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Church and Society
This committee seeks to serve local churches, district councils and synods, ecumenical and appropriate secular bodies, in raising awareness, sharing information and encouraging reflection and action on matters of justice and peace, healing and reconciliation. It seeks to represent the concern of the church for such matters to government and others with power over the life of people in these islands, acting ecumenically wherever possible. It is responsible for Commitment for Life (including the 1% appeal) and will promote such other programmes as will help the above aims.
Committee Members
Convener: Ms Gabrielle Cox Secretary: Revd Peter Brain
Revd Hazel Barkham, Mr George Morton, Revd Michael Powell, Dr Sue Brisley (two vacancies).
attending by invitation: Mrs Sandra Ackroyd (Churches Commission for Racial Justice),
Revd Dr David Pickering (Environmental Issues Adviser), Revd Justine Wyatt (Consultant on AIDS/HIV).
1 Introduction.
1.1 Sometimes the apostle Paul speaks very directly across the centuries to us in our very different world. Thus, to the Corinthians:
"Of course we all have ‘knowledge’, as you say. But knowledge gives self-importance - it is love that builds up a person. A person may imagine they have some kind of knowledge but still not understand anything, in the true sense of knowing." 1.
That was written about eating meat offered to idols - the Church and Society agenda in the first century! Yet it remains a valid commentary on contemporary human aspirations to technological achievement. Paul puts the same argument more sharply to the Romans: "Those of us who are strong must ... not just please ourselves but ... build up the common life." 2.
1.2 The stakes are high and being raised all the time in the game of progress, which may turn out to be the endgame for humanity. In conversations and in our committee discussions during the year we have considered the complex debates over genetically modified foods and the cloning of living things, over rationing health care (postponing pain and death) by price or by merit, over the flexing of military muscle and the imposition of economic sanctions by the UN or the US, over the persistent threat of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, over opening shops round the clock and over the future of the family as the ‘building block’ of society. These and other potential crises, great and small, have kept us engaged. When offering comment, we have tried to keep in mind Paul’s criterion of "what builds up the common life" as the indicator of that which is good.
1.3 Power, like money, is only a means to an end. The fact that something can be done has never been a justification for doing it - still less for saying that it should be done. This sense of danger is rising at the threshold of the new decade, century or millennium. The possibilities are multiplying and with them the hard choices. Christian comment on public life looks with Paul beyond the power of knowledge to the power of love, to the strength which does not coerce or grasp but serves.
1.4 This spirit of service with a vision of justice is still acknowledged in public life. We can appeal to it when making representations to governments and others. We do not "know better" than the experts, but we can point out where knowledge falls short of what is actually required for human life if the application of that knowledge does not promote justice and peace for everyone. We seek to strengthen Christians and others to love and share and serve in a world where these values face their strongest challenge ever.
1.5 Personalia
The committee has welcomed a new Convener, Gabrielle Cox, who directs the Low Pay Unit in Manchester, recently served on the Churches Commission on Unemployment and the Future of Work and is a regular on R4 Thought for the Day. We said farewell to Malcolm Johnson, convener, and Val Morrison, deputy convener, both of whom are still linked with items of our work. We have lost David Fraser through ill health, Janine Lawley whose period of service ended and Paul Franklin who moved on. We await a nominee from the Youth and Children’s Work Committee.
1. I Corinthians 8, 1 - 2
2. Romans 15, 1 f
2 New published work.
This year has seen two major programmes of work come to fruition in tangible form.
2.1 on Greening the Church
2.1.1 ‘Roots and Branches’ was published at the turn of the year and widely welcomed within and beyond the church. As was made clear at last year’s Assembly, this is intended to be a very user-friendly pack. There are sections for work with children and with young people, for finance and fabric folk as well as for shoppers and caterers, for worship and Bible study leaders. These are the ‘branches’ to bear fruit in the church over two or three years. The ‘menu’ style presentation makes this suitable for smaller as well as larger churches; everyone can try some of it.
The ‘branches’ are complemented by the ‘roots’, sections of information and anthology with statistics entertainingly presented.
Our special thanks to Lynn Yeo, a temporary designer providing maternity cover, for the splendid cover image.
