Do you remember the summer of 2020?
Fever dream memories of burning blue skies and going in and out of lockdown were interrupted by the biting wave of outrage that followed the sickening murder of George Floyd. In those summer months, society awakened to the appalling prejudice that is the daily experience of people of colour in the UK.
Scales fell from our eyes, and we saw systemic injustices in education and housing and even in the Church. Briefly, it appeared that dramatic change was coming. Statues toppled end-over-end into Bristol harbour. Everyone was agreed that Black Lives Matter.
The "other"
Fast forward to autumn 2025, and the seasons have changed. Disagreements over immigration policy spill over into hatred of the “other”. A synagogue is attacked in broad daylight in Manchester. What has happened to that united determination to deliver racial justice? Was it a fashion that has passed? Or a Covid-induced overreaction?
For Christians, concern for racial justice is much, much deeper than a fad. The call to racial justice finds its origin in the cross of Jesus Christ.
On the cross, Jesus dealt with ethnic divisions – firstly between Jews and Gentiles.
“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” - Ephesians 2:15-16
Followers of Jesus are therefore members of one new humanity and in the cross we discover the means to end hostility between peoples, whatever divides them.
One new humanity
The cross of Christ gives us a vision of a new humanity rising out of warring ethnic groups. It is the calling of the church to enflesh this community before a watching world. In this past week, I have licensed a Brazilian and appointed a Ugandan to roles in our diocese. I rejoice that we are demonstrating in our lives that One New Humanity is possible.
We are “no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household… with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” (Eph 2:19-20).
There will always be racism in our world – and we are called to call it out. But whether racism takes root in the Church depends on our willingness to resist it and repent of it.
As we begin Black History Month, let us celebrate the presence and contribution of every skin tone, language and nation in the Church of Jesus Christ. Racial justice is not a fever dream or a fashion. It is evidence that the cross works, that the church can be united and that Jesus is alive.