Pray tell, what on earth is a deconstructing whiteness officer, asked the Archbishop
Church’s job ad is just like BBC W1A comedy, Welby moaned
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has hit out at the woke language used in a Church of England job advert for a ‘deconstructing whiteness’ officer.
Justin Welby claimed the advert – posted by the Diocese of Birmingham and seeking an employee to work across several areas in the West Midlands – should have been written ‘in English’.
He asked the diocese ‘what on earth does that mean?’ when he found out about the advertisement.
Archbishop Welby went on to suggest that the advert may appear ‘a bit like W1A’, a mockumentary sitcom that satirises the management of the BBC.
He told Times Radio: ‘Birmingham Diocese did put that in an advert. And when I saw it, I rang up, I rang up the person in charge of that area and said, “What on earth does that mean? Why on earth have you put that in?”
‘I said, “Look, this ad’s a bit like W1A, can we please do these things in English?”’ He added ‘ We have 15,000 parishes in the Church of England. What this person does is to make sure that those from ethnic minority backgrounds who apply for jobs in the Church of England, have a level playing field.’
The Diocese of Birmingham, which is headed by Bishop of Birmingham Michael Volland, advertised a £36,000-a-year post for an ‘ antiracism’ officer to ‘ deconstruct whiteness’ within its 11-person racial justice unit.
Earlier this week, it also emerged the Diocese of York was looking for a part-time ‘racial justice enabler’, who would implement a programme of diversity training to address ‘white fragility’.
Reverend Dr Ian Paul, associate minister of St Nicholas’s Church in Nottingham, said the Church had sought to ‘make people feel guilty’ about being white.
Mr Paul, who sits on the Archbishops’ Council, said: ‘The racist nature of this “antiracism” approach is evident in the actions being taken.
‘In Birmingham, a post was advertised for a “Deconstructing Whiteness officer”, until it was pointed out that this was racist and the advert was removed. In York, a new Justice Education Adviser will need to run a course on Being White, in order to make people aware of their inherent racial privilege. How have we ended up with such a diverse group in our church? It was not by importing divisive critical race theory language from the US. ‘It was not by making people feel guilty about their “whiteness”. It was not by imposing quotas, or virtue signalling, or making a power play.
‘It was by taking each person, with their language and culture, seriously, and ensuring that they were welcomed and had an honoured place in the community of faith.
‘ There is a better way to address these issues. At the moment, the Church of England strategy is not it.’
Earlier this month, an independent oversight group set up by the Church Commissioners published a report that called its £ 100 million slavery reparations fund insufficient and called for the figure to be raised to £1billion.
The Church of England said it would not increase its contribution but agreed that super-wealthy families and investors should help build an enormous pot of cash to address ‘ enduring harms from enslavement’.
Geetha Tharmaratnam, vicechairman of the oversight group, suggested the £ 900 million shortfall could be made up in part by wealthy families and companies ashamed of their historic links to slavery.
The report prompted outrage after it appeared to apologise for the work of Christian missionaries in Africa.
Archbishop Welby said he ‘ warmly welcomed’ the recommendations of the report at the time, adding ‘ we must continue to work together remembering that all are created in the image of God’.
But he appeared to row back on this approval yesterday, when he said ‘ we haven’t accepted’ the recommendations that the Church raise its reparations fund to £1billion.