St Catherine’s is committed to a number of social justice issues through it’s partner organisation the Telegraph Hill Centre. Through the Centre we aim to support various groups of vulnerable people, as well as provide activities to support people at every stage of life – with a focus on well-being and life-long learning.
The death of George Floyd has shocked and angered all of us and has brought to the very top of our minds the way racism damages the BAME community and the responsibility White people have to be more active in being anti-racist.
St Catherine’s will be thinking about ways to respond to this over the coming months and will add resources to this section of the web site to help us in our praying and thinking.
From the Deanery
The Deanery Leadership Team met this week and we spent some time discussing our responses to the death of George Floyd and the spotlight this has brought to racism in our own community. As a first step, we’d like to offer this prayer card that could be distributed among members of our churches, added to websites and newsletters.
Safe Space | A Film By Leon Oldstrong
Filmmaker Leon Oldstrong takes viewers on a deeply personal journey through his experiences with racism. He illustrates how white people absolve themselves from racism by dissociating from ‘traditional’ racist behaviours whilst excusing more subtle forms as something else. He explores how so-called white liberals display their disapproval of the black body as black people are made to feel they don’t belong in the places that were allocated to them, where communities were formed and havens from racism were established.
Leon Oldstrong lives locally and him and Rev Sheridan have had many conversations about racism over the last few years. It was an honour for her to be asked to be part of this film.