The Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice (“ACRJ”) has today published the results of a six-month quantitative and qualitative study, examining and exploring the lived experiences of UKME/GMH people in the Church of England.
The study, titled Behind the Stained-Glass, was undertaken by the Institute for Educational & Social Equity, commissioned by the ACRJ, and examined/explored the lived experience in relation to:
- Transition from curacy to First Incumbency (Process, Progression): Why do so many UK Minoritised Ethnic people experience difficulty moving from curacy to first incumbency? Does the way that process works put Minoritised Ethnic people at a disadvantage?
- Appointment of Bishops and Other Senior Clergy (Process, Progression): How do these processes work? Is the way the processes work responsible for the fact that there are so few people of UK Minoritised Ethnic heritage in senior positions? How might the process change to remedy that situation?
- Discernment of Ordained Vocation (Participation, Progression): How are UK Minoritised Ethnic people faring in the discernment process for ordination? Has the new discernment process made any difference to that?
- Lay ministries and PCC participation (Progression): What is the picture regarding lay ministries in parishes, including membership of PCCs? What is the level of participation of UK Minoritised Ethnic people in lay ministries?
The study’s findings and recommendations, Behind the Stained-Glass: A Report on the Participation of UK Minoritised Ethnic People in the Ministry and Leadership of the Church of England is now available.
The study relied on three discrete quantitative datasets:
- Data generated by the Church of England’s Pathways Human Resource Management system, January-April 2024.
- Data provided by the Church of England’s Ministry Development Team on the numbers of UKME/GMH Ordinands.
- Data on the ethnicity of clergy provided by four individual dioceses (Liverpool, Southwark, Birmingham and an anonymous diocese in the Midlands).
The report highlights that a significant challenge for the study was the lack of availability of quantitative data at both national and diocesan levels.
Qualitative data was gathered through a series of facilitated conversations (with a total of 109 participants) and interviews, each lasting between 45-60 minutes. There was broad gender, ethnic make-up and role (e.g. clergy and laity) of participants.
Behind the Stained-Glass concludes that although the study did not set out to prove or disprove the presence or absence of institutional and/or structural racism within the Church of England, on balance, the evidence confirms the existence of both structural and institutional racism within the Church of England. These perhaps explain why progression to leadership roles for UKME/GMH clergy is comparably low and why current HR policies and appointment processes seem to confer on bishops unabated power, invariably compounded by the episcopal structure of the Church.
Welcoming publication, the ACRJ Chair, Lord Boateng said: “This excellent report confirms with irrefutable evidence the Commission’s earlier findings on the detrimental impact on the Church’s ministry and witness of its failure to collect the data necessary in order to measure progress in the area of diversity and racial justice.
“A stark and shaming picture of the inadequacy of information to chart the representation and progression of UKME clergy emerges that is anathema to success in tackling this issue of continuing underrepresentation and disadvantage.
“My hope and prayer is that the Church of England will have at the very least started to take the necessary steps to action these recommendations before the publication of our final Report at the end of the year. What more does this institution need before it comes into line with what is now accepted practice in HR and data collection in both the private and the public sectors.
“Rather than pay lip service to Black History month those exercising power and influence within the Church of England might make history by ending repeated failures to remedy the glaringly obvious defects in their practices which have held up over so many years the advancement of black people and other peoples of colour within their own ranks.”