Charles Secrett, Director of ‘Friends of the Earth’ writes on the cover of the pack: "It is all too easy to feel helpless ... Don’t worry! There are many opportunities to change our world for the better ... it gives me much pleasure to introduce and commend the ... pack which is a tremendous resource."
2.1.2 The compiler of Roots and Branches, David Pickering, has taken up an important ecumenical appointment with ‘Going for Green’, the government-backed body on environmental education and action, based at Wigan Pier. He will be their Churches Link Officer and also has in his job description responsibility to service the CCBI Environmental Issues Network.
2.1.3 The proposal accepted at the 1998 Assembly for an energy audit for local churches coincided with similar moves within the Methodist Church. This is now being taken forward together.
2.2 on Economics and Money
2.2.1 For a Rainy Day is the title of our exciting new video pack. The video is a 35 minute drama about real - rather ‘ordinary’ - people facing the impact of financial circumstances in their lives and relationships.
2.2.2 The accompanying booklets offer lots more ideas for events and different groups than will ever be used by a single church. This pack can be used in so many existing training events, such as spring schools, away days for elders and members, Windermere and Yardley events, youth weekends, autumn or Lent courses, etc. We have declared our aim to be "liberating people from their inhibitions about making the connections between money and faith". Well, maybe! This is a fine start, a brilliantly written, well acted and shrewdly edited piece of drama, with diverse and relevant supporting material.
2.2.3 We want to record our warm appreciation to the Laurence Wareing and production team at Pathway (Church of Scotland), to focus groups in Nottingham and Tonbridge, to the task group who agonised over the story line and characterisations and above all to Jan Natanson the writer.
2.2.4 The committee, after very careful discussion has decided to stick with the economics theme for our next major piece of work with paid advisers. A proposal is being worked up which will focus on a number of current economic and political topics. We shall begin by reviewing what work has recently been done or is currently being done on these issues in other churches and bodies.
One might go on to speculate whether resisting the dominant economic and political system is somewhat futile and that the churches, if we moved beyond negative comment towards offering alternatives, might find ourselves in the business of establishing oases or cells of opposition. Such an analysis and prognosis would be hotly debated on theological as well as economic grounds!
3 Commitment For Life.
3.1 Support: It is good to be able to report a further increase in the number of churches actively participating in the programme, more than 460.
During the year we have been in touch with many local churches whose first instinct and practice is to support Christian Aid. The new Director, Daleep Mukarji, is proving a good friend of Commitment for Life, visiting our annual Advocates training day and spelling out in REFORM that Commitment for Life is the way for local URCs to support Christian Aid. It is a partnership. We depend on Christian Aid for several aspects of the programme as the principal ecumenical agency, notably to do with links to the overseas partners. Both Christian Aid and Church and Society still urge local churches to join Commitment for Life.
3.2 Advocacy: The work of the national Co-ordinator of Commitment for Life, Anne Martin, has kept our nation-wide team of advocates above 40 and ensured that they are backed up with regular briefings. Anne meets them in Synod groups for briefing and training. Advocates are encouraged to attend the annual ecumenical Swanwick consultation in May, which Clare Short will be attending in 1999.
Each participating church received four mailings in the year, with news of their partner body and campaign updates. The advocates visit participating and interested churches - and would be pleased to visit you!
3.3 Campaigning: The primary campaigning issue for Commitment for Life during the year has again been Jubilee 2000. (See 4.3 below)
We were pleased that the protests over the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) have been successful, if only in the short term. Our campaigning partner, World Development Movement, has waged a fierce struggle against this MAI and warns that it has not gone away. We do need international regulation but not an agreement which represents the final triumph of multi-national business over vulnerable national governments.
3.4 Materials: Only a few new items are being produced in 1999, compared with 1998 and 2000. We have produced a new general poster and a handbook on what participating in Commitment for Life means for a local church, plus leaflets on debt, New Start, etc. and regular updates and newsletters.
3.5 Partners: Around two-thirds of participating churches have chosen to link with one of the four overseas partners. The Commitment for Life materials are all based on these links. Partnership of this kind is meant to help a church identify with those working for development in a very different context without slipping into a patronising attitude towards them, which sadly characterises some twinning schemes. In 1998 we ceased our direct connection with the Deccan Development Society in India, one of the original partners. We now have links with Olodum in Brazil, with Silveira House in Zimbabwe, with PARC, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee, and with CCDB, the Christian Commission on Development, Bangladesh.
