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‘As a black priest in the Church of England, I felt like I was invisible'
Jul 5, 2020
A few years ago, Father Azariah France-Williams answered a knock at the door. A woman stood before him, asking to borrow space in the church car park for a removal van. They chatted, France-Williams gave permission, and she thanked him.
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The next day there was a note on the doormat addressed to the vicar. “It said, ‘I came to see you yesterday and I’m sorry I didn’t meet you, but a lovely young man helped me.’ I was surprised because I’d been wearing my [dog] collar and standing at the vicarage door, but her imagination was infused with what a vicar looks like – and he didn’t look like me. I’d had a lovely exchange with her, but actually she didn’t see me at all. I felt like a ghost.”
Now, says France-Williams, “All of a sudden I’ve become Mr Popular.” In the past few weeks, a number of clergy colleagues have consulted him on their responses to the Black Lives Matter movement . “I’ve had panicking bishops wanting me to write their statements,” he tells the Observer .
Next week, almost 10 years to the day since France-Williams was ordained as a priest in the Church of England, his book on his and others’ experiences as black and minority ethnic clergy will be published. Ghost Ship: Institutional Racism and the Church of England has “the potential to be a bit of a wrecking ball, to make a crack in the wall of racism that surrounds us,” he says.
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