THE General Synod voted to proceed the Church of England’s work on racial justice on Sunday afternoon, after a debate wherein the progress made was offset against challenges still to be met.
The Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, opened the talk by saying that the word “woke” had been regularly misused in public discourse. “As the people of God, we must always never be afraid or embarrassed to be called an Advent people: at all times within the business of preparing, and staying alert,” she said.
Bishop Hudson-Wilkin moved a motion to proceed the implementation of the recommendations of From Lament to Action — a report from the Archbishops’ Anti-racism Taskforce, published three years ago (News, 22 April 2021).
“Racial justice is everybody’s business since it is about who we’re in Christ,” the Archbishop of York said near the beginning of the talk. The Dean of the Arches, the Rt Worshipful Morag Ellis (ex officio), outlined a number of the steps being taken, including higher data collection and efforts to encourage a wider pool of applicants for ecclesiastical judges.
All of the 24 speakers in the talk, most of them from global-majority heritage backgrounds, spoke in favour of the motion; but not all presented a positive picture of the work that had been done up to now.
Daniel Matovu (Oxford) said that “you white folks don’t know” of the experiences of discrimination, and that no meaningful motion had been taken on racial justice. He also criticised the shortage of a lead bishop on the problem.
Another lay member, Kenson Li (co-opted) spoke on behalf of fellow ordinands whom he had consulted on questions of racial justice. One had told him that she felt more marginalised after starting her training than she had before. It was vital, he said, that awareness of problems with racial justice be embedded within the discernment and training processes. This point was repeated by Temitope Taiwo (London).
Other speakers focused on positive steps towards greater inclusion. Busola Sodeinde (London) commended the work of the Racial Justice Unit, and the transformation she had seen at her own church, Holy Trinity, Brompton.
The Revd Christian Selvaratnam (York) also referred to a rise in diversity, even in cities like York, which he described as among the many least diverse in England. The Revd Sarah Siddique Gill (Blackburn) spoke of “remarkable progress”, though she was shocked to search out that she still visited parishes where people were amazed that a girl from Pakistan might be a C of E priest.
A motion for closure was sought, but in some extent of order, the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, asked the chair to permit every member of ethnic-minority heritage who desired to speak the chance to achieve this, saying that “the white Archbishop of York” had been given a full five minutes initially of the talk.
Several more speakers got a platform after Bishop Snow’s intervention, including the Revd Folli Olokose (Guildford), who echoed the safety announcement ubiquitous across the British transport network: “For years we’ve been saying it. . . Now it’s time to sort it.”
In a rapid-fire closing speech, Bishop Hudson-Wilkin ran through all of the speakers, thanking them for his or her contributions. She noted that clerics of global-majority heritage should have the option to serve anywhere, not only in urban areas.
“I’m in Kent, which just isn’t known for it’s blackness,” she observed, but the idea remained that white clergy could serve anywhere whereas Black clergy could work only in additional diverse areas.
Representation in any respect levels of the Church was not yet where it needs to be, she concluded. She wanted her grandchildren to have the option to see images of themselves within the leadership of the Church.
“We’ve made progress, but we are able to do more,” she said.
The motion to proceed work on the recommendations in From Lament to Action was carried 364-0, with two recorded abstentions.
