Our Racial Justice and Intercultural Ministry (RJIM) Task Group is chaired by The Rt Revd Barry Hill, Bishop of Whitby.
The RJIM Task Group is working to:
- Promote racial justice and the visible ministries of UK Minority Ethnic (UKME) and Global Majority Heritage (GMH) people, lay and ordained, across the diocese.
- Support and grow intercultural worship and churches as spaces of learning, belonging, and full participation across cultures.
- Design, implement, and monitor a comprehensive racial justice strategy, ensuring UKME/GMH people are fully represented within the life and structures of the Diocese. This includes options to resource this work over the medium and long term.
- Embed key national initiatives into our diocesan context.
- Serve as a project board for the work of the Racial Justice Education Adviser.
- Use both qualitative and quantitative data to drive change and measure progress.
Once fully implemented and resourced, the strategy will:
- Model God’s gift of racial diversity, helping churches grow and reflect His kingdom.
- Embed prayer and intercultural/multilingual worship into diocesan life.
- Identify and remove structural and systemic barriers within the diocese that may disenfranchise and marginalise minority groups and prevent their flourishing.
- Increase vocations, ordained and lay, improve equality of opportunity, and better recognise the gifts of the Spirit God bestows on those he calls into his service.
- Strengthen ministerial training and raise awareness of racial injustice and inequity.
- Engage children and young people through creativity and storytelling, learning from the good practice found in our church schools.
- Provide role models for future generations.
- Ensure the Diocese reflects the communities it serves.
- Offer a compelling vision of God’s Kingdom, visible in the life and witness of the Church.