THE Church of England’s first lead bishops for racial justice have been appointed, it was announced on Friday. They are the Area Bishop of Croydon, Dr Rosemarie Mallett, and the Suffragan Bishop of Kirkstall, the Rt Revd Arun Arora.
The Bishops will function “advocates for racial justice” within the Church and society, supporting the implementation of the recommendations of the report From Lament to Action (News, 23 April 2021).
The appointment of a racial-justice board, panel, and lead bishop was amongst these recommendations and was approved by the General Synod last month (Synod, 28 February), alongside funding for the following triennium and staffing on the national and diocesan levels.
The two Bishops may even function joint deputy chairs of the newly created board, which is able to oversee this work. They will attend the panel, which is to observe the effectiveness of the work.
Dr Mallett is the lead bishop on social and racial justice in Southwark diocese, where she led the event of a diocesan Anti-Racism Charter. She chairs the oversight group for the Church Commissioners’ work on African chattel enslavement and reparatory justice, and can also be the Anglican bishop on the board of trustees of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
She served as an Equalities Commissioner for five years in Lambeth and currently acts as adviser to a Croydon community-action project focused on reducing violence that affects young people. She also chairs the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education.
“Racial justice is at the center of the gospel,” she said. “There is quite a lot of good work being undertaken and our joint leadership roles will enable the Church to maintain focused on working for a more racially just and equitable Church and society.”
Bishop Arora, a suffragan bishop who serves within the diocese and episcopal Area of Leeds, co-chaired the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce, which produced the report From Lament to Action in 2021. He is a former director of communications for the Archbishop of York and subsequently for the Church of England.
He said: “I actually have been inspired and shaped over many years by the dedication of followers of Jesus of their work for racial justice. . . each has pointed to Christ’s example of their discipleship.”
The appointments were made by the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally.
From Lament to Action set out a plan to combat institutional racism and lack of diversity within the Church, making 47 recommendations across five priority areas: participation (including appointments), education, training and mentoring, young people, and structures and governance.
A predominant suggestion was to appoint full-time racial-justice officers in each diocese (if not already in place) — centrally funded for five years — to work in churches and wider communities. The Archbishops’ Council didn’t comply with fund this, nonetheless (News, 16 July 2021).
Other diocesan racial-justice posts have since been created, including a Racial Justice Education Adviser in York. Criticism of such appointments led the C of E’s Racial Justice Director, the Revd Guy Hewitt, to reply that they didn’t mean that the Church was fighting “a culture war” (News, 22 March 2024).
