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Been reflecting a lot on Black Anglo-Catholicism recently...
*A Thread*
Ever since reading the history of the Church deliberately looking for a distinctive Africanity within it, I've been challenged particularly this year, at how restrained I can feel by some liturgy.
*A Thread*
Ever since reading the history of the Church deliberately looking for a distinctive Africanity within it, I've been challenged particularly this year, at how restrained I can feel by some liturgy.
Not only as a Black person but as a QPOC in the Church. Yet, I love liturgical ritual and wouldn't want to lose it. I can definately say this crosses denominational boundaries as someone that's experienced many traditions.
It's not a denominational thing - it's a White Christianity thing. Recently I've been in spaces where some traditional practices amongst the African diaspora have been spoken about pejoratively by White folk who lack an understanding of the traditions they're speaking about.
I, for example, come from a Cuban-Jamaican family with Nigerian ancestry - firmly rooted in Christianity but I grew up pouring libations for ancestors every New Year's eve at the front door - and at the graves of our dead. This never seemed contradictory to my Christianity.
I wonder how it is different *really* to laying a wreath at a Cenotaph, Firing Guns on Remembrance Sunday or lighting candles at All Souls. (I could make a longer argument if I had to, but not here). It seems to me, that some of the ways Black folk remember and honour our dead...
speaks very powerfully to our belief in eternity...our commitment to a very real sense of a Cloud of witnesses who, like the saints, are both with God and with us. I say this to say that White folk don't get to decide what is 'Christian' or 'Catholic' or 'Sound' - we need to find
ways of exploring our traditions and seeing them as potentially integrated parts of our Christian spirituality - being proud of them, and demanding that they be respected to the degree that we ourselves respect and value them. When I read of some very ancient Christian practices
like postures of prayer and strict fasting for example in the Christian East - I realise that there is a whole tradition of Christian spirituality that has been fetishized by the West, but which are part of our African heritage and which we have the right to adopt & make use of.
Whilst no-one is telling us we can't, I have regularly experienced times when in the midst of British liturgical setting an item from the 'Global Church' is brought in - but even that says 'this doesn't really belong in this setting'. In short, how do we as Black Christians...
create spaces for spiritual practices and worship which reflect our ancient Christian heritage? How do we incorporate, create, or establish an authentically Black yet liturgical and sacramental expression of our faith? Do we need to? It seems to me that if we are serious about
undoing the violence that Whiteness has inflicted upon our spirituality, we need to encourage spiritual practices and the centering of theologies that are truly diverse and which set people (including ourselves) free to praise and glorify the God who has been our liberator.
What does it mean to be truly liberated as a Black Christian in those denominations which are, and continue to be contently and deeply married to Whiteness? Black Anglicans must identify for ourselves the traditions, practices and liturgical rituals which truly express, value and
affirm our Blackness, our cultural identities and the depth of our relationship with a Black and liberating Jesus Christ.
We might call it: #AfroAnglican #AfroCatholic or something - let's imagine what a tradition of Black spirituality within the Catholic tradition of the
We might call it: #AfroAnglican #AfroCatholic or something - let's imagine what a tradition of Black spirituality within the Catholic tradition of the
Church might look like! Of course this is something folk in the US have been thinking and talking about: https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2018/02/26/american-anglo-catholicism-and-black-episcopalians-integrating-the-narrative/
I had an attempt at thinking through what purging our liturgical life of the aesthetics of Whiteness might mean: …https://changedfromgloryintoglory.wordpress.com/2020/10/22/whiteness-and-the-aesthetics-of-the-eucharist-white-bread-as-liturgical-violence/
Anyway - this is to encourage Black folk to keep thinking and talking through what kind of Church we need to thrive as God's children. The Church we have has been defined and shaped for us, without us as free people in mind. That needs to change.
p.s this is why it's so pleasing to see things like this by @BAMEAnglican https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/anglo-catholic-socialist-advent-meetup-the-first-tickets-131556859107
