Race for Justice

Richard Reddie

Description

In 2020 Britain marks the 25th anniversary of Racial Justice Sunday. This movement was established at a time when the UK was having to face up to both overt and subversive forms of racism, characterised by the tragic killing of black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, in Eltham in 1993. This murder, and other racist attacks, gave mainstream visibility to the struggle of many Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people to obtain equality and justice. Race for Justice brings together a collection of voices on this vital issue from across the Christian denominations. Each contributor to this volume serves as their particular denomination's racial justice, equalities, diversity or inclusion officers. Equipped with frontline experience in the fight against racism, they each give their perspective on the successes and failures of race relations over the last quarter of a century, as well as addressing contemporary challenges and their hopes for the future.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Theology
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 18 février 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781800300118
• Langue: English

Extrait

RACE FOR JUSTICE
The struggle for equality and inclusion in British and Irish churches
Edited by Richard S. Reddie
Dedication
To Noel and the late Lucille Reddie, my parents, who taught me the importance of justice.
Contents
About the Authors
Foreword
Introduction
1 Race, Ethnicity, and Participation in the Church of England: A Testament to Staying Power and Resilience
Rosemarie Mallet
2 The Methodist Church and Racial Justice: A Task for All
Inderjit Bhogal
3 British Baptists and Institutional Racism
Wale Hudson-Roberts
4 The Impetus for Racial Equality in the Religious Society of Friends
Edwina Peart and Paul Parker
5 The Catholic Church’s Work for Racial Justice
Richard Zipfel
6 The Journey Toward Racial Justice in the United Reformed Church
Sandra Ackroyd
7 Black Majority Churches and Racial Justice in Britain
Mark Sturge
8 Racial Justice: An Ecumenical Journey
Arlington W. Trotman
9 The Church of Scotland and the Race for Justice
Mandy Ralph
10 Wales and the Continuing Struggle for Racial Justice
Aled Edwards
11 Ireland, Churches, and Racial Justice
Damian Jackson
12 Racial Justice Within the Salvation Army in the UK
Jonny Smith
13 The Seventh-day Adventist Church and Racial Justice
Richard Daly
14 South Asian Christians in the UK
Sivakumar Rajagopalan
About the Authors
Richard S. Reddie
Richard Reddie is a writer, researcher, cultural and religious commentator, and broadcaster. He has written for various publications and taken part in a number of television and radio programmes. He is the author of several books, including the groundbreaking Black Muslims in Britain (Lion Hudson, 2009), which was the first scholarly research into this growing phenomenon and was subsequently turned into the documentary Young, Muslim and Black by BBC Radio 4. Richard is currently the Director of Justice and Inclusion at the leading ecumenical body, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
Rosemarie Mallett
The Right Revd Canon Dr Rosemarie Mallett was born in Barbados but has lived most of her life in the UK. She has worked in West and East Africa as well as back in the Caribbean as an academic and researcher. She returned to the UK to study for her PhD. After working as an academic sociologist for twelve years, she trained for ordained ministry. Since 2005, she has served in various roles in the Diocese of Southwark, based in south London and East Surrey, as parish priest, diocesan director, and archdeacon, and is presently the bishop of Croydon.
Inderjit Bhogal
Revd Dr Inderjit Bhogal OBE is a leading theologian and Methodist minister. He is founder and President of City of Sanctuary, a former President of the Methodist Conference, and a former Leader/CEO of the Corrymeela Community. His work in interfaith relations was recognized with an OBE in the 2005 New Year’s Honours list. Inderjit is recipient of the 2018 World Methodist Peace Award.
Wale Hudson-Roberts
Revd Wale Hudson-Roberts is the Baptist Union of Great Britain Justice Enabler, with responsibilities for racial justice. He is also the Pastor of John Bunyan Baptist in Oxfordshire and is married to Christine.
Edwina Peart
Edwina Peart is the Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator for Britain Yearly Meeting. In post since 2018, she works with Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) to remove barriers to wider participation, deepen the spiritual life of the community, and strengthen its witness. She favours an intersectional approach that prioritizes lived experience while recognizing the constraints of structures and institutions that regulate and mediate modern life.
Paul Parker
Paul Parker was appointed in 2011 as Recording Clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, the most senior staff position in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain. He is responsible for the Quakers’ national organization, supporting around 460 local Quaker communities around Britain, and taking forward their work for peace, social, and climate justice in the world. He worships in Saffron Walden, where he first became a Quaker in his early teens. He believes Quakerism is poised to go “Whoosh!” in the twenty-first century.
Richard Zipfel
