Archbishop of Cape Town sends message to North London’s churches on racial justice

The Archbishop of Cape Town gave an inspirational message to representatives from churches across Barnet, Camden, Enfield and Haringey at this year’s triennial Edmonton Area conference, a challenging three days themed around racial justice. The conference, titled “Courageous Anglicans,” involved three days of talks and seminars exploring how to create a church “for every race, tribe and tongue.”

The conference took place at Liverpool Hope University, with attendees hearing a range of contributions from speakers including: Dr Harvey Kwiyani, lecturer in African Christianity, CEO of Global Connections and Director of Missio Africanus; Dr Selina Stone, Tutor in Social and Political Theology for St Mellitus College and Canon Dr Sanjee Perera, the Archbishops’ Advisor on Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns.  Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London. The conference also had the privilege of being addressed by video by The Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, and 109 clergy were commissioned for the shared task of action by Dame Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London.

Bishop of Edmonton, Rob Wickham, said, “It was truly inspirational to hear from Archbishop Thabo, Selina, Harvey and others. Here in North London, as across the whole of the Diocese, we are sitting at a global crossroads. We have the whole world coming together in our churches, our parishes, our schools, and it is our responsibility to make everyone feel welcome. I am so grateful to all of our conference speakers, who challenged and inspired us in equal measure this week.”

Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, added: “It was a privilege to join with Bishop Rob and representatives from churches across North London to explore and discuss racial justice. We are asking ourselves, through our 2030 Vision, to be a church for every Londoner, and the conference truly brought home the humbling challenge and opportunity that vision represents.”