Archbishop of York's visit for Racial Justice Sunday at St Peter's Church
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00:00 The very heart of the gospel that we proclaim is God in Jesus coming to take on human form.
00:05 And that tells us something very important about the beauty and the preciousness and the dignity
00:09 of every single human life made in the image of God.
00:12 That's why racial justice must matter so much to the Church and to us as a diocese,
00:18 because it is part of our acknowledgement of the beauty and equality of every single human being.
00:23 The Church of England has failed in many ways to be the place of inclusion and welcome that it must be.
00:29 If it is to reflect the values of the Kingdom of God.
00:33 From lament to action really was a call for all of us to act,
00:41 to not rely on policies and soundbites and good words,
00:47 but to actually put things in place that would bring about lasting change.
00:55 We recognised in the last couple of years that we've been very sleepy
00:59 and we'd let the world go by and not engaged on making a difference.
01:04 And we feel absolutely called to make the difference and to make our societies more equal and more just.
01:10 We approved the Diocesan Racial Justice Policy in March last year
01:16 and we are working towards now we have got a Diocesan Racial Justice Group.
01:22 We all know that we've got a long way to go, but we've started a time of some change
01:27 around the whole area of equity, diversity and justice.
01:30 And I chair the Racial Justice Group for the diocese,
01:34 so it's a sort of bringing together that work with our work in schools
01:38 to reflect on how we might continue to make the progress I think we've just started.
01:44 It's really good to be back in the Blackburn Diocese,
01:47 alongside Bishop Philip, back in Burnley to commission the Racial Justice Group for the diocese
01:55 and to celebrate Racial Justice Sunday.
01:58 I believe that training is really important because that's where we learn.
02:02 If we don't open our minds, if we don't change our thoughts and attitudes,
02:08 if we don't have discussion and dialogue and ask questions and read things and listen to things,
02:14 then nothing's ever going to change.
02:16 One of the things we've done as part of our EDJ strategy is creating opportunities
02:24 for members of the team to increase their own personal knowledge
02:29 and to spend time together looking at our strategy and discussing the issues,
02:35 celebrating our successes, but also acknowledging where perhaps we haven't done as much
02:42 as we should have done and committing to do more.
02:46 The work DBE has done and generally across the diocese, the conversation that we are having,
02:53 it's very positive.
02:55 A key strand of our school is equity, diversity and justice.
02:59 It's one of four golden threads and probably the most important one
03:02 and that's been really inspired by the work the diocese has led with its own conferences
03:07 and for its training, for its workshops.
03:10 It's not just about the surface level, about protected characteristics,
03:13 but it's also about getting to know our children more and together, if we're open-minded,
03:18 what we can do to make a difference, but also how we can bring our communities along with us,
03:24 our parents, our church communities.
03:27 We stand by our little mantra of 'we do it because Jesus did it'
03:31 and we saw inclusivity, extreme inclusivity from him and we seek to do the same.
03:39 The time is now, we've got to do something about this now.
03:42 We don't want people to be having these conversations in another 50, 60 years' time
03:47 of saying 'oh we need to do something about this racism and this equity and justice and diversity'.
03:52 No, they're not going to have those conversations because we've done it now.
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