These links have been strengthened during the year by personal visits to Zimbabwe, Palestine and Bangladesh by URC representatives. These were reported to participating churches and in REFORM.
It is important that our four partner bodies are to be included in the exchange visits under the strategic ‘Belonging to the World Church’ programme.
3.6 Review: We anticipate bringing an encouraging resolution to Assembly in 2000 when we are due to seek a fresh mandate for Commitment for Life and consider any changes to the programme. To assist this process we have appointed Sara Burns, a freelance specialist, to conduct a minor review of Commitment for Life during 1999.
The Commitment for Life sub-committee, chaired by David Batchelor, monitors progress on behalf of Church and Society and will be responsible for drafting any proposals for modifications.
3.7 Funds: 1998 income for Commitment for Life came to over £340k, a significant increase on £310k in 1997. An outline of how this money was disbursed was sent to participating churches in January. A more detailed paper is available. We kept the WDM grant at 10% of the income and were able to find £5k for Jubilee 2000 as well as nearly £9k for One World Week. We registered as the United Reformed Church to handle Millennium Gift Aid and sent details to participating churches. As income rises, we keep advocacy costs down, releasing more for campaigning and educational bodies. Core administration of the programme by Church and Society is not charged against Commitment for Life.
4 Collaborating for the Kingdom.
Each year Church and Society reports on work done by joint action in which we play a full part.
4.1 Working with bodies linked with the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland.
4.1.1 Commitment for Life would not run at all without the essential link with Christian Aid (see above). The General Secretary has been appointed to the Christian Aid Board, replacing Revd Sandra Dears; this should mean even closer links in future.
4.1.2 The Churches Human Rights Forum has latterly begun work, jointly with another body which we support, CCADD (Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament), looking again at the morality of sanctions especially against Iraq and extending this to consider the parameters of coercion that are possible and appropriate for the international community in such cases. We thank Alan Hart for his period of service on CHURF.
4.1.3 The Churches Peace Forum held a meeting in Belfast during the year; Malcolm Compston reported to the committee on this and related matters, not least the growing concern at the progress of the ‘peace process’ in the Middle East; this is raised in a separate resolution.
An initial meeting of what may become a URC Peace Fellowship was held on March 4 in response to an invitation in REFORM. There will be an event for all interested, probably in the autumn
4.1.4 The Environmental Issues Network will take on a new lease of life with David Pickering able to assist in his new post (see above). EIN has circulated papers from its members, including two from Donald Bruce (Society, Religion and Technology project of the Church of Scotland) on cloning and genetic engineering. Donald’s book on these topics (‘Engineering Genesis’) will be the standard Christian commentary for some years.
4.1.5 The URC representative on the Churches Commission for Racial Justice, currently Sandra Ackroyd, attends our committee and brings news of their work. We are bringing a resolution to encourage greater awareness of racial justice issues within the churches.
4.2 The Free Churches’ Council Education Committee continues to provide the essential forum on education policy. During the year responses have been made to government on several issues, including school exclusions, which the committee discussed with Graham Hanscomb our representative on the FCC Education Executive.
4.3 We have continued to promote the Jubilee 2000 coalition campaign which at time of writing was busy planning for the Cologne G8 summit in a fairly hopeful mood. A verbal report will be made to Assembly. REFORM offers updates on the campaign as, gratifyingly, does the mainstream media.
4.4 Working with other Assembly committees.
4.4.1 Churches Together for Families (established by Churches Together in England) has been active. Our representative is Stephen Lewis. Through its network the government Consultation Document ‘Supporting Families’ has been discussed. Church and Society responded to this Document. We share the responsibility for linking with CTF with Youth and Children’s Work Committee.
CTF arranged a consultation on corporal punishment (see separate resolution).
4.4.2 Attendance at the International Affairs Liaison Group of CCBI is shared between this Committee’s secretary and the Secretary for International Relations on behalf of the Ecumenical Committee. The IALG agenda is comprehensive(!) but the meetings are usually self-disciplined.
The IALG held a consultation in Belfast and met with several representatives of the Irish churches.
