Church of England Posts Job for Anti-Racist Officer to ‘Deconstruct Whiteness’

This week, the Church of England Dioceses in the West Midlands announced that it is looking for an “anti-racism practice officer” who will be paid £36,000 per year.

The £36,000-a-year and 35-hours a week role is part of a new 11-person 'racial justice unit' being set up by the Diocese of Birmingham to work across the West Midlands.

The job advertisement, published on Tuesday, described the role as ensuring that 'structures, practices and behaviours' throughout the church allow UK minority ethnic people to 'flourish'.

Funding to hire the 11-person team comes from the church's Racial Justice Unit and includes a director, programme manager, theologian, communications catalyst and six development workers.

The team has three years of funding to 'fan into flame a movement of change' to transform the church and will involve 'reimagining parish and community activities', according to the job listing.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Birmingham said: 'The CofE Birmingham is seeking to respond to the Lament to Action report. The strong relationships between neighbouring dioceses in the Midlands have led to a collaborative joint response to the report.

This approach has enabled the larger regionally deployed team you have identified, enabling a far stronger response to the Lament to Action report across the Midlands dioceses.'

The job advertisement comes just a week after the General Synod approved a motion that told all parishes to draw up 'race action plans'.

The General Synod is the church's equivalent of Parliament, and convenes two or three times per year to consider and approve legislation that affects the church.

This latest step in how the church approaches racism comes after it was revealed children in Church of England schools were being taught the 'pyramid of white supremacy' anti-racism theory in July.

The theory was displayed to schools in a graphic put together by the US-based Equality Institute, which describes itself as a 'global feminist agency working to advance gender equality and end violence against women and girls'.

The diocese, which is headed up by Bishop The Right Reverend Martin Seeley, controlled 87 schools in the region, all but two of which were primaries. The document was uploaded to the diocese's website for teachers to look at.

It explicitly told them to use 'visuals' including the pyramid to 'help pupils understand how bias, stereotypes and prejudice can lead to racist words and actions, leading to physical harm and death'.

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