Richard Zipfel began life in the USA, where he was involved in the Catholic Worker Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Peace Movement. He came to the UK in 1972, worked for the Student Christian Movement for a few years, and then worked for thirty years as Policy Adviser on Race and Community Relations for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Since retirement, he has served as a trustee for the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ).
Sandra Ackroyd
Sandra Ackroyd belongs to the United Reformed Church and has been active in racial justice advocacy for more than thirty years at all church levels and ecumenically. She has written a number of resources for the church, and has led training sessions and established projects to address inequality and racism.
Mark Sturge
Mark Sturge was the General Director of the African Caribbean Evangelical Alliance from 1996 to 2004. He was also the Head of England (London) for the international non-governmental organization Christian Aid. He is the author of the book Look What the Lord Has Done! (2005), which explores Black Christian faith in Britain. He is currently a doctoral student at Durham University.
Arlington W. Trotman
The Revd Arlington W. Trotman is a supernumerary Methodist minister and former Commission Secretary at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland’s Churches Commission for Racial Justice. He is also a former moderator for the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe. He is a racial justice researcher, educator, trainer, conference speaker, and systematic theologian.
Mandy Ralph
Revd Mandy Ralph is a Church of Scotland minister serving at Annbank and Tarbolton Parish Churches in South Ayrshire, Scotland. She is the Convener of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Group, Racial Justice Priority Group, and the Research on Ethnic Minorities Project Group of The Church of Scotland.
Aled Edwards
Canon Aled Edwards OBE is Chief Executive of Cytûn: Churches Together in Wales, and Secretary of the Interfaith Council for Wales. He is a trustee of Displaced People in Action and Deputy Chair of the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority. He is a member of the Independent Advisory Group for Gwent Police. Aled is also a keen runner and has completed several marathons and ultra-marathons.
Damian Jackson
Damian Jackson is General Secretary of the Irish Council of Churches, the national inter-church ecumenical organization for the island of Ireland. His main areas of work include facilitating churches’ work on migration and asylum issues, climate justice, housing insecurity, and community reconciliation. He has a PhD from the Irish School of Ecumenics in Trinity College, Dublin, examining the drivers of Irish Christians’ attitudes toward undocumented migrants. He is married to Diane, has three teenage daughters, and lives in Dublin.
Jonny Smith
Jonny Smith has been a Salvation Army officer for more than eighteen years. In that time, he has led various London churches and is now the intercultural mission enabler for the Salvation Army. Jonny is passionate about this and strives to not only preach and teach, but also to live it out in the ordinary everyday of life. Jonny is married to Catherine, who is also a Salvation Army officer, and they have two boys. In his spare time, Jonny is a keen long-distance runner and Ironman triathlete.
Richard Daly
Dr Richard Daly has been in full time ministry for over twenty-five years and is currently the Pastor for the Brixton Seventh-day Adventist Church. He has a passion for working within the community and in doing so has served in local community initiatives and leadership projects. He has extended his ministry outside of the church as a hospital, prison and university volunteer chaplain, and has served as an Olympic Games chaplain working with athletes. Richard Daly is an avid reader and the author of sixteen books. He is married to Maxine and together they have three young adult boys.
Sivakumar Rajagopalan
Revd Sivakumar Rajagopalan is a first-generation Indian immigrant, whose experience of unearned caste privilege led him to abandon Hinduism for atheism, and later to become a Christian. He is an evangelical who believes that to proclaim the gospel of reconciliation with credibility we must first practise it. This has led him to be a passionate advocate for racial justice within the local church and community and during his tenure as Regional Minister for Racial Justice with the London Baptists from 2003 to 2018.
Foreword
Four decades ago, the then Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) General Secretary, Philip Morgan, wrote to the churches regarding the 1981 Brixton Riots. In that document he hoped that “these events may prove to be a turning-point in race relations in Britain”. One of the most disturbing aspects of our current context is that what was written forty years ago seems just as applicable today. The statement by the Brixton Council of Churches, produced at the time, highlighted the role of police and the media. It shone a spotlight on institutional racism at almost every level and demanded a response rooted in justice and peaceful co-existence. So what happened?
Well, if we reflect on today’s context, working out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can see that the need to challenge racial justice and race-related inequality is as urgent an imperative as it was forty years ago. In terms of jobs and who is losing them, in terms of lives being saved and who is losing them, in terms of communities getting justice and those who are crying out about justice denied, it seems it is always the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities that still today remain the worst served and the most marginalized. Issues of poverty, of di