'Implement policies that help, rather than hinder, Black and Brown communities' 

That was the message from the Racial Justice Advocacy Forum to the British Government at its launch on 15 February

 
The Racial Justice Advocacy Forum (RJAF) is calling on the British Government to commit itself to being justice-driven, and to implement policies that help, rather than hinder, Black and Brown communities in this country.

At a packed Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London, attendees at the RJAF launch heard a number of speakers, many of whom were young, discuss the importance of justice and the need for Christians to speak truth to those in power. The RJAF, which is an ecumenical Christian entity that seeks to speak prophetically on behalf of Black and Brown Christians to the Government on racial injustice challenges and reparations, comprises of representatives from various Christian institutions, parachurch groups and Christians of all traditions in Britain and Ireland.
 
The launch, which took the form of a church service at the historic central London church where Revd Dr Martin Luther King Jr once preached, included attendees from all over the country. The audience heard about the RJAF’s various activities and engagements over the last two years, such as responding to the British Government’s “Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities” report (March 2021); the Metropolitan Police Service’s (MPS) treatment of “Child Q” (January 2022); the British Government’s “Nationalities and Borders Bill” (February 2022); the racial discrimination faced by Black and Brown peoples amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine (March 2022); and a meeting with the MPS to discuss police engagement with Black communities after a spurt of stop and search stories involving young people (July 2022).

Speaking after the launch, the Revd Wale Hudson-Roberts, a Baptist minister and co-chair of the RJAF commented, ‘Since our inception a few years ago, we’ve been busy working alongside Black and Brown Christians on addressing the racism and inequality that impacts our communities in this country. We must all take the issue of racism and inequality seriously if we want to see a society that has true equity.’
 
Richard Reddie, Director of Justice and Inclusion at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, and the other co-chair added: ‘We are very keen to play a mediation role between local communities and the Metropolitan Police to build confidence and trust between the two. We sought to do this after the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba in Streatham, southwest London in September 2022.
 
‘We also thought that it would be important to write to the British Home Secretary to express our deep concern regarding the incident of a mass assault on a Black teenage girl in Ashford on 6 February 2023. Our young people are often treated in ways that are demeaning and degrading, which can never augur well if we want to see them achieve great things.’
 
The launch also included the announcement of the RJAF’s work to equip church leaders on improving their engagement with the police, as well as a ‘reparations’ conference in London on 14 October 2023.

Finally, the audience heard how the RJAF has successfully hosted half a dozen webinars focusing on reparations for African chattel enslavement from theological, restitution, economic and educational perspectives.
 
Mr Hudson-Roberts ended by saying, ‘Our work is undergirded by our collective theological positions on justice. The Bible shapes who we are and what we do.’