C STA HE ICKE LIN

So, how can we as Christians respond to these strikes? Well, here are a few ideas:

Talk to people about these strikes

It is very likely that there will be someone in your life who is affected by these strikes, whether it be your friends or your lecturers. Talk to them about their working conditions. How do they feel about the strikes?

Standing on a picket line

Speaking from personal experience, I can attest to how inspiring being on a picket line can be. People hold banners, share food, sometimes even sing songs! Perhaps you and a group of SCM members could go to a picket line together with some flasks of tea. It can mean the world when people show up in solidarity.

Avoid crossing a picket line

Sometimes it is unavoidable that you have to take a train. But before getting on the train, see if there is a bus running instead. If you're meeting up with someone, could you do an online meeting?

These are just a few things you can do, but these small gestures make a huge difference for striking workers. Gustavo Gutierrez, one of the founding thinkers of liberation theology once wrote "if I define my neighbour as the one I must go out to look for, on the highways and byways, in the factories and slums, on the farms and in the mines-then my world changes." If Gutierrez is right, then Christ won't be in the meetings where bosses are worrying about their Christmas bonuses. Christ will be standing on the picket line with a flask and banner, asking you to join him.

At SCM, I work in partnership with Project Bonhoeffer for the Faith in Action project, a project focused on inspiring our members to actively engage with issues of social justice. When we're engaging with a topic such as this, the phrase "Faith in Action" comes alive for me. By being involved in the Church from a young age, I was given an opportunity to form Christ within me. But if being a Christian means to ;ii;: manifest the Christ that is already formed within us, how o rr, do we manifest it? As Christians we all have issues that we are passionate about; the important thing is how we turn these issues into action. Dorothy Day, one of the founders of the Catholic Worker movement once wrote that "no one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much E work to do." We can easily spend our lives focusing on the minutiae of scripture. There comes a point, however, where we have no choice but to stop, hear the liberating words of the gospel and ask ourselves: what work needs to be done?

Who needs our help? And how can I manifest Christ within me? z

Naomi is the Project Worker for Social Justice for Student Christian Movement UK. She also works for the Chaplaincy team at York St John University. Prior to working here, she studied Music at the University of Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music and worked as a freelance musician. She is based in York.