Inevitably we give priority to areas of the world where we have a direct link as URC. But we are inevitably and properly drawn in to discussion of other areas where links are not so strong, such as the Balkans, Sudan or central America.
4.4.3 Linking with and funding the group of URC Industrial Missioners is shared between this committee and Ministries. Our presence in the field, through some ‘special category’ ministers and part-time IM staff, is probably more effective than that of other denominations. Each year a lively report is prepared for widespread distribution; in 1998 this took the form of a worship resource which was sent to every minister and lay preacher. In these ways the authenticity of IM as necessary Christian ministry for our time is affirmed.
4.4.4 The work on ageing and the elderly is shared between this committee and Discipleship, Stewardship and Witness (see also their report). A booklet of worship material on this theme for 1999, the UN International Year for Older Persons, was compiled by Basil Bridge and distributed to all URC worship leaders. The take-up of the ‘Debate of the Age’ which featured at the 1998 Assembly has been rather slow, though the churches’ paper has been widely distributed and used. The other provisions of the 1998 Assembly resolution are in hand.
4.5 Our continuing working group on HIV and AIDS, chaired by John Humphreys, has met for discussion, e.g. of end-of-life issues, and to support Justine Wyatt who acts as our consultant in this field on a day-a-week basis. Material is available to help churches mark World AIDS Day.
Resolution 44 Children Are Unbeatable
Assembly, noting the statement of aims of the ‘Children are Unbeatable’ Alliance, agrees that the United Reformed Church become a member of the Alliance.
1 Current law tolerates what are in effect assaults on children by allowing the common law defence of "reasonable chastisement". This permits violence which would be illegal if directed at an adult. Challenging routine violence to children is as important as the challenge to routine violence against women was in improving women’s status.
2 In a series of recent cases the courts have acquitted parents who admitted hitting their children with sticks, belts and other implements, causing bruising and injury and who used the defence of "reasonable chastisement". Recent research, commissioned by the Department of Health, involving interviews with over 500 families, found that 15% of the mothers reported using "severe" physical punishment and almost a quarter of 7 year olds had experienced severe punishment. A fifth of the children had been hit with an implement.
3 In September 1998 the European Court of Human Rights found that the repeated beating of a young English boy by his stepfather constituted illegal "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". The stepfather had been acquitted in a UK court, using the "reasonable chastisement" defence. In response to this case a new Alliance was formed with the aims set out below. Their basic point is that full legal reform is needed to meet the UK’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international human rights instruments.
4 Among organisations and professions which work most closely with children there is almost unanimity of opposition to all forms of physical abuse and punishment. Over 200 have joined the new Alliance. But legal reform against corporal punishment is not yet the popular view. The opposition, led by the Family Education Trust, speaks of ‘criminalising parents’ who smack. In an article in the Catholic Herald, their spokesperson Lynette Burrows wrote of "the insufferably patronising argument used by the activists ... that parents are too stupid to change their ideas in the light of experience". However, the Catholic Children’s Society has been leading the campaign for legal reform and the Alliance argues that "trivial assaults between adults never reach the courts and nor would trivial assaults on children".
The statement of the aims of the Alliance.
"The organisations listed below welcome the Government’s intention to clarify the law on parental discipline. The traditional defence of "reasonable chastisement" works against the aims which we and the Government share: the encouragement of positive parental discipline in all families and assurance of effective child protection in the few cases where it is needed.
We believe that it is wrong and impracticable to seek to define acceptable forms of corporal punishment of children. Such an exercise is unjust. Hitting children is a lesson in bad behaviour.
Removing the defence of "reasonable chastisement" and thus giving children in their homes and in all other settings the equal protection under the law on assault is the only just, moral and safe way to clarify the law.
While technically this would criminalise any assault on a child, trivial assaults, like trivial assaults between adults, would not be prosecuted. It would on the other hand ease prosecution in serious cases. It would eliminate the current dangerous confusion over what is acceptable and provide a clear basis for child protection.
There is ample evidence from other countries to show that full legal reform, coupled with the promotion of effective means of positive discipline, works rapidly to reduce reliance on corporal punishment and reduces the need for prosecutions and other formal interventions in families, Using positive forms of discipline reduces stress and improves relationships between children, their parents and other carers."
