Seminar for Promoting Racial and Cultural Inclusion, 28 October 2023 - Report and Resources

On 28th October 2023, a Seminar for promoting racial and cultural inclusion in our schools and parish communities was successfully held at Amigo Hall, St. Georges Cathedral, London. Here are some exciting moments which took place during that event.

The well-attended seminar attracted interests from within the Archdiocese of Southwark, other dioceses in England and Wales as well as other participants in Europe and Africa. The seminar witnessed two modes of participation, in person at Amigo Hall at St Georges Cathedral and via video conference. 

This seminar, the first of its kind in recent times, boldly addressed the issues of possible threats of racial and diversity problems in a multicultural and ecclesiastical establishment in the RC Archdiocese of Southwark.  Our archdiocese covers most areas of South East London, Kent and its coastal towns.  It was no surprise therefore that the event attracted a wide attendance, born out of the real desire to address issues in this area and a willingness to engage in the various ways of how they can be overcome. 

In his welcome speech, Most Reverend John Wilson, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark, highlighted the continuous need to work together and to make sure that “there is no place for racism in the archdiocese, whether in the Church, in our communities or society at large”. He explained the steps he took, especially after the fateful story and aftermath of the ordeal of George Floyd Jr. in October 2020, to carry out a first-hand, fact finding mission regarding racial intolerance, discrimination and the need for inclusion in the archdiocese.

According to the Archbishop, in his interaction with young people from the archdiocese, and his resolution to “listen, reflect and act”, he “heard their distressing experiences of racism today, first hand”.  He further acknowledged, that even in the diverse culture and communities of the archdiocese, racism continues to blight our society.

In response to these needs, he said:

“Let me be clear, we have set up a Commission because we want the Archdiocese to be a safe space, a place where everyone without exception, feels the welcome, the mercy and the love of Christ”.

In this direction, he continues, the Church needs to be at the forefront of racial justice. Everyone, Archbishop John said, should stand together with those who continue to suffer injustice and racism. We all need to stand in solidarity and be united with them in calling out injustice.

Closing his welcome speech, the Archbishop called on all to support the Commission and to share the message of this initiative in the schools, families and parish communities of the archdiocese in order to create a just society promoting the dignity of all.

Finally, Archbishop John thanked Canon Victor Darlington for his continued leadership of the Commission. He also expressed his gratitude to the members of the commission and all the participants of the seminar while calling on the blessings and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide all during the deliberations that followed.

The Seminar continued with an introductory narrative of the Commission’s activities during its few years of existence. Canon Victor Darlington gave a short history of the Commission since its formation on 29^th January 2021.

He started with the shocking ordeal of George Floyd Jr. in the USA which sparked worldwide protests and awareness about racism and discrimination.  Canon Victor then detailed the actual encounter of Archbishop John with some young people in the archdiocese who participated in a one-hour-scheduled video conference, which eventually lasted over three hours. It was during this conference that the archbishop embraced the shocking impact of the responses and experiences of these young people and their personal encounters with racism in schools and parish communities in the archdiocese.

Soon after, Canon Victor indicated, the Archbishop sent out a letter to all schools and parishes requesting institutions and church communities to carry out a proper audit of procedures and processes in order to root out racism or discrimination in any form. Shortly after that, Canon Victor was appointed to head the Commission for Promoting Racial and Cultural Inclusion in the archdiocese. The Commission therefore set out with the primary task of identifying, addressing and speaking out against the evil of racism where it exists, and also explored ways to listen, accompany and support victims of racism, with a view to eliminating this infringement on human dignity within the archdiocese.

In this direction, Canon Victor indicated that the first task was directed to schools, where he worked with headteachers and teachers to explore ways of addressing any form of racism, discrimination and how to promote inclusion. Promoting diversity, love and response to all became a primary task. This prompted visits to schools in order to find out what structures and guidelines were being applied in promoting diversity and inclusion.

Equally, the Commission has been working assiduously to establish this awareness in the parishes and other institutions via the clergy and other interested individuals.

The effort in this direction is to encourage parishes to create hubs of the Commission and to identify activities and hold cultural celebrations that would promote oneness and bring a wider diversity of persons together in the parishes.

Canon Victor announced that St Margret’s Carshalton Beaches parish has achieved a very practical and functional hub of the Commission and therefore is the first model of its kind in the archdiocese.

Furthermore, Canon Victor indicated that the Commission has successfully celebrated two Racial Justice Sundays during which our diversities were colourfully enjoyed and the messages of love, inclusion and promotion of racial justice were equally highlighted.

Marching on from each of these celebrations, he said, the Commission would continue to promote the love, unity and racial diversity in all parishes, groups, school governors, teachers and activities within our parishes, schools and institutions.

Canon Victor indicates that the Commission is there to help everyone speak out and to listen to anyone who may have experienced discrimination, racism or exclusion within the apparatuses of the archdiocesan establishments. 

While thanking members of the Commission, participants present in the hall and those connected online, Canon Victor invited all to use these moments of the seminar to explore avenues of promoting racial and cultural inclusion in order to root out any form of racism or discrimination within our schools, institutions and parish communities.

