Even the Archbishop is flummoxed by CoE

ACOUPLE of weeks ago, I wrote about the Church of England’s self-destructive attempts to burden itself with hundreds of millions of pounds of slavery reparations. Given the catastrophic decline in congregations and falling number of Britons who describe themselves as Christian, together with a rise in extremism and intolerance, I wondered aloud that they might have more pressing issues to worry about.

Well, now even the Archbishop of Canterbury’s got involved.

On Friday, it emerged The Most Rev Justin Welby had criticised the CoE for advertising for a “deconstructing whiteness officer”. No, me neither! His own officials have defended the creation of roles with briefs that include “addressing white fragility” – arguing that they help the church in its Christian duty to “stand against the evil and pernicious sin of racism”.

What a lot of cobblers. No wonder the Archbishop admitted calling the team behind one of the job adverts to ask why they were recruiting for a role with the term “deconstructing whiteness” in the title. He reportedly asked them: “What on earth does that mean?”

I doubt he got any kind of sensible answer.

Fair play to the Archbishop, who said it sounded like the language used in the sitcom W1A, which satirises the management jargon used at the BBC. Though in truth, I think it’s too barking even for them.

But in real life, no less, it turns out that in the Diocese of Birmingham, a role has been created with the full title of “anti-racism practice officer (deconstructing whiteness)” to work as part of an 11-person “racial justice” team across churches in the West Midlands.

The advert explains that a group of dioceses have had funding for a team “to help us ensure that structures, practices and behaviours embrace people of GMH [global majority heritage] and UKME [UK minority ethnic] backgrounds”.

No wonder they’re struggling with bums on pews is all I can say.

Another sensible member of the clergy – yes, they do still exist, just – Rev Dr Ian Paul, said the terms had been “imported from the culture wars in the US” and were “alienating ordinary members of the Church of England”.