press release 23/02/2023:
Archbishops’ Commission on Racial Justice releases Second Biannual Report
The Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice has released the second of its biannual Racial Justice reports.
Mandated to drive ‘significant cultural and structural change on issues of racial justice within the Church of England’, the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice (“ACRJ”), headed by The Rt Hon Lord Paul Boateng, is charged with monitoring, holding to account and supporting the implementation of the forty-seven recommendations of the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce which were laid out in the Taskforce’s comprehensive 2021 report From Lament to Action….
The remainder of the press release is copied below the fold. From another page:
In this, the second of the six reports the ACRJ will produce, we have reported on the work of the seven workstreams since the publication of the Spring 2022 report and on the progress of work on the five priority areas and the forty-seven recommendations identified in From Lament to Action.
The full text of the report is available here.
A report in the Church Times is available here: Lord Boateng: Church’s racial-justice progress is slow, despite accusations of haste
press release continued:
…In his foreword letter to the Second Report, Lord Boateng singles out for praise the Church Commissioners for their “ground-breaking work” in the forensic audit undertaken on Queen Anne’s Bounty and its links with transatlantic chattel slavery. The Commission welcomes the £100 million of funding to deliver a programme of investment, research and engagement over the next nine years, but caveats that there is much further work to be done as this is “not the end of the story” [Slavery, p 23].
Lord Boateng welcomes the arrival in December 2022 of the Director of the Racial Justice Unit, but expresses continued disappointment at the time it has taken to establish the Unit and comments: “This has inevitably impacted negatively upon our own work and on the progress made across the Church of England in delivering on the recommendations of From Lament to Action“.
The Second Report draws particular attention to the witness heard from representatives of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Christians about the “indifference, neglect and outright hostility” at the hands of both church and state. General Synod in 2019 urged dioceses to establish a chaplain to the communities. The Commission heard that twelve such chaplains have been appointed and calls for the remaining dioceses to do likewise in ensuring the GRT community receives pastoral, advocacy and educational activities. On the latter, the Church of England’s “Leaders like us” programme will have a part to play and the programme will be scrutinized by the Commission over the course of its work [Process and Engagement, p 11].
Commenting on the Second Report, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: “I am encouraged that some progress has been made, particularly in the establishment of a fully-functioning Racial Justice Unit, but there is clearly more to be done. I continue to be very grateful to Lord Boateng and the members of the Commission for Racial Justice for the essential and demanding work they are doing and will pray for them.”
Adding his thanks for the Second Report, the Archbishop of York said: “I remain saddened that the issue of racial justice has to be one of constant vigilance and questioning. The Commission’s work is vital if we are to transform the nature of our ministry and witness.”
Notes to Editors
The Commission reports to the Archbishops every six months with recommendations to help the Archbishops fulfil their commitments to identify, respond to, and root out systemic racism in the Church.
The full membership of the Archbishops Commission for Racial Justice includes:
Interested to see that this has so far not prompted comment from a normally articulate and energetic readership. Why? It can’t be, I hope, that disagreement about SSM has exhausted everybody. The measured tones of this report may mask the serious things it has to say about how we as a church behave and what we should all be doing. Or has it been put into a ‘far too difficult’ pile? I find the silence troubling.
Many thanks. Previous attempts to discuss the role of the Bounty (23 January) elicited 19 comments, about half of which were relevant to the proposed reparations question. The Rustat judgment was reported on several times last year: there were many comments, some of which appeared (to me) to be from devoted ‘culture warriors’, and the balance of which were hostile to the case made by the college. The third world debt crisis elicited a great deal of interest in Church circles in the second half of the 1980s, but the renewed crisis was not even mentioned in Synod in February… Read more »
I get fed up with the straight, cis Christians trying to dominate the discussion about same sex marriage and gender identity which doesn’t affect them directly, so I assume that ethnic minorities would similarly prefer to lead this discussion.
Noteworthy how much of the progressive discourse consists of explaining why other people aren’t allowed to have different opinions.
Where did I say that? I don’t mind if straight people have views on same sex marriage but surely the views of those who are lesbian, gay or bi ought to be those we listen to most attentively?
Jesus would probably have put it as a parable. If a boat is leaking and a fisherman tells you that it is safe and a farmer tells you it will sink, who do you believe?
I was very pleased to see that TA responded positively to my question about this news on the other thread yesterday, and made amends by posting this item. I am thankful for all the hard work undertaken by this site in covering news for its readers, but I was concerned about the lack of coverage. I have had a keen interest in the Church of England’s struggles to get to grips with racism and racial justice, and now and again have wondered to what extent this is covered by TA, especially in comparison to the important matters of safeguarding and… Read more »
I agree with your concerns.
Sexuality is where the energy is because of rightwing methods of using culture war. We should not be blind to the fact that these methods are designed to deflect our interest from precisely the issues you raise: racism, racial justice, and the long-term effects of institutions implicated in colonialism.
Personally I see the two issues as deeply intertwined. Both are fundamentally questions of justice for marginalised people within the institution.
I think it has to be said that the second paragraph (“culture war”, “methods are designed”, …) here does not reflect reality.