In Quest we support our members to reconcile faith with gender identity and sexuality. How these are shaped and formed is often closely interwoven with our culture and heritage. As an organisation we need to continue expanding our understanding of intersectionality to better serve the full breadth of our membership (current and future) so that we can fulfil the call of the Gospel and be siblings with and to each other. Pope Francis (2020) reminds us: “Instances of racism continue to shame us, for they show us that our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive as we think.” We therefore acknowledge we need to do more.
We celebrate Black History Month and offer the following resources for you to explore and to learn more.
From ‘Black History Month 2020’
“2020 has held a mirror up to the world and forced many to see the reality of racism in all its guises. From Black people dying disproportionately in the pandemic, to the horrific murder of George Floyd and no justice for Breonna Taylor – the 26-year-old emergency medical worker killed by police in her own home.
In the UK, the scale and impact of institutionalised racism has been laid bare, with young Black men stopped and searched 20,000 times in London during the coronavirus lockdown (the equivalent of 1 in 4 young Black men), along with Black MPs, barristers, senior police officers, sportspeople and many more …
Black History Month 2020 is a time for people to come together and hopefully learn lessons for the present and the future. It’s a time to honour the commitment to learning and standing united against racism. It’s a time to reclaim history and re-imagine how our shared history will be told in the future.”
To read more and to see the intro video visit Black History Month 2020’s YouTube channel here, or visit the website which has an extensive bank of articles, features and videos with new posts released regularly.
The Guardian is posting feature articles regularly over the month – see more of those here.
Gerard Swan
Chair