If the Church of England persists in telling white worshippers they’re racists it’ll condemn itself to oblivion

Mar 30, 2024 by Jill

by Stephen Glover, Daily Mail:

Readers of Private Eye will remember the magazine’s fictional vicar, the Rev J. C. Flannel. He is a worldly, waffley, wishy-washy sort of fellow.

Flannel steers clear of religious conviction. He is the kind of bland clergyman who likes to blather on about TV soap operas in order to seem relevant.

The Rev J. C. Flannel has been overtaken by history. He would be out of place in the modern Church of England. For one thing he is male and white, which would put him at a disadvantage in some quarters.

More important, I doubt that Flannel could get to grips with the craving for ‘racial justice’ born of ‘critical race theory’ that obsesses so many Anglican bishops and senior clergy.

I know the Church of England pretty well. My father was a priest, as were two uncles. Two of my brothers-in-law were bishops, and a third a canon. A nephew is a vicar. I can say with confidence that the Church whose ways I have observed, and in which I have worshipped, is one of the least racist institutions in our country.

However, the folk who run the C of E think differently. For many of them racism is ‘embedded’ — this is a key, often-used word in critical race theory — in our national Church, and must be rooted out.

They would doubtless say that, if I don’t discern endemic racism in the Church, it is because I am a white, relatively privileged person. Racism is buried so deep that you can’t necessarily see it. It is cause for shame and, if I and people like me can’t appreciate this truth, it is because we are fundamentally racist.

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, has proclaimed that the Church of England is ‘deeply institutionally racist’ and called for ‘radical and decisive’ action. This has entailed setting up a Commission for Racial Justice, and the appointment of a ‘racial justice directorate’.

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