Resolution 45 The Middle East
Assembly, noting the continuing military action around the Gulf and the lack of progress within the Israeli - Palestinian negotiations, and in renewing its concern for the region:
a) affirms that Jerusalem, a thrice-holy city, should be accessible to the adherents of the three monotheistic faiths and believes that any settlement of the territorial claims of Palestinians and Israelis should honour the holiness and wholeness of the city as a shared city in terms of sovereignty and citizenship;
b) looks for a fresh start to meaningful negotiations following the General Election in Israel and developments around May 4, and invites the British government to press with its EU partners for a clear role under the auspices of the United Nations in the peace process;
c) deplores the systematic confiscation of identification cards (and consequent loss of right of residency) from increasing numbers of Palestinian Jerusalemites, and continuing human rights abuses both by Israeli and Palestinian security forces and the evidence of corruption and political infighting within the Palestinian leadership;
d) questions the assumptions on which British forces are engaged in bombing targets in Iraq and urges the British government and its EU partners, through the United Nations, to apply a more coherent and comprehensive foreign and defence policy vis-à-vis the Middle East;
e) supports the calls being made for a fundamental revision of the sanctions currently in force against Iraq and regrets the leading involvement of British companies in the construction of the Ilusu dam in Turkey;
f) welcomes the trend for pilgrimage groups to the Holy Land, including the representative URC group travelling next winter as part of the Pilgrim 2000 programme to make time for deliberate encounters with indigenous Christians; AND
g) authorises the Assembly officers to send Christian greetings, together with a copy of this resolution, to the church leaders in Jerusalem, assuring them of the prayers of the United Reformed Church for them individually and collectively, especially during this period of the millennium.
1 In bringing this lengthy and composite resolution, we are inviting Assembly to echo what our ecumenical partners have been saying about the continuing troubles in this region during the past year, at the Assembly of the World Council of Churches, in the Middle East Council of Churches and at a succession of meetings under the auspices of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland. This resolution takes forward the statement of the General Assembly in Resolution 18 of 1995.
2.1 Clauses a) - c) address Palestinian - Israeli relations. The words of clause a) are derived from the WCC agreed four-page statement inviting all Christians with the Psalmist to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem", the focus of three faiths and two nations. It also echoes the unequivocal statement of the Roman Catholic bishops’ Symposium held in Jerusalem last October, adopted by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
2.2 On clause b), at the time of writing it was not clear what any new Israeli government might be mandated to do nor whether President Arafat would declare a state on May 4, the date indicated in the Oslo Accords. Whatever transpires we must pray for some movement forward towards a just peace. However we note that, because the USA is so closely allied with the state of Israel, it cannot alone act as peace-maker; this leaves space for the UN and the EU to raise their involvement.
2.3 The specific matter of residents’ permits was raised in a joint letter from Jerusalem church leaders last October. They wrote: "Hard-working and peace-seeking Christians are being forced out of the city." Clause c) acknowledges breaches of human rights all round and pleads for less violence and abuse of power and privilege.
3.1 Clauses d) and e) offer comment on Iraq, on the bombing and the sanctions. Bishop Riah (Anglican) in Jerusalem expressed outrage at the bombing known as ‘Desert Fox’, which he called "a senseless violation of human rights ... and an embarrassment among fellow Christians" during Advent and in the run-up to Ramadan. Roman Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox and Free Church leaders have all protested, as have the ecumenical bodies to which the URC belongs. No clear statement of military or political objectives has ever been publicly given for Desert Fox, still less for the continuing strikes on military and quasi-military targets. They are far from ensuring the return and effective work of UNSCOM, the original cease-fire condition. We believe that it is not in British interests nor in the interest of long-term stability in the region to follow the American lead so closely and to describe such action as "putting Saddam back in his cage" even though his regime is so cruel. Perceived inconsistency in the application of UN resolutions about Iraq and Israel has generated considerable resentment and has already been indirectly responsible for some reprisals.
3.2 As to economic sanctions against Iraq, intended to reinforce the 1991 cease-fire, we listen to a plea from the Middle East Council of Churches: "Even as we continue to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq we must ask ourselves and the global community, ‘when will this end?’". UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, while noting that mandatory sanctions enable the UN "to bring pressure upon the target without recourse to military force", has acknowledged "the need to address the negative effects of such sanctions on vulnerable civilian populations" and for nations to "search for ways to render sanctions a less blunt and more effective instrument". We therefore call not for the simple lifting of sanctions but for radical changes in their application.
