The Black and White Gap

I was almost in tears. I was angry, depressed and confused, all at the same time. It was November 2000 and I was at the Evangelical Alliance Leadership Conference, held in Cardiff. Derek Tidball, principal of the London School of Theology, had just spoken, giving the morning Bible reading for the day, which was wonderful, but it had added to my sense of confusion. ‘Where are all my black brothers?’ I pondered. As I surveyed the approximately 98% white congregation of over 2,000 church leaders, my thoughts travelled to Brighton four months earlier. I had attended a flagship conference within the Black Christian Community. A rich conglomeration of Caribbean and African Christians had attended ‘Faith in the Future’, a conference organised by the African-Caribbean Evangelical Alliance (ACEA). At that wonderful convention, with all its diversity of Black Christian expression and culture, I vividly witnessed the ominous Black and White divide. I remember questioning my good friend the EA general director, Joel Edwards... "Why are we all meeting in camps?" was my blunt challenge. In his amiable and uncle-like wise way, he replied, "That is one mountain a conference like this seeks to address and overcome. Our heart as an Alliance is to be a movement for change across the plurality of cultural and ethnic diversity within the church." I responded with more questions about why certain core white leaders were prominently absent, who had made the invitations, and a barrage of other queries.

As I travelled back to London from Cardiff, my mind was made up. I was on the phone to Joel at the earliest opportunity with a tirade of questions and protests. He was very patient with me, set out to calm me down and outlined a course of action. This triggered a personal journey of discovery into the depth and breadth of the chasm between the White and Black Christian Communities in England.

I am not insinuating that all is doom and gloom regarding inter-racial relationships in the Church. I know of many wonderful God-inspired ministries that are seeking to build bridges between ethnic borders. Neither do I claim to be an authority on race relations or cross-cultural dynamics within the church, but I do speak from personal experience.

I arrived on an afternoon flight from Lagos Nigeria in the summer of 1991. Fresh from the tyrannical pressure of medical school, I had decided to take a three-month holiday before embarking on my itinerant year at a renowned Baptist Training Hospital in the Islamic enclave of Northern Nigeria. As a convert from Islam, my intention was to practise as a missionary doctor to Muslims. I am still on my three-month holiday! Within days of arriving in the British Isles, the Holy Spirit spoke so vividly to me; Jonathan, you are not here by accident; you are here by divine design. You are here as part of my recruitment to this part of the world in preparation for the coming of my Son Jesus. Drop your agenda therefore and pick up my programme. It was so clear and scary. So much so that I thought Jesus was coming back in 1994!

Looking back, I now have a better panoramic view of a divine conspiracy behind the influx of exotic Christians into the UK. Heaven was responding to years of intercession to send help to strengthen flagging British congregations. Britain was reaping her harvest of overseas missionary work. Throughout the 90s on the back streets of Hackney, Leyton, Walthamstow, Lewisham, Brixton, Stratford, Finsbury Park, Islington and many other districts of London, I saw churches born – shop-front churches, home churches, warehouse churches, school churches, and community centre

BY Jonathan Oloyede

[Source: Christianity Magazine]

Dr Jonathan Oloyede (a medical doctor by profession) is a well-known leader and spokesperson within the Black Church Community and beyond. He is one of the senior pastors at Glory House, a growing black majority church in East London.

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