04.11.2021

"Dear white Church - how can you become 'Safer Space'?"

Sarah Vecera, deputy head of the Germany Department of the UEM, in the front of the picture; © Photo: Frauke Petersen

"How can the white church become a 'safer space' for BIPoC" - this was one of the topics of the study day in Villigst; Photo: Sarah Vecera/UEM

"Do we contribute to a tabooing of racism with theology and self-understanding?" - "To what extent is it even more difficult to address racism in the church than in other places?"- "How can the white church become a safer space for BIPoC?"  - questions like these were discussed on 2 November in Haus Villigst in Schwerte, North Rhine-Westphalia, by almost 50 interested people, including nine Black Indigenous People of Colour (BIPoC - is a self-designation of people with experience of racism who are not perceived as white, German and Western).

The United Evangelical Mission (UEM), the Office for Mission, Ecumenism and Church World Responsibility (MÖWe) of the Westphalian Church, representatives of the Protestant Centre for Women and Men of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) and the Chair for Christian Social Teaching (Protestant Theology) at the Ruhr University Bochum organised this study day.

Among other things, the study day dealt with identifying racism in church processes and structures and developing strategies for an anti-racist church.The participants of the study day agreed that the church should be a "safer space" for BIPoC. However, this is a long way and everyone has to be pro-active. Fighting racism is not primarily the task of those who are negatively affected by it. It is rather the task of white people, said Daniela Konrädi, pastor of the Northern Church.