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Dioceses and parishes encouraged to host Racial Justice service
Ahead of this year’s Racial Justice Sunday, on 8th February, the Church of Ireland has published an eight�'page liturgy to help parishes and cathedrals mark this celebration of the ethnic diversity across the island today.
A Service of the Word for Racial Justice Sunday has been prepared by the Liturgical Advisory Committee, and is now available to print and download from the Church of Ireland website at www.churchofireland.org/prayer-worship/worship-resources/racial-justice-sunday
Racial Justice Sunday was first marked in Britain in 1995, as an initiative of the Methodist Church in response to the murder of Stephen Lawrence, and has subsequently been promoted by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI). Since 2017, it has been held on the second Sunday of February.
The 2025 Church of Ireland General Synod, meeting in Naas, Co. Kildare, approved a resolution encouraging each diocese to hold one Racial Justice Sunday service in a format and venue of its choosing, following a National Service in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, in February last year. The Primate’s Reference Group on Ethnic Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Justice has also organised broadcast services on RTÉ television in the last two years.
In an introduction to the liturgy, Archbishop John McDowell, the Primate of All Ireland, writes that the cry for justice and lament at its absence have been a central theme of prophets from Amos to Dr Martin Luther King, and notes that Jesus Christ “was the first person to conceive of the divided races as a unity.”
Archbishop McDowell adds: “In clear contradiction and challenge to the accepted world view of radical inequality which marked the society in which he lived (and many societies before and since) he proclaimed the equality and the oneness of all human beings in Him.”
The Primate describes Ireland’s population as “made up of an amalgam of incomers” from migration in Neolithic times and in every subsequent era of history:
“To these have now been added a great diversity of people from Africa, Asia and parts of Europe who in turn are bringing their gifts to enrich our world and our Church and often to make it their home.”
He concludes: “It is my hope and prayer that Racial Justice Sunday and this Service will be taken up and used in many parishes and perhaps that someday there will be no further need for it.”
Parishes are encouraged to consider extending invitations to people beyond the parish to Racial Justice Sunday services, including members of newcomer communities, to make use of artwork and music in other languages, and to consider including participation from a diverse range of nationalities and backgrounds where appropriate.