The Bishop of Sheffield wrote to churches of the Diocese this week.
#BlackLivesMatter
Today it is exactly two weeks since the shocking death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He was killed after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. The compassion of the Good Samaritan in Jesus’ parable stands in terrible contrast to that brutal act of inhumanity.
Racism is a pernicious evil. It’s an issue not just for the people of the USA, but for the UK too; it’s an issue not just in society generally, but for the Church of England too. As your bishops, we gladly associate ourselves with the statement issued by the Archbishops which you can find here.
But in one sense, statements are easily made. In February of this year, the General Synod voted by 295 votes to 0 not only to lament our past failure to confront racism within the Church of England and to acknowledge with gratitude the contribution of BAME Anglicans, but to increase their participation and representation in all parts of our church life. We firmly re-commit ourselves to that goal in the Diocese of Sheffield.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for a practical step that you can take, or that you can encourage the members of your church to take, then a good place to begin might be by investing in your own awareness of scale of the challenge we face in this area. We recommend an excellent webinar available on YouTube, which focuses on the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds but also engages with the wider challenges of, and tangible steps to address, racial inequalities in our church. You can watch it here.
The panel includes Ben Lindsay, author of “We Need to Talk About Race” and a digital version of his book is available from SPCK at just 99p until 19th June from here
Do also please look out for a forthcoming study of institutional racism and the Church of England called ‘Ghost Ship’ by Azariah France-Williams which is due for publication at the end of July. I commend these resources to every parish.