Course explores history of Black Christians

Derek Chauvin has now been sentenced for the killing of George Floyd last year. Meanwhile, I have just completed an eight-session online course called Black Light, a joint initiative by Urban Expression and Ascension Trust. It was billed as an opportunity 'for Black Christians to dig deeper into their history and think about contemporary challenges and opportunities, and for White Christians to learn more about the history, spirituality and faith of Black Christians and churches'. A range of high-quality speakers were involved and a huge breadth of scholarship and lived experience was covered over the weeks. There were lots of invaluable opportunities to be in smaller breakout groups to listen and share together too. This was an experience of zoom at its most powerful.

I learned so much! For example, when I studied theology back in the 1980s, I sort of knew that many of the hugely influential early church fathers lived in North Africa (Athanasius, Cyprian, Augustine of Hippo) - yet I carelessly and wrongly imagined them to be white men. I was amazed to learn that Celtic Spirituality was originally influenced by their North African spirituality. It was wonderful to hear that on a global scale Christianity is actually growing (and that 47% of Christians in the world are Catholic). On the other hand, it was necessary, but hard, to hear about the arrogant and untruthful behaviour of some British churches in the past: look up the 'slave bible' as an example. I heard much more about the varied experiences of Black and White Christians in Britain in the present, too.

By the end of the programme, I had filled pages and pages of notes with information, quotes and book titles. The course is due to run again in the Autumn and is expected to be over-subscribed.

Find out more at https://blacklightcourse.uk/