Racial Justice Sunday

On Sunday 9 February, Racial Justice Sunday will mark its 30th anniversary, having been established by the Methodist Church in 1995 following the tragic murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence in southeast London in April 1993. The Lawrence family attended a local Methodist Church, and the national Methodist Church supported the Lawrence family’s campaign to find Stephen’s killers. A few years later, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland agreed to promote Racial Justice Sunday to enable all churches to engage with it.

The 2025 Racial Justice Sunday theme is ‘Coat of Many Colours,’ reflecting the increasing diversity that exists in the churches in Britain and Ireland. There is little doubt that British churches, especially in the larger cities, are a microcosm of the world in a congregation, which is indeed a blessing that must be celebrated. Equally, the fact that the diversity of believers has breathed some much-needed spiritual life into our churches reveals that this is a movement of God for which He must be praised.

Yet, despite this reality, inequality still exists in the church and is still a factor that blights the experiences of too many people of Global Majority heritage or Black and Brown backgrounds. This leaves people not feeling as if they belong in the house of the Lord, or not being given the opportunity to use their God-given talents to further the Lord’s Kingdom. Given the unwelcome decline in church attendance over the last several decades, British and Irish churches must wake up to the reality that God is doing a ‘new thing’ (Isaiah 43:19) among those Christians who now call these shores home.

Downloadable resources for use in private and public worship on Racial Justice Sunday, 9 February, are available free-of-charge via THIS LINK.