SOME of our friends and colleagues on the Archbishops’ Anti-racism Taskforce produced the report From Lament to Action last year (News, 23 April 2021). Black History Month provides an opportunity to focus on what more needs to be done to implement its findings. It is time for the Church to give serious consideration to this issue, and to do something about it. As Richard Reddie argued last week, racial injustice is not history yet (Features, 14 October).

It is promising that the Revd Guy Hewitt has been appointed as the first Racial Justice Director of the Church of England (News, 26 August). It will be tremendously rewarding if he initiates programmes that advance the cause of racial equality, and we hope that his tenure marks a turning point in the history of the struggle for racial justice. We urge him, as well as the Racial Justice Commission, to steer the Church to empathise with ethnic minorities and to take measures to alleviate their pain, and, ultimately, stamp out racism.

The current obstacles for a racially just Church and society are: insufficient changes in attitudes; a lack of systematic education on racial equality; and inadequate funding.

We have to change our attitude towards ethnic minorities and learn to treat them with love. There is no other way to give diverse communities a sense of self-worth and achieve the goal of racial justice. For that to happen, we need to make space for them to intermingle and grow organically, without self-consciousness and loss of self-esteem. The majority community will do well to play a significant part in creating a milieu in which ethnic minorities can grow and flourish.

WHEN it comes to opportunities of leadership, both in local churches and in dioceses and the national Church, the majority community must embrace the minority communities and give them much more space than they now occupy. Recent senior appointments — most recently, Dr John Perumbalath’s translation to Liverpool — are a sign of progress, but more needs to be done.

If it sometimes requires the majority community to move out of the way, they have to do it. Moving out of the way can upset the status quo, but it is worth it, because it increases diversity. True, it may look sacrificial, but it should be willingly and gladly done, to help minority-ethnic communities to take their rightful place in the garden of diversity.

It is time for the Church to reflect on how best the victims of the scourge of racism can be integrated into the Church and wider society. Greater representation for the marginalised racial minorities in the decision-making bodies of the Church will go a long way towards giving them a sense of belonging to the Church, and integrating them into the mainstream, without having to forgo their distinct cultures and identities. The Church must be relevant to the present day. It must pursue research and education on racial justice. Programmes aimed at integrating minority communities must be allocated more funds.

It was reported recently that the Church made shady money in the past through the slave trade (News, 17 June). It was not worthy of an institution that should stand up for fairness and belonging. Today, we accept that it was sinful to expend money made out of the tears and pain of black people on building the Church.

It is good that the Church now realises that what it did in past centuries, without compunction, was wrong. The only fitting thing to do, to undo the grave injustice, in God’s eyes, is to use the millions of pounds (probably billions now, if you consider the high rates of inflation and interest) for making space for minority-ethnic people to realise their full potential.

IT IS a cause of rejoicing that the UK Cabinet is now the most diverse in history. What an irony it is that, in contrast, the C of E’s leadership is still predominantly white. How can the Church set a model for justice and racial equity, and act as a moral force, when the political leadership is much more diverse than the Church’s leadership?

Black History Month is, sadly, a necessary evil. There should not have been a need for it, if all of us had affirmed our common humanity and treated all as “brothers and sisters”, to use an expression frequently used in India, to affirm strong bonds with one another.

This should serve as an occasion to strengthen our resolve to work for the emergence of a Church and society that are free of the blight of racism. Indeed, we belong to one another, and are called to complement one another and find fulfilment in doing so. We bear greater witness to God when we embrace the diversity in his garden.

The Revd Martha Mutikani and the Revd Dr Godfrey Kesari are the Racial Justice Officers for the diocese of Chichester.

www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk