Synod urged to fast-track Black and Asian church leaders
By Chris Sugden, CEN:
THE CHURCH of England has been urged to fast-track Asian and black church leaders in the same way it has done for women bishops.
The call came at a meeting during General Synod last week at nearby Westminster Central Hall. The day before, Archbishop Welby had said to Synod that British colonial history makes the laying down of edicts by white, middle-class Christians from the Global North a process that is rightly deeply resented.
One former member of Synod, Vasantha Gnanadoss, pointed out that there had been no senior appointment from Black and Asian clergy to episcopal office since 2002.
“In their promotion of the Bill to get women bishops into the House of Lords immediately, the bishops were giving a very high priority to redressing unequal treatment of women clergy. Unequal treatment of black and Asian clergy has been allowed to continue.
“Reports and task forces have been ineffective for 30 years,” she said. “In contrast to the Church of England, black-majority and Asian majority churches attract large memberships and are blessed with strong leaderships.” Similar fast-tracking can be done with black and Asian leaders.
She suggested three immediate actions the Church could take to help promote the ministry of Anglicans from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds:
• Each diocese to complete and make available to other dioceses an information pack with details of each of its black and Asian clergy to assist appointments at all levels,
• The House of Bishops to take a shared responsibility for appointing three suffragan bishops from among black and Asian clergy within the next 12 months, a matterover which diocesans have full control,
and
• The job description of the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments to be amended to include a requirement that every CNC should be provided with several names of black and Asian clergy who are ready now for appointment as diocesans.
“The Church of England will fail to reach its potential until it is enriched by other black and Asian bishops,” she concluded.
Her views were echoed by Canon Ivor Smith Cameron, who had advocated on this issue for many years in synod. He said their inclusion in senior leadership was a matter of justice.
“The consequences of an unjust structure will be unjust. The Church of England will be the better for much greater diversity in the background of its bishops.”
However, although the meeting was scheduled while General Synod was meeting across the road at Church House, only one member of the current synod attended.
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