Church of England is blasted for trying to hire £36,000 a year 'anti-racism' officer to 'deconstruct whiteness' - with critics accusing it of 'drinking the critical race Kool Aid'

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.

The Church of England is hiring a ‘deconstructing whiteness’ officer who will form part of an 11 person team to fight against racial injustice. Pictured: Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire

The job advertisement comes just a week after the General Synod, the Church’s legislative body, approved a motion filed by the Bishop of Dover Rose Hudson-Wilkin (pictured) that told all parishes to draw up ‘race action plans’

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, 68, called the church ‘deeply institutionally racist’ in 2020. Pictured on February 23

They will be accountable to the Regional Racial Justice Board made up of people from each of the dioceses the church says are ‘committed to effecting change in these areas’.

But critics of the new racial justice unit — which will work across the dioceses of Birmingham, Coventry, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield and Worcester — accused the church of wasting money.

The Rev Leonard Payne said he thought the advert was a ‘joke, a Photoshop job’ when he first saw it and that the church should spend the cash on currently overstretched parishes instead.

Others accused the church of ‘drinking the critical race Kool Aid’ and indulging in ‘student politics’.

Rev Daniel French, vicar of Salcombe, Cornwall, and co-host of the Irreverend podcast, told The Telegraph: ‘The irony of many of these projects is they are importing American perspectives and overlaying them on a country that is incredibly tolerant.

‘No less than 80 per cent of the worldwide Anglican Communion is black, and their black theology is very conservative. But you never see the Church paying any attention to that.’

The Racial Justice Unit will be accountable to the Regional Racial Justice Board made up of people from each of the dioceses the church says are ‘committed to effecting change in these areas’. Pictured: Canterbury Cathedral, Kent

The Rev Leonard Payne said he thought the advert was a ‘joke, a Photoshop job’ when he first saw it and that the church should spend the cash on currently overstretched parishes instead. Pictured: Payne in 2005 for a story about the increasing demand for his sermons on the Apple store

Members of the General Synod on February 9. It is the Church of England’s equivalent of Parliament, convening two or three times per year to consider and approve legislation that affects the church

Although the job advertisement does not define ‘deconstructing whiteness’, supporters of the position have argued in the past it means white people are more privileged than those of other ethnicities, and there are characteristics which are distinctly ‘white’ and that these are deemed by society to be the norm.

They argue that ‘deconstructing’, or removing, these ideas is the only way to end racism.

A spokesperson from Don’t Divide Us, a campaign group that aims to ‘contest the idea that Britain is systematically racist’ told GB News: ‘It is extraordinary that the CoE – the General Synod at least (we don’t know what ordinary parishioners make of it) have chosen to go down this radical, highly partisan political route so wholeheartedly.

‘This is a politics that purports to be about kindness and equity, but as many examples show, legitimises intolerance, cultural re-racialisation and antipathy to Britain’s history and culture.’

The Racial Justice Unit is part of the Archbishops’ Council, an executive body which is led by the archbishops of Canterbury and York.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, 68, called the church ‘deeply institutionally racist’ in 2020.

He has led the church since 2013 and in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd protests set up a taskforce which produced the Lament to Action report.

The report reviewed 36 years of racial justice history in the church and made 47 proposals to end a ‘rut of inaction’ spanning several decades.

The Racial Justice Unit is part of the Archbishops’ Council, an executive body which is led by the archbishops of Canterbury and York. Pictured the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (left) at Westminster Abbey in 2022

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby attends the opening session of the Church of England General Synod, in London on February 23

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.

The Bishop of Dover Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who filed the motion, told Synod on February 25 that Anglicans should not be afraid of being called ‘woke’ as they needed to ‘further embed racial justice’.

In a passionate speech to introduce her motion, Britain’s first black female bishop called for racial justice in the church’s governance structures to be strengthened ‘in order to hold our church’s feet to the fire’.

In July MailOnline revealed children in Church of England schools were being taught the ‘pyramid of white supremacy’ anti-racism theory.

She said she was in ‘no doubt that the church must continue to work at embedding racial justice in all its life and structures – lip service will not do, neither will ticking boxes’.

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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Church of England is blasted for trying to hire £36,000 a year ‘anti-racism’ officer to ‘deconstruct whiteness’ – with critics accusing it of ‘drinking the critical race Kool Aid’
The role is part of an 11-person ‘racial justice unit’ being set up in the Midlands

By CAMERON ROY
THE DAILY MAIL
March 3, 2024

The Church of England has been blasted for hiring an ‘anti-racism’ officer to ‘deconstruct whiteness’ – with critics accusing it of ‘drinking the critical race Kool Aid’.

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’.