesan Count - the best guesstimate of the total numbers of pupils, teachers, churchgoers and others who'll be likely to take part - and this can be to the nearest 10,000!
• Near the time, send all schools and parishes your special ecumenical Pastoral Postcard of Promises to the Poor
• And afterwards?  Think of writing to government  to tell them what your diocese has done - and stands for

In return? The Diocese gets...

• your own StandUp Diocese webpage - with messages from the Bishop and anyone else, space for messages about aid agencies or charities you particularly want to support, and any other news
• all schools automatically enrolled as StandUp Schools - and listed on your diocese webpage if your education team provides some simple data on their names and locations (see below)
• all parishes automatically enrolled as StandUp Parishes
• listed as a StandUp Diocese on our lists here

StandUps are Diocese-friendly...
Being a StandUp Diocese is good for the soul.  It sends out strong messages about you  - to yourselves, local communities, the media.    It's great community cohesion because everyone gets easily involved: diocesan officers and teams, clergy and other religious, parishioners, church groups, school and college students, teachers and other staff, and others around you. The StandUps will generate a stream of good stories for local press and radio - and parishes.  And no money's involved.

Bishop-friendly...
No big demands on your time - or brain!  There's an ecumenical Pastoral Postcard of Six Pledges to the Poor available for you to send to all parishes and schools - adjusted a little if you want. And there's a draft letter you might personally send to senior ministers in the government of the UK or Ireland - not as a petition, but to make them fully aware that thousands of people have values for which they want to be stand up and be counted.

Teachers-, pupils- and parents-friendly...
StandUps are an ideal extra PSHE/RE activity. Schools can also compose songs, send letters to governments, involve families and friends.

Clergy-friendly...
The Six Pledges give all parishes a powerful and ready-made way for parishes to reach out and show solidarity with the poor - linking all the laity at worship and in local schools.

Parishioner-friendly...
The Pledges let people show their values and compassion for the poor in an unusual way that encourages social cohesion. They take only a few minutes during or at the end of usual services on Saturday or Sunday. Parishes may also like to organise extra local events around the StandUps.

Eco-friendly...
Most of your communication can be by email to schools and parishes. And they don't get loads of extra paper. They just download and print out what they want - posters, pledges.

Hugh-friendly... if your education teams help him
Just1 is just that: just Hugh. The motivation and enthusiasm are there.  But there's a limited supply of time and keyboarding. Rather than him pore over the data in the public domain on your diocesan website to and extract the names and addresses of your schools and parishes, heads of education and other teams in the diocese can help share the StandUp workload in a ways that are pretty easy for them.

It'll probably take someone about 10 minutes sometime to extract the information below from your computers and email it to Hugh for him to include on your StandUp Diocese webpage.  What's needed is:

• a list of schools and locations
• if possible, a total of pupils and teachers
• with the URL of the school's website
• the public e-mail address (eg school secretary/info) to use in some nudging - not for any other purpose

The aim is to provide on your webpage a collated list that looks like this:

Download and print out
this simple poster for all
your Year classes
by clicking here

Guidelines page for schools
and parishes -  includes an
Introduction and the
Promises to the Poor

Information updated on Thursday, 04 June 2009