Mandated to drive ‘significant cultural and structural change on issues of racial justice within the Church of England’, the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice (“ACRJ”), headed by The Rt Hon Lord Paul Boateng, is charged with monitoring, holding to account and supporting the implementation of the forty-seven recommendations of the Racial Justice Taskforce which were laid out in the Taskforce’s comprehensive 2020 report From Lament to Action.In his foreword letter to the First Report, Lord Boateng writes, “This is a painful process, and necessarily so, in that the response to an examination of racism and the exposure of injustice is often one of denial and defensiveness or obscuration and delay. This must not go unchallenged.”Released today, the Commission states: “In this, the first of the six reports the ACRJ will produce, we have outlined the beginning of this work, reporting on the formulation of the seven workstreams in the last three months, and the progress of work on the five priority areas and the forty-seven recommendations identified in From Lament to Action."Subject to the availability of appropriate support and resources, the Commission will produce a further report by the end of 2022 and will report twice a year thereafter. The Commission will conclude its work in October 2024 with a final report drawing the work of the three years together.” Lord Boateng, commenting further in his foreword letter on the issues of the resources required to implement the Taskforce and the ACRJ’s recommendations says: “We have taken the view that a minimum of £20 million needs to be set aside… to fund the delivery of From Lament to Action, and to meet the cost of such recommendations that we make within the lifetime of the Commission.”The Report makes clear the importance of each Diocese within the Church of England developing a Racial Justice Strategy to as to make the most impact with the resources available, and sets a time limit for this [Patronage, Governance & Funding, Page 39]The Report makes comment on the issue of monuments and slavery and calls for a strengthening of the guidance issued in this regard to create an appropriate balance with respect to the planning requirements for historic conservation so as to stress the paramount importance of equitable access to Christian worship, and which reflects the Church’s commitment to racial justice. [Slavery, Page 21]The Report also highlights the need for wider reform of the Church of England’s Consistory Court process and calls for greater diversity and inclusion in its administration. [Slavery, Pages 23 & 24]Commenting on the first Report, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, said: “We strongly welcome the first report of the Commission on Racial Justice and the clear, independent scrutiny it provides. I am very grateful to Lord Boateng and his Commission members for the work they have done so far. This report identifies the difficult and long path to eradicating the pain and injustice felt by so many, but provides us with hope that through the Commission’s work, these issues will be addressed.”The Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend Stephen Cottrell added: “We are encouraged to see the work of the Commission in challenging current practice and stimulating culture change in the Church of England. It is important for us to engage with these ideas and continue to build both support and action. This reminds us that justice lies at the heart of the Gospels and it is our hope that the whole Church will be inspired to commit in earnest to this transformation.”
Last week Guildford Cathedral welcomed 2,800 children to the year 6 leavers services at the Cathedral. These uplifting events were a way to mark the end of primary school for all children at our schools. Here is a wonderful prayer from St. Mary’s Church of England Primary School - ChessingtonPlease don’t let goDear GodAs we prepare to take these important steps from primary school to secondary, please don’t let go.Hold our hands and guide us on the right path, helping us to make positive choices.As we face new challenges and sometimes stumble, please don’t let go.Pick us up and give us the strength and courage to carry on.As we say goodbye to old friends and teachers and meet new ones, please don’t let go.Help them to see all that is good in us, showing mutual kindness and respect. As we enter unfamiliar places, perhaps feeling a little lost and alone, please don’t let go.Walk alongside us, giving us courage and helping us to find our way.As we are presented with new and sometimes confusing situations, please don’t let go.Open our minds and hearts to new ideas, helping us to grow with empathy and tolerance.As we are asked to take more risks and decisions on our own, please don’t let go.Give us the strength and knowledge to become more independent.If we know you are holding us tight and always by our side, we won’t let go of you.You will remain in our hearts, helping us to learn and grow, full of kindness and honesty.Amen
The North Shields Baby Bank, based at St John’s Church Percy Main, in North Tyneside, has helped more than 400 families since its launch in March last year with items including nappies, wipes, clothing and baby formula.The church is now appealing for help to replace its heating system, in order to keep the baby bank operating over the winter months.Revd Lee Cleminson, Vicar of St John’s, said: “People are really, really struggling with energy prices, food prices and the cost of petrol and all sorts of other expenses. They are referred through different agencies and community projects to the baby bank but also there are people who knock on the vicarage door, because I live next door to the church.“People are so generous with donations and with every item of clothes, we wash it, iron it and present it in a wonderful way. All parents who have accessed the baby bank have been overwhelmed by the generosity and good quality items and the quick response they have received."One particular baby bank user commented, with great appreciation, that the baby items that she had received, 'had left her with one less worry for the day'“The heating system is absolutely essential to the administering of the baby bank, otherwise clothes and other supplies will get damp and volunteers will not be able to work here.”
