BAME Anglican

October is celebrated as Black History Month in the UK. The idea is to reclaim history, which is usually forgotten or viewed through a revisionist lens. In the context of the Church this means reclaiming our history in the church. Acknowledging Christian history in non-European countries to help us look at the development of Christianity (its philosophy and customs) more fully. Christianity in Europe has established itself in everyday life, however the origin and journey of the faith from Asia and Africa and then to the new world must not be forgotten. We often forget Christianity originated in Asia and travelled to Africa in its early days. In our popular imagination Christianity is associated with European art, some of which has Europeanised Asian and African people. We will attempt to challenge this fallacy.   Acknowledging the origins of our faith and seeing it represented in its context can help us regain pride in our history. Send us your prayer requests,

Richard Campbell is an Australian Aboriginal artist whose works paint Christian scenes with in an aboriginal style.

A few weeks ago our friends at Disability and Jesus asked a question on twitter - Is the sacramental more inclusive than free worship? As a group we have experienced different worship styles, each has its own set of problems, but each reflects God and seeks to understand the divine. Comments to this tweet reflected the problems of a false dichotomy and the potential to exclude irrespective of belief. Almost everyone has attempted to be inclusive in church, but we often fail. Inclusivity is neither a one off event, nor a static phenomena, it is a process and a social one at that. Ten years ago my parish priest tried to be inclusive by referring to God the father as God the parent, needless to say it didn’t go down very well with the congregation. This wasn’t because we were particularly nasty, but we wanted to see that inclusivity reflected in action. We had several divorced people and single mothers in the congregation, who were made to feel less than welcome in sub

I was at the 7 th Annual Wigan Diggers Festival last weekend. This was my third time at the event. I enjoy the energy of these events, seeing politically active people is always a pleasure. However as a black person I feel like an oddity, dont get me wrong the festival is run by progressive, lefty, anti racist people. I share those political ideologies, but of late I have noticed how spaces such as this are almost always white. I am black, feminist, anti racist, lefty and Christian, I am an outsider in each of these groups because I don’t fit the norm of any of them. None of these groups are exclusive, far from it they are welcoming and all of them want to make a difference. However there are too many unspoken things which have caused us to alienate people we would like to reach out to. In left anti racist groups I am excluded on grounds of religion. My Christian faith is assumed to be at odds with liberal groups whose atheist worldview sees me as a brainwashe

 Sadhu Sundar Singh born 3 September 1889 died in 1929