Racial Justice Sunday 2026

Racial Justice Sunday 2026

On Sunday 8th February 2026 we marked Racial Justice Sunday with Winnie Obese Bempong, our curate, preaching powerfully from Galatians 3. If you missed it you can watch it below:

Winnie challenged us as a parish to consider three searching questions. Not to shame us, but to help us see clearly. Let’s take these seriously:

First: Whose pain gets attention? When brothers and sisters from marginalised communities share experiences of racism, do we listen and believe them?

Or do we minimise their experience because it makes us uncomfortable?

Second: Who bears the burden of unity? In our diverse church, who’s usually expected to adapt?

Who has to code-switch to translate themselves, to make themselves palatable?

True unity means all of us, especially those in the majority, do the work of understanding each other.

Third: Who do we socialise with? In all your time in this Parish, how many people from marginalised communities have you invited to your home for a meal?

These questions reveal whether we’re settling for surface-level diversity or doing the hard work of genuine unity.

Winnie also recommended a number of books:

References & Further Reading:

• Jesus of the Deep Forest: The Prayers and Praises of Afua Kuma (Edited by Fr. Jon Kirby, SVD) – This is the essential collection of her work.
• The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters by R.S. Sugirtharajah – For a broader scholarly context.
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone – A seminal work in Black theology that, while from the American context, powerfully explores seeing Christ through the experience of Black suffering and resilience.
• Theology and Identity: The Impact of Culture Upon Christian Thought in the Second Century and Modern Africa (Regnum Studies in Mission) by Kwame Bediako
• We need to talk about Race by Ben Lindsay
• A year with Timothy Keller

There is a Movement for Justice exhibition: Colonial Slavery and its legacy – The Diocese of Southwark exhibition at Southwark Cathedral (Saturday 7th – Friday 13th February)

The exhibition, entitled: “Colonial Slavery and its legacy”, seeks to answer the question: ‘What has this got to do with Britain today?’ The aim is not to produce a guilt trip but to get people thinking about their respective unearned privilege and daily indignities and to ask why the silence and historical amnesia on the facts and effects of slavery. It uncovers the history and the ongoing effects on the descendants, not just of those who suffered, but of those who benefitted. The exhibition has been developed as a resource for schools, museums, libraries, local organisations, community groups, or churches and consists of eight information panels and an interactive desk.

It was created to tie in with the ‘Truth-telling in Sacred Spaces’ day. Truth telling resources from that day including slides from speakers can be found here: https://southwark.anglican.org/mission-ministry/faith-in-action/justice-peace-and-integrity-of-creation/antiracism/#resources

Find out more about our parish journey of being Anti-racist here