3.3 It is worth noting the economic, environmental and political risks involved in the building, 40 miles from the Turkish / Iraqi / Syrian border a £1 bn dam which will, among other effects, displace 20,000 Kurdish people and aggravate their plight still further. The World Bank, no less, refused to back this project, not least because it violates UN rules aimed at preventing border disputes between states that share water resources. The dam will also flood a key archaeological site. But a British-led consortium is, at time of writing, seeking financial underwriting from the British government (Export Credit Guarantee Department) for their involvement. Environmentalists are most vocal in opposition, but all who seek the stability and peace of the Middle East will be alarmed at this development.
4.1 In clause f) we renew the call for those visiting the holy land to do more than view the ‘dead stones’ but to meet some of the ‘living stones’ also. This encounter is what can transform tourism into pilgrimage. It is encouraging that a growing number of meetings are now arranged for visiting groups with representatives of the indigenous Christian community. The programme ‘Pilgrim 2000’ is an ecumenical response to the invitation from Bishop Riah of Jerusalem primarily to his fellow-Anglicans. The URC group, comprising over 100 people from every Synod, including young people, will have much to share on their return next March.
4.2 Finally, it seems right to offer our greetings to the church leaders of the Holy Land who have so much to bear, not least the legacy of centuries of division which slowly they are beginning to address. Faced with the peculiar impact of millions of extra visitors because of the millennium, they and their people deserve our sympathy and need our prayers.
Resolution 46 Racial Justice
Assembly, noting the findings of the Enquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence:
a) urges every local congregation to mark Racial Justice Sunday (in 1999 September 12) as agreed by the Church Representatives’ Meeting of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland and draws attention to the material for that Sunday published by the Churches Commission for Racial Justice;
b) acknowledging that racism exists within the church, urges the officers of local churches, District Councils and Provincial Synods to give appropriate opportunity for discussion of these matters during 1999 / 2000;
c) urges local churches to consider issues of racial justice arising in the communities in which they are situated and to offer support to those striving for racial justice in local situations.
1 The Report of the Enquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence has prompted us to seek three commitments from the Assembly on behalf of the United Reformed Church. They have to do with what is sometimes called ‘institutional racism’. In his Report, Sir William Macpherson defines it as "the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amounts to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people".
2 To describe an institution as racist is not to describe all those who belong to it as racists. Let the police service examine and reform itself with the help of civil society; it is time to press the long-standing arguments for greater public accountability. But we should look to the "beam in our own eye". To describe the church as racist is not to impugn the sincerity of the majority of Christians who as individuals do try to avoid prejudice in their attitudes and actions, even though there may well be some who feel that they have personal cause to repent.
3 But, and there is a necessary ‘but’, such a Report does not leave the church, including the United Reformed Church, unchallenged. It means that our institution, too, must face Sir William’s definition in the light of the gospel and reflect on it as honestly as we can. We should then ask ourselves why so few black and ethnic minority church members become elders, attend Synods, Mission Council and Assembly, hold responsible leadership positions as Synod or Assembly officers or conveners, serve as counsellors or trainers or trustees etc. And then we should ask ourselves a second time whether the answers so often given to those questions are the best we can do.
4 It will be time in 2000 for the major report arising from the ministry among us of Revd Marjorie Lewis-Cooper to be brought to Assembly with practical proposals. But in the meantime we can resolve to respond as churches to the Macpherson Enquiry. First we should pray together, especially at the time appointed by the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, using the material prepared by the Churches Commission for Racial Justice. Second, we should allow time in meetings at local, District or Synod level to meet with one or two of the Provincial racial justice advocates who are being recruited and trained by Marjorie during these years; they will come not with a message of guilt but of grace, not to brow-beat but to open a few eyes and a few doors to what is and what might be.
5 We include the third clause, without being self-righteous and remaining open to criticism, so that we can also resolve to associate ourselves in each locality with those who are victims of racism and those who are struggling to tackle it. The actions that might follow upon this resolution cannot be predicted nor imposed from outside. But a loving Christian church will get alongside those who are suffering, support them in their troubles and join them in their campaigning.
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