At Hodge Hill Church we have, for a few years, been on an intentional journey together of pursuing racial justice. It is now one of our four key priorities (alongside 'deepening ecological responsibility', 'supporting and nurturing each other in faith and daily life' and 'developing our missional engagement with our neighbours') for us as a church.
Since January 2022, a group (of about half our congregation) have been reading together Azariah France-Williams' book Ghost Ship: Institutional Racism and the Church of England, and gathering together monthly to share what it is stirring in us (feelings, thoughts, questions, prompts to action, etc).
This October, as we have focused the attention of our worship on racial justice (as we have done every October for the last few years), we decided we wanted to offer an 'Act of Commitment' - to conclude the month, but also to be very clear together that the end of October is not the end of anything! So what follows is intentionally, explicitly 'provisional'. Many of the words in it have been offered by individual members of the Ghost Ship reading group and represent their own commitments at this stage. Some of our members are (racialized as) black, some are (racialized as) white - and, as we state in the introduction, we recognise that the impact of racism on each of us, and each of our callings to respond, are particular to each of us.
As well as being provisional, we recognise that what this commitment is incomplete, and imperfect. We welcome reflections on it from those who read it - to add to, question, deepen, nuance and enlarge what is here.
Beloved children of God,
as a church community
we have committed together
to a journey of pursuing racial justice:
in our own lives and relationships,
in our church community,
and in our world.
We rejoice in our diversity as a community,
a sign of the abundant goodness of God's creation,
and the different and beautiful gifts
God has given each one of us.
We recognise that racism divides us,
that it hurts all of us, but in different ways,
and that we have different callings
in the work of justice and repair.
We recognise that we follow in the footsteps of many who
have gone before us
on this path,
and that our own journey has barely begun.
And so for today,
however provisionally,
however imperfect,
here are our commitments,
to God and to each other:
* * *
I will not allow the painful reality of racism to be
whitewashed.
Where parts of my identity allow me the privilege of not having
to think about them,
I will keep alert and questioning.
I will keep going, with the
help of God.
I will ask for time when I need it.
I will not pretend there are easy solutions.
I will not jump hastily to token gestures.
I will keep going, with the
help of God.
I will ask for time when I need it.
I will widen the horizons
of what I read, watch and listen to.
I will keep reflecting, but my reflection
will not stop me from acting.
I will keep going, with the
help of God.
I will ask for time when I need it.
I will not expect others to take on
the work that is mine to do.
I will not take on myself
the work that is for others to do.
I will keep going, with the
help of God.
I will ask for time when I need it.
We will remember that racism
is both personal and structural.
We will look outwards
and we will also look inwards.
Wherever we see racism,
we will try our best to call it out.
We will make space,
in our worship and conversations,
for the widest breadth of voices
and the deepest depths of our feelings.
We will try our best to be kind to each other.
When things get uncomfortable,
we will persevere.
We will go deeper together,
with the Spirit’s leading.
We will remember the urgency of the task,
and how much more there is to be done.
We will keep going, with the help of God.
We will ask for time when we need it.
This we commit to today.
May it be so. Amen.
