BRITISH Asians make up 9.3 per cent of the population of England and Wales, the last census showed. But visualise the Church in Britain, and the picture is rarely brown.
While the term Asian is broad, in the British context it means mostly South Asian, with roots in the Indian subcontinent, from countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
The South Asian diaspora or “desi” — from the Sanskrit term desa, meaning land or country — is the largest non-white group in the UK by some distance, comparing with only four per cent of the population who identify as Black and 2.9 per cent as mixed-ethnic. It is a presence seen most in London, the Midlands, the north-west, and Yorkshire, but is strangely absent from many of our churches.
If modern Britain has adapted to a Church that is white and black, the perception lingers that South Asians are largely Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh. Yet many South Asians are Christian.
Perceptions count, though. “We talk more about interfaith relations than reaching our own Christian brothers and sisters,” observes the Revd Ajay More, an associate vicar of Indian heritage serving at St John the Baptist, Greenhill, in Harrow.
Interfaith discourse exists for a good reason, however. The northern mill towns are an intrinsic part of the South Asian story of Britain, and in Lancashire, the Asian community is predominantly of Muslim Pakistani and Gujarati heritage.
Census data reports that Asians make up roughly eight per cent of the population of Lancashire, but that figure is far higher in towns such as Accrington, Blackburn, Burnley, and Preston. Blackburn hosts two wards with the highest density of Muslims in the country, and contains more than 40 mosques.
CANON Andrew Pratt worships at St Stephen’s, Preston, and serves as the Bishop of Blackburn’s Interfaith Adviser. He is open about the challenges experienced in many northern towns — particularly from militant Islam, and the polarisation caused by the Israel-Gaza war — which foster sectarian local politics.
He calls on Christians to seek to build “genuine, authentic friendships” with Muslims, emphasising that “eating together and just spending time with people, like Jesus did, is key.”
The Pakistani-born Vicar of St Cuthbert’s, Burnley, and St Luke’s, Brierfield, the Revd Munawar Din, concurs on the importance of extending friendship towards people from South Asian communities. He recognises that his heritage “makes it quite easy to bridge the gap and build lasting friendships”, because “knowing a common language and knowing the culture and values does make a difference.”
Canon Andrew Pratt and the interfaith team clearing Skeffington Road Railway Junction, in April
In some churches, friendships are developing in creative ways. According to Canon Pratt: “Women from our church are building friendships with ladies from the mosque through a Holy Book Club, where they gather to discuss the prophets. The men from the church and mosque meet to share a meal at Christmas and Eid.”
He also cites cross-faith initiatives. Muslims in Blackpool recently helped restore a dilapidated Jewish cemetery; and joint initiatives, such as playing cricket together. “Friendship is the bridge-builder, and, when we do that, Jesus works through us,” he says.*
Canon Pratt says: “The Church of England has lost its gumption in terms of evangelism. People have a strong faith, but we’re reticent about being forthright about the good news, about how Jesus changes lives.
“At our church, we invite the Muslim community to hear particular messages, such as at carol services and open-air events. We put on The Mark Drama, where we act out the gospel of Mark. We invite Muslims, and they come. They’re the ones giving a standing ovation.”
He also takes stories of Jesus into Muslim schools, and believes “you’re always a witness in what you’re saying and doing.”
The Revd Deborah Premraj is wellbeing chaplain at Croydon University Hospital and Assistant Curate of New Addington. Working in the NHS precludes evangelism; instead, she takes her lead from the Sermon on the Mount. “Jesus calls us to be salt and light. We’re not taking Christ in our pocket, but seeing Christ, especially the wounded Christ, in people of other faiths,” she says.
Mrs Premraj is informed by her background in multifaith Bangalore, India, where she was ordained and saw first-hand the transformative impact upon Dalit communities of hearing that all are made in the image of God.
Outside the NHS, Mrs Premraj previously established a church Indian dance group, using classical dance forms such as Kathak and Bharatanatyam. “We changed the song lyrics into Christian lyrics, and made the dancing part of worship,” she says. The troupe included Hindus and Buddhists, and she believes that it “brought Christ’s love to people” of South Asian faiths, inviting them into Christian services in ways that would not otherwise have happened.
The Revd Kit Gunasekera, Vicar of St James’s, Clapham
The stories elucidate the unique opportunities that South Asian clergy have to reach parishioners of other faiths. As the Revd Kit Gunasekera, who is of Sri Lankan heritage and the Vicar of St James’s, Clapham, says: “When I am up and about wearing my clergy collar, I certainly feel appreciation from parishioners, or shop workers I encounter who are from that heritage. They may not come to our church, but there is a sense of a connection.”
It is a connection that, Mr Din feels, could be stronger if the church leadership better reflected the many South Asians who follow Christ.
BUT to view the Church of England’s relationship with desi communities only through the interfaith prism is misleading. Mr Din arrived from Pakistan 20 years ago, where he had served in a lay capacity in the diocese of Sialkot, a background that prepared him well for ministry in the “heavily South Asian-populated towns” of Blackburn diocese.
Before ordination, Mr Din was active in Urdu-, Punjabi-, and Hindi-language Christian fellowships around Lancashire. He sees how his background facilitates engagement with South Asian Christians across denominations, many of Pakistani heritage, who were believers before they migrated.
“Most recently, there’s a big influx of South Indians into Blackburn and Burnley, working for the NHS, and I’m loving links to them. Even though they may worship at other churches, we build friendships, and that’s the basis. There are also others who’ve come to Christ since moving here, and others who are exploring Christianity.”
In recent years, as a joint ministry of St Cuthbert’s, Burnley, and St Luke’s, Brierfield, Mr Din oversaw the start of monthly All Nations Worship (ANW) services, bi-monthly ANW Life Groups, and an annual Lancashire Asian Christian Convention, to grow and disciple desi Christians. The two churches now also employ a lay inter-cultural minister, made possible through central funding.
