Inspired by the UN World Creativity and Innovation day on 21 April, the West Midlands Racial Justice Initiative offers 10 practical ideas for parishes.
The West Midlands Racial Justice Initiative exists to help transform church structures and communities across the six dioceses of Birmingham, Coventry, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, and Worcester so the Church becomes a place where everyone can truly belong and thrive, including United Kingdom Minoritised Ethnic/Global Majority Heritage (UKME/GMH) people. “From Lament to Action” names the same urgency in plain language: the Church cannot be credible while staying in apology and lament, it must take swift action that leads to real change.
These are things any parish can do. The purpose is to make the entry point obvious and energising: parishes don’t need to be experts, and they don’t need big budgets. They need willingness, local relationships, and a first step they can actually do. Some ideas suit a microgrant, many cost nothing. The win is simple: a parish that starts acting becomes a parish that can tell a different story, one where inclusion is not a statement, it’s a lived practice.
Idea 1: Storytelling pulpit exchange
Pair a parish with a nearby People of the Global Majority church for two Sundays, one visit each way, then a shared meal. This encourages a practical response to the report’s point that “cultural assimilation” into a predominantly white, middle-class church culture can feel like the price of admission, by making visible space for different traditions, voices, and ways of worship to be received as fully belonging.
Idea 2: Culture and liturgy co-design night
One evening where People of the Global Majority in the parish and local community co-design one service element for the next month (intercessions, music, testimony, readings, welcome words), so “cultural expression” is normal, not “special.”
Idea 3: Belonging walkthrough audit
A mixed group walks the whole Sunday journey (website, signage, welcome, language, who leads, who gets heard), then the PCC commits to three changes with dates. This is the practical version of moving from “bland statements” to “intentional action” in participation.
Idea 4: Anti-racism learning as standard practice for parish leadership (including safeguarding)
Anyone stepping into PCC, safeguarding roles, welcome teams, children and youth teams, or preaching and worship leading completes a short learning module and joins a facilitated conversation early in their role. This keeps learning embedded in how we form and support leaders, so it’s understood as part of good ministry and safe practice, not an optional extra.
Idea 5: Reverse mentoring, parish version
Create two “listening pairs” between long-standing parish leaders and people of the Global Majority congregants (or local community members), meeting monthly for three months, with one agreed change coming out of each cycle. This adapts the report’s reverse mentoring recommendation into something parishes can actually do.
Idea 6: Youth partnering across churches
Set up a termly joint youth gathering with a UKME/GMH majority church and a church where UKME/GMH young people are a minority, with shared leadership and shared planning. The report explicitly calls for partnership so youth spaces become “inclusive and equal in opportunities.”
Idea 7: Youth mentoring pathway, safeguarding-led
Identify one or two people of the Global Majority young people who want to explore leadership, then connect them to a trained mentor and a real role, within safeguarding protocols. This maps directly onto the report’s mentoring and referral-platform recommendations for young people’s leadership journeys.
Idea 8: Complaints and repair pathway people can trust
Publish a clear parish pathway for reporting racist harm, including timelines, who receives reports (not just the incumbent), and what “repair” can include (apology, changed practice, mediation, removal from role). This responds to the report’s warning that current routes leave little room for reconciliation or restitution and create fear of retribution.
Idea 9: Data-to-action on appointments and visibility
Make diversity monitoring standard for every parish recruitment and volunteering process, track progression (who applies, who is shortlisted, who is selected, who stays), and review it quarterly at PCC. This aligns with the report’s insistence that data and monitoring are “crucial” and that current processes block proper monitoring of appointments and progression.
Idea 10: Truth-telling and barrier-breaking
Run a guided “what our parish inherits” session linking the building, memorials, money, local industry, and empire, then commit to one visible act of repair now, such as offering translation support and occasionally including hymns or prayers in locally used languages so language and cultural barriers don’t decide who belongs.
You’re welcome to use these ideas or come up with your own. Keep us up to date with progress! Email: hello@wmracialjustice.org.uk or visit: www.wmracialjustice.org.uk for more information.