You are meant to turn your phone off when attending a silent retreat at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s residence, Lambeth Palace, as part of training in monastic life. But you are never meant to turn your phone off as a corporate tax lawyer at an American legal giant — a client could need you at any time.That was one of the culture clashes that Eloise Skinner, 30, faced as she juggled her job as a £140,000-a-year newly qualified corporate tax solicitor at Cleary Gottlieb with 12-month training dubbed “monk school”, where she was “trying to find my own personal sense of direction.”“It was an integrated programme,” Skinner said of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s monastic-inspired The Community of St Anselm. “I’d leave the Cleary office in Moorgate [in the City] one evening a week to head to Lambeth Palace and attend week-long, silent retreats in a monastery in Cornwall for a few weeks during the year too.”There, Skinner would wear monastic robes called albs — “they really remove any sense of personal ego” — and sleep in a simple room. “We went really deep into the traditional types of monastic practice, and how to apply some of them to your life as a modern monk. Coming straight from [work in] central London, it was quite disorientating to move into a fully silent monastery. When I went back to ‘normal life’ afterwards, I noticed that I’d become a little bit more intentional about what I said when I spoke.”Skinner had become a Christian as a teenager, when she also decided to pursue a career in law. Her first home was on the 19th floor of an east London council estate — and growing up, her parents were touring musicians, “so we didn’t really have any money”. She successfully applied to read law at Cambridge, and undertook seven work-experience placements at US and Magic Circle law firms before settling at Cleary Gottlieb.Skinner found her two worlds hard to reconcile. Although her monastic training had updated the traditional vows — the monastic “poverty” order, for example, was interpreted as “not buying things you didn’t need” — there were still jarring contrasts with days spent dealing with huge sums of corporate money.“My job [as a tax lawyer] wasn’t that sort of perception of firms getting out of paying tax, more about helping people understand what their obligations were,” Skinner said. “Law, especially the way I was practising it, is full-on. You need to give it all of your time and the hours are very unpredictable. Most of the cases were cross-border transactions, so you’re on UK time and, say, US time and Japanese time; you can’t always say, ‘I’m not available — I’m in a monastery.’ ”Gradually — and in a process accelerated by Covid lockdowns — Skinner’s monastic year helped her realise that tax law wasn’t her calling; she left in January 2021. “For many, the pandemic was an opportunity to reflect on what you actually want to do — you, not society or your family or university. [It was about] carving out some time to actually think, ‘What is it that I care about? What are my values? What are my priorities?“When lockdown happened, it felt like it was OK to change your entire life because so much had already changed.”Now Skinner’s work involves helping others to do the same. She runs One Typical Day, an education technology start-up that helps students find out more about potential careers, and The Purpose Workshop, a social enterprise that helps people reconsider their lives and careers; clients include Cambridge and Oxford universities.“My lifestyle obviously had to change after leaving law,” she said. “When I started, I had really wanted to use my salary to save up. Now it’s just about covering my basic needs, and seeing where the business builds from that.”Skinner admitted to missing some elements of her corporate lawyer life: “I really miss being in a big team — the fast pace, constantly having people asking you to step up. Being self-employed, you have to create that for yourself. While it was stressful, it was also incredibly rewarding because you’re always improving.”Still, for anyone else looking to escape corporate life, Skinner has some advice. “It doesn’t need to happen overnight. When I read about other people’s career changes, it seemed so dramatic and intimidating, [but] if you go step by step, over time it takes you further than you had imagined.”