The Church of England has published a new report detailing its progress in promoting racial justice across its dioceses, three years after a landmark call for cultural change.
The report, "Progress on Racial Justice across the Church of England Dioceses," reviews how the 42 dioceses have responded to the "From Lament to Action" (FLTA) recommendations made by the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce in 2021, following the murder of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
The FLTA report, which identified "decades of inaction" on racial justice, set out 47 specific actions across participation, governance, training, education, and young people.
The new review, published by the Committee for Minority Ethnic Concerns (CMEAC), showcases examples of good practice, case studies, and efforts in promoting diversity and inclusion, such as supporting UKME/GMH vocations and developing racial justice charters.
Some dioceses were found to have been responding to diversity for some time, while others had become more involved in work around racial justice following George Floyd's death.
For the large majority of dioceses, their focus on racial justice began "in response to FLTA," according to the report, while a minority "had just started to address this area."
In Bath and Wells, the report showed the diocese's work to research and provide information on its historic links to transatlantic slavery. The Diocese of Birmingham has carried out unconscious bias training over a number of years and is working to enhance recruitment processes, increasing inclusion in decision-making, and establish clear reporting mechanisms for racial incidents and disparities.
The report shows the diocese of London is working to equip people with anti-racism training and sees racially appropriate support for clergy as essential. Parishes are also issued a toolkit to ensure inclusion and diversity is considered.
“The Diocese is trying to establish local people resources in the different areas, with specialism on parishes, vocations, racial justice advocacy.”
CMEAC Chair the Very Rev Rogers Govender said: “There is still much to be accomplished but I am encouraged by the examples of prayer, faith and action detailed in this report.”
Rev Dr Sharon Prentis, Deputy Racial Justice Director for the Church of England said: “Much remains to be done but there are also many examples of work by the dioceses showing that they have taken the findings of FLTA very seriously.
