Regional Racial Justice Director - West Midlands Racial Justice Initiative

Who are we and what are we about?

Are you passionate about Racial Justice in the Church and committed to eliminating racism?  Do you want to use your skills to challenge, encourage, enable understanding and effect change where it is needed? If you’re excited to join a team appointed to be a catalyst for the promotion of Racial Justice and elimination of racism in the West Midlands Church of England dioceses, read on.

As Church of England Dioceses in the West Midlands, Church of England Birmingham alongside the dioceses of Coventry, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield and Worcester are excited to have funding from the Racial Justice Unit to recruit a team of 11 people. That team will help us ensure that structures, practices and behaviours throughout our Church and churches embrace people of GMH and UKME backgrounds and enable them to flourish. The whole team includes a Director, Programme Manager, Theologian, Communications Catalyst, six development workers each with a different focus, and a support worker. The team has 3 years to enable us to fan into flame a movement of change within us that continues to be effective and transformative long beyond the funding.

The team will be responsible for supporting the development of activities in our widely diverse contexts. Those activities include: sharing theological insights informed by our cultural origins; sharing worship practices; reviewing participation in our structures and activities; inviting previously unheard contributions into our governance structures; deconstructing whiteness; reimagining invitation into parish and community activities; and working in church schools and among young people. Relationships between people in all parts of us matter as much as the composition of our committees. The team will be accountable to a Regional Racial Justice Board made up of people from each of our dioceses committed to effecting change in these areas.

The purpose of this role

The purpose of this role is to enable the six dioceses in the West Midlands to respond appropriately to the Church of England’s challenge in ‘From Lament to Action’. The postholder will do this by actively supporting the dioceses in promoting and embedding Racial Justice within their ways of being and operating and to tackle racism where it arises. The postholder will lead a dynamic and collaborative team commissioned by the six dioceses to effect change in all areas of diocesan and parish life.

The postholder will need to be able to

• Work with the Regional Racial Justice Board in the implementation of its strategy.
• Lead and also work collaboratively with a skilled team, able to enable and release others to convert strategy into activity that achieves the commonly held goal of eliminating racism and promoting Racial Justice in the differing contexts within the West Midlands dioceses.
• Understand the structures of the Church of England, and have strong persuasive, empowering and communication skills to enable change to be embedded within all parts of the structure and its processes and behaviours
• Be able to hold structures and individuals accountable to agreed targets and activities
• Connect into wider national and regional conversations around Racial Justice and anti-racism.

The postholder will:

• Work with the Regional Racial Justice Board to deliver, and where appropriate contribute to the development of, its strategy for driving effective culture change within the six dioceses in the West Midlands Region
• Work with each diocese in the region to enable Racial Justice to be prioritised
• Enable each diocesan Racial Justice group to have confidence in the appropriateness of its strategy for its context and support that group in implementing its strategy, including through the development of activities effective in overcoming barriers to Racial Justice throughout deaneries and parishes
• Work with the RRJ Team to innovate best practice to deliver the strategic objectives of the RRJB
• Work collaboratively with the National Racial Justice Unit and ensure that national strategic objectives and activities are delivered effectively in the West Midlands region
• Prepare reports to the National Racial Justice Unit, the RRJBoard and dioceses as required
• Remain connected to the wider Racial Justice movement nationally in order to ensure the adoption into the West Midlands region of recognised best practice.
• Drawing on the strengths of individual team members, ensure that additional external fundraising is identified and applied for as necessary.

Person Specification

Due to the nature of this post, the post-holder will need to work within the underrepresented GMH / UKME communities of the six dioceses, understanding the contexts which individuals of a GMH / UKME background serve in their Christian discipleship, mission and ministry and any barriers which they may face, therefore there is a Genuine Occupational Requirement (GOR) under the Equality Act 2010 that the post holder is of a GMH / UKME background and a practicing Christian.

We are looking for someone who:

• Is a strategic thinker who is able to develop, follow through and monitor strategic plans
• Is experienced in developing leaders (especially from underrepresented groups) within institutional and informal community settings
• Is a person of mature faith who is able to work constructively and appreciatively with the theological breadth and ecclesial diversity of the Church of England.
• Is experienced in leading change and has an understanding of the issues involved in culture change
• Has well-developed networking skills
• Possesses High level inter-personal and communication skills, and an ability to use a variety of media and IT
• Is self-motivated and able to work alone but who can demonstrate strong team working and leading with a variety of different people as peers and direct-reports
• Is passionate about seeing people from UKME/GMH backgrounds realise their full potential in God’s mission and the Church’s ministry.
• Is excited to work within the vision for the project
• Has a higher level of education, theological training being an advantage
• Has the ability to travel the length and breadth of the six dioceses of the project 

Terms and Conditions

This is a fixed-term contract for the three years of funding provided for this project

Hours:  Full-time 35 hours (5 days) per week. Some weekend/evening work may be required, for which the equivalent time may be taken back from standard working hours

Salary and Pension: Salary of £60,000 plus membership of the Church Worker’s Pension Scheme with 12% employer contribution

Holidays: 5 weeks per year plus Bank Holidays and 3 Discretionary Days between Christmas and New Year

Employer: Birmingham Diocesan Board of Finance

Responsible To: The Chair of the West Midlands Racial Justice Board

CLOSING DATE: SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2024

INTERVIEWS TO BE HELD IN BIRMINGHAM ON MONDAY 11 MARCH 2024

This post is supported by funding from the Church of England Racial Justice Unit