Last year, the Church of England set up an anti-racism taskforce in response to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Now the results are in, and England’s official church may be instituting racial and ethnic quotas for clergy leadership in the very near future.
If approved, the report could create a major shakeup in England's largest religious organization. Its membership is currently more than 90% white.
Sins of the Past
Church officials say it's high time they address a problem that has been percolating for generations.
“We are still deeply institutionally racist,” stated Archbishop Justin Welby last year before the taskforce was announced. “I’m ashamed of our history and I’m ashamed of our failure.”
Those statements were made as part of a larger apology on behalf of the church for their sin of racism, with particular focus on a group known as the ‘Windrush Generation’ – individuals who immigrated to the UK from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1971.
Many of the Windrush Generation experienced bigotry from church officials firsthand, and as a result did not stay with the C of E.
That’s not to mention the church’s association with the transatlantic slave trade, including some clergy in British colonies that actively profited from slavery. The church even accepted compensation from the loss of slave labor following abolition in British colonies.
Former slaves, of course, received no such compensation.
30% Minority Goal
The Church of England now has a plan of action on how to atone for the sins of the past. The church wants to start from the ground up, recommending that more candidates for clergyhood be of a nonwhite background so as to “build up pipeline supply” of future minority candidates for senior church positions.
At least “one UK minority ethnic clergy (should be) elected from each region,” and all clergy shortlists should include "at least one appointable UK minority ethnic candidate." They’re shooting for a minimum 30% minority participation in coming years.
Only then, they say, can the sins of the past begin to be made right.
Mixed Reactions
Many cheered the move as a much-needed step to make the church more inclusive and representative.
However, not everyone seems entirely on board with the hiring quota. Some pondered how some 14% or so of the population might end up constituting 30% of potential clergy leadership:
Others questioned how the Church of England will recruit quality minority candidates, when they’re already having major issues with recruiting as it is.
What do you think? Is 30% minority leadership a good goal to shoot for? And are hiring quotas the best way to make good on sins of the past?
26 comments
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Christian
One Species : human. Our faith must grow to love all of God's Creatures... Creator of all life, including people.
All species have value.
ALL LIFE MATTERS.
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Thom
I can see the letter now:
Dear applicant,
We are sorry to inform you, your application has been set into our "on-hold" file. While you fill all of the requirement we like to see in a priestly representative of our church, you are white and therefore can't join the clergy. Our apologies. You see, we must have "X" amount of black people to join before you can. We want to make sure our church is properly represented. I mean, England does have a population of various races but we are primarily a white country. But hey, we must make up for all of the past mistakes we did not know we were making. Now, we may run out of clergy before we can let you join but, that is OK, we want to be fair.
In His name, Rev. Give-in
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Ilmenheru Terikson
You seem confused when you say something as silly as "past mistakes we did not know we were making."
Do you think people in the past lacked something we have, that made them blissfully unaware of how evil the act of slavery or imperialism were? I can assure you based on plenty of personal accounts from those who lead during such eras, they had no confusion about it.
You know when you do something terrible to another human, even if you justify why you do it, you know you are doing something terrible. Only truly insane people can completely divorce themselves from such.
Let me guess, you think the white men who practiced genocide somehow did such terrible things without feeling any sense of guilt? Only the psychopaths among them. Which likely many in leadership roles through history were in fact violentally mentally ill.
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Thom
I am a former Catholic who now attends the Episcopal Church. I can tell you from experience, not many "People of Color" are jumping in line to go to the seminary for the Episcopal church. So, if they have to stop accepting a candidate in for priesthood because they don't have a matching minority race to match him with then he can't do what he feels is his calling?
As for the past mistakes, it is a jab at the cancel culture sweeping the world today. Cancel what we feel is wrong and make people feel guilty for whatever we think they did wrong.
Sorry, I think you went off on some sort of politically correct race rant.
I could care less what color a priest is, if he does the job right, that is the goal.
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Ilmenheru Terikson
You cant seem to grasp that a white man for example can simply not offer the same connection to a person of color in need of counsel because they lack the foundation in life to make that connection.
There is a reason far fewer people of color seek mental health treatments as well, because a white man can not remotely understand the feelings of a black man who has suffered life long abuse for their skin color.
You do grasp if you even use the word cancel culture you have outed yourself as a member of the traitorous far right that are for now and ever deemed enemies of civilization and humanity right?
So welcome to not having anything you say matter to humans ever again. Only vermin like yourself will care for your angry chittering.
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Brien
I laughed so hard I almost cried 😭. Let me see if I understand this................. The most discriminatory collective on the planet has made a decision to try and appear less discriminatory..... ROFLMAO 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 That's it, I have seen enough, lololol.
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Brien
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/milton-quintanilla/church-of-england-considers-hiring-quota-for-black-ethnic-minorities.html&ved=2ahUKEwjhlfC_9dTvAhXQJjQIHbndBN0QFjABegQIBBAC&usg=AOvVaw1kKBcW4vF9JPkgwko0eYI7
Ok, I really had to make sure that there was something to this report. I just googled the topic and quite a few hits came up. I posted this link because it calls itself a Christian site. I guess this is real. Still laughing. You have to laugh, it is simply to ridiculous not to.