Efforts that focus on desi Christians have been a theme of Mr More’s ministry in north London. Born and raised in Maharashtra, India, he arrived in the UK in 1999 to train and work as a nurse in the NHS. While nursing, he became heavily involved with Tamil- and Punjabi-language services at his church, St James’s, Alperton, under the leadership of the Revd John Root, who ministered in multi-ethnic parishes across London for 50 years, planting two Asian-language congregations, and is now author of the “Out of Many, One People” blog on intercultural issues in the Church.
Ordained in 2017, Mr More acknowledges: “My presence at the church door makes a difference. The South Asian presence in my church has definitely increased — probably from around one or two per cent of the congregation to now about 15 per cent.”
He remains disappointed, though, in the lack of wider interest in what he can offer the Church thanks to his background. “Most of the time, I don’t think I’ve been fully used, or asked for advice,” he says.
The exception was a commission to run a Hindi-English language fellowship at Kingsbury, in north-west London, where he works with members of the Gujarati, Punjabi, and Tamil communities, who are primarily new believers from Hindu backgrounds. “Being in the UK offers them a freedom to explore Christianity without the pressure of their home communities,” he explains; but it’s a mission opportunity that goes unnoticed by much of the UK Church.
“I don’t see what the Church is doing to reach out to South Asians,” Mr More says, and compares this with wider UK society. “We’ve had our first Prime Minister in Rishi Sunak; Asians are heavily empowered in politics and the NHS; I see a rich empowerment in the secular world — but don’t see that same empowerment in the Church.”
He also points to the plethora of desi fellowships hiring church premises for their Sunday services, many containing young Christians, who are not being encouraged to join mainstream churches.
THE Bishop of Edmonton, Dr Anderson Jeremiah, shares that experience of disparate South Asian worshipping communities, and has been asked to help to make better connections for the diocese of London.
Across the Church of England, he has also encouraged “a willingness to learn and be attentive to the challenges of South Asian Christians”, advising clergy to avoid a “deficit model that assumes South Asians need to be taught Christ in the British context”.
Born into a second-generation Christian family in Vellore, India, he raises awareness that “not all Indians are Hindus”, and reminds colleagues of the “Thomas Tradition” (that Christianity came to India before it came to Europe), shifting perspectives towards the gifts that desi Christians could bring to the Church in the UK.
The Bishop of Edmonton, Dr Anderson Jeremiah
Dr Jeremiah and Mr More both acknowledge the longing that desi communities have for a safe place to worship, and for food, community, and real connection. Churches can and do offer space, but there is often little integration between the host and desi church communities. It is a challenge that Bishop Jeremiah presents to both camps.
The Vicar of St Edward’s, New Addington, south of Croydon, Canon Dhanaraj Charles Premraj (husband of Mrs Premraj), settled in England in 2019, after 28 years of ministry in his native South India. Canon Premraj acknowledges the marked difference in how far Indians engage in church life at home and their relative reticence here.
Canon Dhanaraj Charles Premraj and the Revd Deborah Premraj in the vicarage of St Edward’s, New Addington, south of Croydon
One main issue concerns worship. While assisting with a Tamil carol service, Mr Premraj said that his eyes were opened to the numerous Tamil-language fellowships that remain unconnected with mainstream churches. “It’s the way they sing, and the type of songs they sing.”
Dr Jeremiah proposes adapting liturgy and worship to integrate desi and home congregations, and suggests churches “find out how, say, Pakistanis worship and use it.”
THIS fusion of worship styles has been adopted successfully at Golders Green Parish Church, in north-west London, Dr Jeremiah says.
The aim is “to create a more inclusive worship experience that reflects the diversity of our congregation and the broader community”, the Priest-in-Charge, the Revd Kamran Bhatti, says. Their recent Pentecost service also included the Lord’s Prayer in two Nigerian languages, Yoruba and Ibo, and a praise song from the Philippines.
The church also runs a monthly South Asian service, which is offered in a variety of languages, including Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and English, and incorporates Eastern and Western musical styles, to draw people from Pakistani and Indian communities.
Canon Premraj suggests that there are larger barriers than liturgical style to overcome, however. “Each culture lives the Christian faith in a different manner. South Asian Christians weave God into each moment of their lives.” This affects how communities receive teaching, he says.
“South Asians do not see scripture as an intellectual articulation of the priest, but as an unchanged living reality that can apply to the modern day. They have a personal connection with scripture that transports them into the text.”
MANY of those interviewed point to scripture and Jesus’s call “to make disciples of all nations”, but identify different means to achieve this.
Mr Din is less concerned about integrated church communities because, “at Pentecost, the message went out in various tongues.” But he cites a need within the Church of England to develop representative church leadership and home-grown lay leaders for desi churches.
A Hindi-English service for Pentecost last year at St Andrew’s church hall, in Kingsbury, north-west London
“I’ve seen so many small worshipping communities, but no one to help them in leadership with, for example, ministry training, even at a lay level,” he says.
“The important thing is to encourage and grow leadership from them. Then, if God is calling them and they have gifts, they might go for ordination; so it’s for now and the future.”
Others call for clergy to explore how to extend a welcome to South Asians. Mr Premraj suggests “you have so many South Asian Christians, there must be a learning experience among clergy to open their hearts and minds to make them feel welcome.”
Mr More reflects: “There’s a saying in my language: you can wake up someone who’s sleeping, but you can’t wake up someone who’s pretending to be sleeping.”
Sharmila Meadows is a freelance journalist. A former senior-policy adviser and ministerial private secretary in Westminster, she writes on cricket, faith, and politics. Follow her on X: @WritingDesk27