The Church of England is “institutionally racist”, a damning internal report has concluded.
Ethnic minorities are being marginalised in parishes and black and Asian clergy have little chance of reaching the Church’s higher echelons, says the study, to be released this week.
It warns that too little has been done to tackle “institutional racism” – the phrase used to devastating effect by Sir William Macpherson, the former High Court judge, in his findings on the bungled police investigation into the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
The report, commissioned by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, is expected to spark a fierce debate at next month’s General Synod in York. Delegates will be asked to examine the clergy’s failure to “integrate and utilise” the gifts of ethnic minorities.
The report was drawn up by the 15-member Committee for Minority and Ethnic Anglican Concerns (CMEAC). The committee’s chairman, the Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, said that the existence of racism in wider society was not an excuse for it within the Church.
Personally, I’m sure the COE is quite as institutionally racist as they say, but isn’t it fun to think of the York synod debating racism, presided over by an African archbishop.
Sadly this does bear out. It is tough for working class people too.
Truth is that a high percentage of the C of E is made up of middle classed Radio 4 listeners, with a fear of conflict and love of jam!!
If you happen to lean to the left, even better. And lack of spine coupled with a penchant for never telling people what you really think is a hugh advantage when it comes to preferment.
1. Reading the article I became aware of the disparity between the content and the shock-horror headline; something that has got another broadsheet into hot water recently.
2.
The 3.2% may be a more useful comparative than 7.9% as I suspect the latter figure includes many of other religions including Moslems. If one were to reverse the case on the working population it would be to advocate a massive increase in white imams so that muslims could redress the imbalance.
3. But still lots of work to do to encourage all into ministry.
Based on
The conclusion that the Church of England is ‘institutionally racist’ is premature, not to say tendentious. If that 3.2% is rising, which would not surprise me, the relative under-representation of ethnic minorities among clergy might partly be the fact that they naturally lag behind the composition of the laity. It takes time to hear a call, test the vocation and train people up.
The discrepancy between the 3.2% in the Church and the 7.9% of the working population will again in part be a natural lagging behind. Also, no doubt many ethnic minorities do not find the CoE culturally appealing. While this is something to pay attention to (yes please! some more black church fire in the CoE!) the conclusion in the article is not even remotely supported by the data quoted. Why infer racism when there are much more mundane explanations?
But then again – the cynic in me asks – when you’re writing a newspaper article, why suggest mundane explanations when you can sling some good ol’ mud at the church? People see racism everywhere anyway. My wife, who works in a predominantly Asian (and Muslim) environment, is regularly accused of racism whenever a customer doesn’t like what she has to say to them. Fortunately her colleagues know her better than that. But it’s pretty ludicrous.