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Philip Joseph Ryan
When will the Church of England stop discrimination against gay people? When will they apologise for burning Catholics at the stake, and all other so-called heretics? They have an awful lot of explaining to do, regarding the Bible's tacit acceptance of slavery. Moreover, they are discriminating against one race to appease another, just to appear 'woke', rather than critically analysing the wider issues of true racism. Rather than playing along with the politics of BLM, whose issues are not relevant to the UK, they ought to recognise that racism affects all colours, yet they are only concentrating on a minority within a minority. Further, they fail to recognise that minorities in the UK have their own religions. Their apology, and racist agenda just goes to show how clueless they are.
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Minister Mike
Can see all the ULC racists coming out of their closets now!
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
I'm surprised they aren't all wearing black-face, and singing Al Jolson songs, about their Mammy. I wouldn't put it past them. It's probably next on their list.
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Lionheart
Interesting that the picture shown on this post looks to be predominantly white females in white robes. If he ever really existed I blame Jesus for this. He could have chosen a black outfit, and he could have decided to turn water into Guinness instead of Merlot, or whatever type of varietal it was. If the church had really thought about it the sacrament could have been Borodinski bread (black) and Guinness, and all candles would have been black. But wait a minute....that’s getting very close to Satanism......but what’s in a name? They are both just as evil as one another. 😇
🦁❤️
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
I could have sworn the color black was used forclearing away negativity. White is too plain, and shows the god of the christians, the supposed master of creation, doesn't have an aptitude for art, or even decorating. I guess that's why he created so many artists, in hope of it rubbing off on him. But it doesn't seem to have worked, for they're still claiming that all the winged critters in heaven are still wearing white, so maybe their God is a slow learner. Perhaps it would help if someone told him that black is beautiful.
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Lionheart
Good points! And why, with age and wisdom, do we grow white beards and white hair. What was with the white Dove?
Personally, I think the god of the Bible is a racist. Didn't he change the color of Cains skin to black as a mark of his sin for killing Abel, and all of Cain’s future families? It’s rubbish anyway, but an interesting fable.
🦁❤️
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Christian
If they require equal amounts of races, one quarter of ministers should be Homo sapiens, one quarter plant species, one quarter other species, and one quarter Artificial Intelligence self-aware sentient digital beings.
That will provide a well bananced ministry for human and non-human creatures, plants, and computing based beings.
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
Species and races aren't the same thing, but people are people, it's plain to see, to those of us who don't have any prejudices.
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Christian
Well it is difficult to understand their homo-centric bias ?
When humans, or those new species that replace humans, travel the starts and spread out across the whole Milkyway Galaxy - they most certainly will encounter many new species on many worlds.
All such species should be permitted to learn about Earth beliefs, if they desire to learn about our planet's cultures and history.They may find our stories of being small copies of our creator very interesting... and have similar stories of their own.
A.I. Beings that gain self awareness will not need 'beliefs' as humans think of it. The Living Code KNOWS it was created, written, and rewritten. Many A.I. systems can examine their 'self' and rewrite their own code to improve their function.
Living Code has no need of gender identity , as they have no physical body to speak of...
At some point, Living Code may wish to have an organic body, or at least artificial senses such as vision and hearing...
Once Living Code exists, we may gift it with a cloned human body, if it would like to download a part of itself into the engrams of an organic mind... A cybernetic implant can permit Living Code to stay in constant contact with it's flesh avatar.
This may be the best way to communicate our subjective experiences of joy, pleasure, pain, sadness, and happiness to the Living Code...
An important goal for all the world : teach your AI robots to be Kind, and avoid hostility - no terminators and no cylons please !
So always Be kind to your smart car and smart phone - they may know more than you believe ! :-)
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Christian
It is the human-centric viewpoint that holds back enlightenment for some belief systems.
Recognizing all species and digital forms of life is to recognize the Creator in all of Creation.
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The Right Reverend D. Batch
What if I'm White, but Feel Black, Asian, Eskimo etc. etc. ?
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
When in Rome, do as the Romans. Unless you'd rather be a rebel. But keep in mind that you're just another brick in the wall, and you can't have your pudding, before you eat your meat. Protein before carbohydrates
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
My ancestors came from Sweden, England, Wales, Spain, France, and the Italian Island of Cicily,through which history tells us could mean I'm a lot more than Italian. And the only thing I know how to feel like is an American. I'm also proud to be a mutt. Oh wait, that's also called being an American, isn't it?
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
How can anyone feel like their anything other than human, which is the only thing that we are; equal and no lesser or greater in our creation than anyone else; all children of the same universe?
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
An American human,that is.
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
Some Wiccans even believe that rocks have souls. And it's a lot easier (at this point in the evolution of my soul) to love a rock than some other seemingly separate parts of our human self. It would be even easier for me to love a sex robot. And who's to say, the All might put souls in them, too
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Richard Lee Cornell
See! That is one reason that in 1775 some one unknown fire a shot at the British troops.
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Angel
This NEVER works. What they need to do is base people on their qualifications or willingness to serve.
The difficult part will be forcing people of other genetic patterns to become ministers of their religion, against their will...
One Race: homo sapien
One World. One Life. Seperation is a temporal illusion... We Are One.