revmusings

I am back from my 2 day course on Racial Jutsice. I was plesaantly surprised having been told by previous participants in past years that they found it very aggressive. The trainers were all fairly balanced, pushing us to reflect on out own cultural and racial histories and everyone seemed to react well..

It brought back memories of being asked by Prof. Robert Beckford what it meant to me to be white. My reply at the time was that I didn't understand the question, I didn't think of myself as white- just the problem he countered. My early days here in a 90% Asian area brought that question into sharp focus for me and now I understand what it is to be who I am. The sessions also confirmed to me the very strange desire I have to return to the palce of my birth abroad - I only spent 6 months there so have no cognitive memories just a deep longing in my soul and a feeling of connection with that land. One day I will get back there.

The sessions that showed how racial justice had worked out in concrete church situations was very helpful- two very different models, one of whuch appealed to me much more than the other - it was the vision I have always had and try, in a very small way, to have here. Now I have more realistic examples of what can be done.

The issues of justice and discrimination of course are wider than the colour of your skin: age, gender, poverty and disability are also the cause of injustice, along with many other factors. We talked about how many BEM ministers there are in the union - we didn't have definite figures bit I know that woemn only account for now 10% of BU Ministers but the proportionately I suspect BEM minister percentages are higher. (Please let me know if that's wrong)

I did however remain confused: The advice I got was use black images of Christ and try to use our African members' first names rather than their easier middle names. I have tried both here: The lads hate the back images and want a white Jesus and they want us to use their middle names as the hate the fact however musch we try we never pronounce the name right and it irritates them - so now what do I do? (mind you few people pronouce or spell my surname correctly - except non-British who seem to manage fine - and I have a friend whose first name suffers the same fate!) I guess I have to keep trying and be sensitive to whatever makes them feel secure, loved and at home.