A Positive Magazine. For Positive People. By Positive People.
TheOrator.Press Leadership Interview Special. Easter 2024. Two Years Ago Under Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government Queen Elizabeth II Approved The Appointment of Archdecon Rosemarie Mallet As Bishop of Croydon. Now With The World In The Worst Political Turmoil of Modern Times TheOrator.Press Reached Out To Her For Her Perspective As Her Diocese Faces Its Own High Profile Challenges. April 2024
Her Answers May Provide Some Sage Advice, Guidance, or Enlightenment For Those Seeking Spiritual Inspiration. She Even Finds Her Own Inspiration From The Popular Charles Dickens Novel (Turned Film, Musical, And TV Adaptation) ‘Oliver’ (Twist).
Recognising Minimisation & Avoiding The Mistake of Thinking Support For Certain Anti-Discrimination Is Support For All Anti-Discrimination
In A Sky Press Preview March 16th 2024 Jake Wallis Simons Indicated His POV Was That Slavery Has Existed Throughout History And Therefore The Enslavement of Africans During The African Slave Trade As Perpetuated By America and The Europeans Warrants No Special Treatment.
This Was During Discussion of The Times Front Page Regarding The £1bn Pounds Allocated By The Church of England Seeking Redemption For Its Slavery Association, Enrichment And Participation.
Lord Tony Sewell of Sanderstead Has A New Book Out Called Black Success: the Surprising Truth, And Told The Times Newspaper That The Fund Was Just For Show And the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior clergy should instead focus on getting people back into church. He Said That Britain Is Not As Racist As It Was Forty Years Ago.
So According To The JWS Minimisation, An Anti-Black Racist Should Be Afforded Due Redemption For His Modern-Day Wickedness And The Sin of Racism On One Hand. But On The Other Hand The Church of England Shouldn’t Seek To Redeem Itself When It Comes To Its Historical Anti-African Anti-Black Transatlanic Enslavement And Consequences of That.
The JWS Minimisation Highlights The Very Important Point That Some People Who Have Concerns With Discrimination Don’t Automatically Include Anti-Black Discrimination In Their Concerns. Something We’ve Highlighted A Number of Times Before Because It Is Repeatedly Self-Evidently True.
Lord Tony Sewell of Sanderstead Has A New Book Out Called Black Success: the Surprising Truth And Told The Times Newspaper That The Fund Was Just For Show And That The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and senior clergy should instead focus on getting people back into church. He Says That Britain Is Not As Racist As It Was Forty Years Ago And Implies That Therefore On some Level That Should Simply Be Good Enough. HIs Approach Has Not Gone Down Well With Alot of His Fellow Black People.
Bishop Rosemarie Mallet, Bishop of Croydon Since 2022
Standing On The Shoulders of Giants
Bishop Rosemarie Mallett Is Following In The Footsteps of The Late Right Reverend Wilfred Wood – England’s First Black Bishop. He Was The First Black Bishop of Croydon. He Too Was Bajan. And He Was A Strong Advocate For Social Justice. Through Her Work She Endeavours To Honour His Legacy. In Particular She Supported The Stephen Lawrence Family And Their Fight For Justice In The Wake of Scandalous Mistreatment By The Metropolitan police.
Bishop Rosemarie Explains The Breakdown of The Southwark Dioceses (Which Encompasses Croydon)
And
Also Outlines Her Respect For Her Pioneering Predecessor Rev Wilfred Wood
The Quest For Social Justice And Slavery Recognition & Redeemption
This Echoes The Stance Sewell Took As Chair of The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Under Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government Set Up To Assist Government Policy On Racial Inequalities. The Report Was Widely Panned By The Black Community And Several of Its Leaders. Baroness Lawrence Said ‘The Sewell Report’ Put Back The Fight Against Racism By 20 Years And Ignored People’s Lived Experiences.
The Church of England’s First Racial Justice Director, Rev Guy Hewitt, Appointed August 2022, Believes That The Church Must Stand Against “The Evil And Pernicious Sin of Racism” As That Is The Very Epicentre of The Gospel Message.
The Times Newspaper Front Page: Saturday March 16th 2024
We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Dr. martin luther king
Rev Hewitt Says The Greatest Growth In British Chrisitianity Is Currently Black Congregations In The Pentecostal Church.
That Is The Very Same Group That Arrived With The Windrush Generation And Suffered Anglican Church Rejection. So, Ironically, The Church Finally Needs To Diversify If It Is To Flourish.
