An Introduction

I Am Because You Are was put together in 2022. The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 had challenged many of us about our attitudes towards race and, by extension, other areas of diversity. In the aftermath, over 150 accredited ministers signed a letter requesting that periodic training in equality and diversity should be mandatory for all accredited ministers, including themselves. In March 2021, the Baptist Union Council accepted this proposal, recognising that engaging well with our increasingly diverse society is an important aspect to our pastoral care, our mission and evangelism, and the health of our Baptist life together. 
 
I Am Because You Are consists of six videos. Each one contains some explanatory material, some reflections from various people within Baptists Together, and questions for your consideration. I Am Because You Are explicitly aims to be a reflection on our Baptist life together. In putting this training together, we have very deliberately gone first to contributors from within Baptists Together. It is are intended to be only an introduction to the topic of equality and diversity. A set of short videos can only hope to open up a conversation about how we experience discrimination and knowingly or unknowingly contribute towards it. I Am Because You Are is just a starting point.

We recommend that the videos are watched and discussed together with others to aid discussion and to capture different viewpoints. Of course, many of us as may have been trained in equality and diversity in other contexts. For ministers, this might have been during our recent ministerial formation, or as a chaplain, school governor, charity trustee, spiritual director, mentor, or in another role. Many of us may approach this topic with considerable experience and expertise. If so, we ask you to bring that experience graciously to any group with whom you discuss the videos. Your insights may prove invaluable to others.
 
Though the original target audience for I Am Because You Are was Baptist ministers, some of the content focusses on ministers especially. However, we have tried to make it accessible to those who do not have theological training or ministry experience, so that it might also be used among church leadership teams or congregations.