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‘One new humanity’ in Christ: The site of God’s dwelling place: Reflecting on Ephesians 2:11-22

Following the finals of the Euro 2020 football championship, Sancho, Rashford and Saka, the three football players from the England team have been racially abused and so much venom has been spitting on them online because of their colour by some toxic nationalists. When a mural of Rashford was damaged at Withington in Manchester, a great number of people came together to stand up against racism, supporting Rashford, offering messages of love and calling communities to defeat hatred and hostility against the stranger has been heart-warming. To offer our support and solidarity to Rashford, we as a family visited this site where the mural of Rashford was covered with lots of messages of love, and found that there are many people from different walks of life who came there to offer respect and stand up against racism. This wall with the mural of Rashford in Withington has now become a new pilgrim site for justice, where lots of people are visiting to take hope and courage in standing with
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A Biblical Perspective on Racial Justice

  “Chosen one” for service or privilege? A biblical approach to Racial Justice   When I first moved into this country to teach a theological course, one of the subjects the course offered was a racism awareness programme. Since I am a woman of colour, I was asked to co-lead the racism awareness programme along with one of my colleagues. Racism was not a familiar concept in the context in which I grew up, but castism is very much alive and affected me to a great degree. After I moved to this country, I did experience racism in different aspects of my life and I could relate to racism from my experience of castism in many ways. Although the concepts of caste and race emerged in different contexts, there are similarities between the two. Like caste, race has been used to treat unfairly one group of people at the cost of another. These divisions and discriminations have been forced onto people and the social system we live in. What I see here is an issue of justice for which ev
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Victims Turned Deities: The Case of Tamil Dalit Deity

It is true but not recognised that there are folk traditions in India which carry stories of the spirits of the murdered victims avenging and demanding atonement in the form of blood sacrifice. Some of them have become cult figures and have their shrines. The following story comes from Tamil Nadu, India. Chellāyee is a goddess attached to the village Vdapaḷañji in Madurai District. Her shrine is among many shrines (of Māri, Manthai, Aiyaṉār, Muṉyāṇdi, Karuppasāmī, Rakkācchi, Chapāni and Muthiah). The shrine of Chellāyee is maintained by the paraiahs, a Dalit sub-group. According to one story, when a theatrical troupe from this village was away in other villages, Chellāyee (probably in the form of an icon) was bought for a pittance and brought to the village. Another yet more interesting story is that in a Ramnad village one Chellan, a Dalit scavenger, came into contact with a caste girl, and despite warning from her parents their love continued. When pressure reached a peak she committ
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RACIAL JUSTICE: A TASK FOR ALL

Introduction This article offers a personal reflection on racial justice in British Methodism. For rigorous academic research on this important theme in the Methodist Church, I refer you to scholars such as Prof Anthony Reddie. The purpose of this article is not to give a comprehensive history of racial justice work but to outline the path to the establishment of Racial Justice Sunday in the Methodist Church.   Racial Justice Sunday was first marked in the Methodist Church in September 1995. However, in contemporary Methodism, the origins of Racial Justice Sunday lie deeper in history. Going back to the “uniting Conference” of 1932, the Methodist Church engaged with matters of social justice through its Department of Christian Citizenship, and then through succeeding agencies such as the Division of Social Responsibility. In the Methodist DNA social justice and social holiness are inter-related.   At the core of the work of the Department of Citizenship was the plight of Jewish Refugee
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