This week’s issue of Church Times has a series of comment articles on racism. There is also a related news item: Church leaders join the voices against racism.
The roots of racism in the Church are deep and thick – Catherine Nancekievill “has seen the challenges from within the Ministry Division”
The quietly privileged need to repent and commit themselves to change – Paul Butler “describes how he came to appreciate the importance of campaigning for racial equality”
Can the Church’s culture change? – White clerics should not remain silent about structural racism, says Rob Wickham
Racism is rife in this country, to0 – It is time for systematic change in Church and society, argues Arlington Trotman
If corona won’t get us, racism will – Anderson Jeremiah and Shemil Mathew find parallels between the death of George Floyd and the Covid-19 death rate among BAME people
Peter Francis & Charlie Gladstone A Statement from Gladstone’s Library – Black Lives Matter
Peterson Feital ViaMedia.News We Can’t Go Back…But We Can Stop Hurting People!
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Outsider as the Prophet
Thomas Plant All Things Lawful And Honest From Anamnesis to Amnesia: how the Neo-Puritans in charge want to erase the Church’s memory
Is it about class as much as race: the two phenomena working in lockstep? Note the levels of expenditure relative to current rates of economic inequality: https://twitter.com/osu_kailash/status/1269498073090191360 This, then, is the premium the wealthy (and their hirelings in government) feel constrained to pay to preserve their property rights. The higher the Gini coefficient, the larger the premium. However, the churches should caution against any movements that merely seek to substitute one elite for another, all the while preserving the inequitable neoliberal model that causes despair amongst the immiserated of all races: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10624-017-9476-3 The critique the… Read more »
Yes, yes, yes, Mr Froghole. You write that the churches “should caution against any movements that merely seek to substitute one elite for another”. I would like to see the churches recognize vociferously and practically another group of the underprivileged – I speak from my experience of ministry – and that is the white poor. It’s easy for church people, the vast majority of whom are prosperous and middle class, to latch on to an obvious cause in order to salve their consciences without either real involvement or discomfort, just as it’s easy for them to pontificate about the evils… Read more »
Since the Church’s policy now seems to be that only parishes which can pay for clergy will have a priest, the poor of all ethnicities will be more neglected than ever.
Indeed so. But I sometimes detect more eagerness on the part of church people to campaign on behalf of those far away while ignoring those just along the road. I hope that that can be avoided.
Stanley, I sharee your feelings. So much easier to look to the horizon, and not see the needs beneath our feet.
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At the same time this is our history, we must rspect the people who are our ancestors , and learn by their history, which like us being human, made many misstakes, as we ourselves do today. It is called human nature, in all its rawness.
Fr John Emlyn
“We may, however, have the voice of Amos fragmented across the witness of many dissenting outsiders who have something to say to the church. ” This is sort of true. But I think it is more like the dawn chorus than the song of a single nightingale (or seagull, whatever). I don’t think it is a single message fragmented among many. I think it is lots of messages, perhaps each fragmented, but overlapping in a grand chorus. My suspicion is that, while true prophecy, the specifics aren’t necessarily terribly important. My sense is that the main message is “Open your… Read more »
I agree the church has a crucial role to play in the task of taking the plentiful evidence already available on the social deprivation, poverty of opportunity etc of BAME people , the white poor and other group in society and adress the issues identified ASAP