Honouring Our Communities

Throughout October, communities, schools, churches and organisations across the country will mark Black History Month are invited to celebrate our gifts, learn from the experiences of Black people and reflect honestly on whose stories are heard, whose contributions are recognised and where voices may still be overlooked.

This work is not limited to one month. Learning, listening and working for racial justice is part of our continuing commitment to becoming a Church in which everyone is welcomed, valued and able to participate fully.

Churches and individuals could mark Black History Month by:

• celebrating the contributions of Black people within their church and local community

• inviting members of the congregation to share their experiences and stories

• including prayers, readings, music or reflections led by Black Christians

• learning more about Black Christian history and the experiences of Black communities in Britain

• supporting local events, organisations and community initiatives

• reflecting on how church life can become more welcoming, representative and inclusive throughout the year

• nominating someone whose contribution deserves recognition.

Resources

Resources are available from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

Liturgical Resources for Black History Month from The Church of England

A prayer for Black History Month from The Church of England

Resources from Black History Month UK

Revd A. Daniel Ramble, Co-Chair of the Diocese of Chester Racial Justice Forum reflects on the theme of this year’s Black History Month, Honouring our Communities:

Someone said to me recently: “There are so many other things the Church needs to focus on.  Why do we need to talk about Black History Month? Shouldn’t we be focussing on mission?”

This is a reasonable question. However, the Christian response is rooted in principles that extend beyond contemporary political discourse. It begins with memory.

The Bible was written by communities repeatedly commanded to remember: remember that you were slaves in Egypt; remember Abraham and Sarah; remember the wilderness, the exile and the prophets; remember the stranger; remember what God has done.

At the centre of Christian worship, Jesus takes bread and wine and says:“Do this in remembrance of me.”

Christianity is a faith of anamnesis, or holy remembering. We remember not merely to preserve the past, but so that God may transform our present lives.

Therefore, when the Church engages with Black history, it does not depart from Scripture. Instead, it participates in a profoundly biblical practice: Remembering truthfully so that we may live faithfully.

Britain first observed Black History Month in 1987. One of its pioneers, the Ghanaian-born Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, wanted Black children to inherit a story large enough to help them believe in themselves.

This is not solely a political concern; it is fundamentally a matter of human dignity.

Before Scripture tells us anyone’s nationality, social standing or achievements, it tells us that humanity is created in the image and likeness of God.

Black history matters because Black humanity matters, and Black humanity matters because God has imparted His image to all people.

The Church of England has said that its racial-justice mandate flows not from identity politics, but from our common identity in Christ. Its landmark report, From Lament to Action, describes racism as sin because it dehumanises people and obscures their God-given dignity.

For this reason, the question, “Haven’t we talked about this enough?” does not constitute an adequate response.

One of history’s greatest dangers is collective amnesia. James Baldwin observed that history is not simply behind us; it is present in all that we do. What we refuse to remember does not disappear. It can return disguised as instinct, stereotype, inherited assumption or suspicion.

However, we must approach remembrance with care. Black History Month should not become an annual catalogue of Black suffering, as this risks reducing individuals to their experiences of oppression and may retraumatize some.

Black history is not simply slavery, colonialism, segregation, Windrush and racism. It is also faith, scholarship, resistance, music, family, theology, science, literature, entrepreneurship, public service, humour, beauty and joy.

The 2026 theme, “Honouring Our Communities”, invites us to recognise the people, networks and communities whose everyday contributions too often remain unseen.

The aim is not to leave one community burdened by guilt and another by lasting wounds. Rather, it is to enable all of us to inherit a more complete and truthful narrative.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressed this through the African wisdom of ubuntu: my humanity is bound up with yours. We belong together in a “bundle of life”. Whenever another person is humiliated or treated as less than human, something within all of us is diminished.

That brings us to a vital question:

Who gets to tell the story of another human being?

The crowd? The headline? The stereotype? Or the person themselves?

Colin Kaepernick’s recently published memoir, The Perilous Fight, seeks to tell the fuller story behind one of the most scrutinised public figures of recent years.

Whatever view we may take of Kaepernick or his decision to kneel during the American national anthem, his story reminds us how easily a whole life can be reduced to one photograph, one protest or one public controversy.

Christian listening requires that we approach one another with curiosity rather than presumption. That discipline matters especially when public debate about migration, national identity, race and belonging becomes heated.

Christians need not assume that every political or social issue has a straightforward solution. Individuals may have sincere concerns regarding borders, housing, public services, community cohesion, or safety. These concerns deserve to be heard, not caricatured.

But fear must never become permission to dehumanise.

There is a dangerous progression available to every society: ignorance can nurture suspicion; suspicion can become contempt; contempt can legitimise intimidation; and intimidation can make violence imaginable.

That progression is not inevitable. But Christians should never pretend that it cannot happen.

The Church need not adopt every external cultural conflict. It already possesses a more established, nuanced, and demanding vocabulary: Creation. Sin. Truth. Repentance. Justice. Reconciliation. Communion. Love.

As Episcopal church Bishop Michael Curry has often reminded the Church: “If it’s not about love, then it’s not about God.”

However, love is not simply sentimentality. Biblical love speaks truth, protects the vulnerable, listens before judging, and rejects the notion that another person’s dignity undermines one’s own.

For these reasons, Black History Month is inherently missional. 

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not make everybody speak one language. The Spirit enabled the Gospel to be heard through many languages.

In Revelation, heaven is not imagined as a colourless or cultureless crowd. John sees: “A great multitude… from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.”Difference is not erased in the Kingdom of God. It is reconciled.

For the Diocese of Chester, whose vision is “Together in Christ, Sharing Hope”, this cannot be an optional extra. Racial justice belongs to our discipleship, our mission and our understanding of what it means to be the Body of Christ.

Black History Month is not asking us to become prisoners of the past.

It calls us to be sufficiently truthful about the past so that we are no longer constrained by it.

Not guilt, but truth. 

Not retraumatisation, but restoration. 

Not accusation, but conversion. 

Not ignorance, but learning. 

Not suspicion, but curiosity. 

Not hatred, but encounter. 

Not forgetting, but faithful remembrance.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that we are caught in an “inescapable network of mutuality”, tied together in a single garment of destiny.

The Christian can give that garment a name: It is the Body of Christ.

And when one part of the Body says, “My story has been forgotten,” another part cannot respond, “We have more important things to discuss.”

The Gospel invites us instead to say:

Tell us your story. 

Help us remember. 

Let us learn together. 

And then, in Christ, let us write the next chapter together.