On 23 August 2022, the Church of England announced that it had appointed its first Racial Justice Director. Extracts from the Press Release are reproduced below.
Press Release
Equality advocate appointed Church of England’s first Racial Justice Director
23/08/2022
A leading figure in the campaign to highlight the impact of the Windrush scandal has been appointed as the first Racial Justice Director of the Church of England, it was announced today. Church of England priest Guy Hewitt, a former Barbados High Commissioner to the UK, will take up the post in November, heading the Church of England’s Racial Justice Unit.
The Unit has been set up following the recommendations of the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce report From Lament to Action, published in April last year. Located within the Archbishops’ Council and reporting to the Secretary General, Revd Hewitt will work alongside the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice to ensure the taskforce recommendations and the work of the Commission are implemented.
London-born, of Barbadian and Indian parents, Revd Hewitt has a background in social policy and development, working internationally on issues of marginalisation, economic enfranchisement, racial justice, youth empowerment, and gender equality. He is currently an Honorary Senior Research Fellow with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and an Advisory Board member of the Windrush Scandal Research Project based there.
Revd Hewitt was priested in Barbados in 2005, having trained for ordained ministry with the Diocese of Southwark. He most recently served as priest-in-charge at St James in the Hill Church in Hollywood, Florida. He is currently Associate Vicar at All Saints Church in Fulham, southwest London.
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Comment
The first biannual Racial Justice Report from the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice was released on 28 June 2022, and is reviewed here. Extracts from the “[f]urther reflections on monuments connected to slavery in churches and other church buildings in the light of recent cases” (pp 22-24) are reproduced in our post Racial Justice First Report: consistory courts (29 June 2022).
Revd Hewitt, eh? This ‘Revd Smith’ form of address makes me shudder
when I hear it on the BBC. Until recently it would have been widely condemned.
Surely it is still more polite to write, or say, the Reverend Guy Hewitt or the
Reverend Mr Hewitt?
That ship, I fear, has sailed. When not even the C of E can get the usage right, the End Times are probably nigh.
Indeed, but as we indicate, the post includes extracts from the Press Release, verbatim. In next Sunday’s round-up, currently in draft, we use “the Revd Guy Hewitt”!
As “that ship has sailed” I shall have to retire to my grumpy chair and nurse my inner pedant…