The first session of the Seminar featured Fr. Richard Nesbit and Elizabeth Uwalaka. Fr Richard is the parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima, White City in the Westminster Diocese, London. Together with Ms Uwalaka, who is a parishioner, Fr. Richard led the participants through “Efforts to root out Racism: The Experience from Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Parish, White City."  Their presentation went through a remarkable journey which began in 2020 when Fr. Richard initiated the task of tackling racism in his parish.

He began the narrative of this journey by presenting a brief history and description of White City Estate where the parish is located after which he hoped that a “a mature conversation about racism” would serve as a spark for seminar discussions.

His experience and discussion of racism is drawn from over 15 years of working in White City which is one of the largest social estates in West London.  It is close to the offices of the BBC, the Olympic Stadium and is now being surrounded by many newly built homes. 

White City in reality is a very diverse community and was built in 1939.

Elizabeth continued the narrative by explaining the demographic formation of the White City parish community which was formed in its early days by Irish families. Today, that scenario has greatly changed, and the parish is now one of the most diverse in West London. 

Though the killing of George Floyd happened almost at the same time, Fr. Nesbit informed all that the flash point that opened his eyes to racial issues was the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston which happened in Bristol on the 7^th June 2020.  

Though he grew up in Bristol and had had the opportunities to visit the Colston Hall and seen the statue quite often, it never occurred to him to find out about the story behind the fame of Colston and his monuments. But when he did find out about this eighteenth century slave trader, Fr. Nesbit said it dawned on him that all Colston's notoriety was from "blood monies”.

The removal of the statue has been described as ".....the cathartic removal of a memorial to an oppressor of people and an abuser of power who had too long loomed over the people of Bristol. The fact that it is gone is still right for Bristol".

This is not mere judgemental rhetoric about the history of the eighteenth century, but a moment of clarity that informs us of the truth behind certain historical figures and what they did. 

Another awaking happened in July 2020 when the Westminster diocese boldly invited black Catholics to reflect on their own experience of racism “Being Black & Catholic”. There were beautiful responses from a deacon, a priest and two lay people.

At White City, Fr. Nesbitt needed an opportunity to introduce an audit of the parish activities and structures that would root out any form of racism and discrimination. This opportunity presented itself on the 16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A which featured St Matthew’s parable of the darnel among the wheat field. This was the spark of what he called “The Darnel of Racism”, which he used to interrogate parish community lives, actions and operations that could lead away from love, unity and inclusion. Then it helped the community to have the courage to speak out, for example, about occasions where a “sign of peace”, by shaking hands, had been refused because of race and colour, an experience which the Bishop had shared with him, too.

The homily, “The Darnel of Racism”, engendered some electrifying moments after the Masses of that Sunday which encouraged people to dialogue, discuss and reach a closer level of understanding. 

Fr. Nesbit hinted that later on that Sunday evening, a video conference meeting was initiated and about twenty-five persons, mainly black women, gathered to discuss and share more ideas on the topic for the next eight weeks.

This discussion, according to Fr. Richard, opened his eyes about series of deep-rooted episodes of racism in the past, present and even under his own watch that he had not noticed. He needed to capture these voices, and therefore formed a group including Elizabeth Uwalaka and decided to invite about twenty other people to tell their stories via social media.

However, no one spoke for fear of the impact and uncertain outcome of voicing such issues on social media.  Consequently, Fr. Nesbit and the parishioners decided to publish these discussions in a book entitled “Rooting Out Racism from our Parish”.   Key areas of concern in the parish community of Our Lady of Fatima, White City, during the discussions were:

• Leadership roles within the parish - do they reflect the racial profile of the parish and how are these leadership roles chosen.  Greater transparency was needed.
• Making sure that different racial groups were equally represented in parish ministries (Readers, Eucharistic Ministers etc...) and that at major celebrations in the year (Christmas, Easter...) there was a mix of different racial groups taking part in these ministries (e.g. Reading at the Easter Vigil).
• The artwork in the church - how can we bring in a greater diversity of religious imagery so that it is not a sea of white skinned depictions of Jesus, Mary and the saints.
• Charity work - they had a powerful conversation about the danger of a "White Saviour" syndrome by which it is predominantly white parishioners making appeals on behalf of poor black children.
• The Repository - how to make sure that there is a wide variety of skin colours and racial imagery in the cards, books etc. stocked in the repository.
• Music - how do we make sure that we have a diversity of musical styles which reflect our multicultural community and rich cultural heritages.
• Sign of Peace - how do we challenge clearly racist behaviour and attitudes manifested in our daily parish life – e.g. at the sign of peace where some black parishioners regularly experience rejection by white parishioners.

The book, "Rooting out Racism from Our Parish" which tells the full story and the actions taken to promote racial inclusion in Our Lady of Fatima Parish in White City, can be read in full by the permission of the parishioner authors in this link: Racism_v3.indd (cbcew.org.uk).