Rev Hewitt’s Own Heritage Is Bajan & Indian, He Was Born In Britian, And Is A Former High Commissioner To The UK: churchofEngland.org
In 2021 Forensic Accountants Firstly Calculated That The Historical Queen Anne Bounty Investment Scheme of 1704 And Its Associated South Sea Company Profited By £443m From Transatlantic Slavery.
And Secondly They Concluded That The Anglican Church Was Part of That By Way of The Church And Clergy Members Receiving Donations From The Scheme.
The Church of England (C of E) Has A Current Wealth Valued At £10bn. Just One Tenth of That Allocated To Addressing Historical International Wrongs of The Past In Relative Terms Is Not Alot.
The C of E Reportedly Commissioned Forensic Accountants Grant Thornton Following Worldwide Protests Demanding Social Justice Reform In The Wake of The Police Brutality Murder of George Floyd During Lockdown In May 2020.
The Church Commissioners Department of The Anglican Church Is Dealing With The Fund And A Spokesperson For The Department Said that:
“the evil legacy of African chattel slavery still affected the lives of millions of people in the world.”
“We believe that by addressing our past transparently, particularly this part of our past, the church and its teachings will be more relevant to more people.”
Last Month The C of E Announced That Further Consultation found that The Initail £100 million Figure (Suggested Following An Independent Report In 2023) Was Inadequate relative To the scale of the Church Commissioners’ £10.3 billion Endowment And the scale of “the moral sin and crime” of profiting from slavery”. Accordingly The Sum of The Fund Has Been Increased To £1bn.
The Church Hopes To Add To The Original £100m By Donations “Peers of The Church Commissioners” Such As “pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, foundations, family offices And Impact Investors”. “Exactly the kind of investors who are looking to create positive change for the future” Said Geetha Tharmaratnam of The Project’s Oversight Group.
The Independent Report Says That It Wants The Fund To Grow By ““reinvesting returns to foster a perpetual, positive legacy”. It Also Says The Origial Sum of £100m Is “Very Small compared to the scale of racial disadvantage originating in African chattel enslavement.”
Bishop Rosemarie Mallett, Is Chair of The Group And Said “No amount of money can fully atone for or fully redress the centuries-long impact of African chattel enslavement, the effects of which are still felt around the world today.” She Described The Impact As “measurable and apparent in everything from pregnancy and childbirth outcomes to life chances at birth, physical and mental health, education, employment, income, property, and the criminal justice system”.
“We hope this initiative is just the start and is a catalyst to encourage other institutions to investigate their past and make a better future for impacted communities.”
Stephen Smith, Presenter Of The BBC 4 Radio Programme ‘Profile’ Last Month (March 30th 2024) Highlighted Bishop Rosemarie’s Involvement In The Church of England’s “Controversial” Restorative Justice Fund (Available On BBC Sounds)
Bishop Rosemarie, Croydon, Stormzy And Community Support For Elianne Andam
Focus on The Solution Not The Problem
Rosemary Mallet, Bishop of Croydon, April 2024 Talking To TheOrator.Press
Perseverance For The Greater Good Is Purpose And Power
Rosemary Mallet, Bishop of Croydon, April 2024 Talking To TheOrator.Press
Whilst Addressing The Bad, Remember To Appreciate The Good
Rosemary Mallet, Bishop of Croydon, April 2024 Talking To TheOrator.Press
To Some People It May Feel As Though There Are Definitely Echoes of Pre-World War Two In The Air Right Now As The Far Right Are On The March In Plain Sight, Current Political Leadership In The Western World (Especially Both Here And In America) Leaves Alot To Be Desired, And Power-Hungry Political Players Are Indulging In Domestic Political Discourse That Is Stirring Up or Supporting Destructive Disharmony At Almost Any Cost. In Some Cases This Appears To Include The Abandonment of Their Own Self-Respect And Sanity.
Meanwhile Wars Have Broken Out Across The World As The Spread of Hate For Different Colours, Cultures, Countries or Even Opinions Is A Cruel Common Consequence of The Aforementioned Abandonment And Lack of Leadership.
Simulataneoulsy In So Many Local Areas Knife Crime Is Totally Out of Control As Police And Politicians Fail To Find Effective Solutions Despite Many Unpopular, Unimaginative And Alienating Stop And Search Operations.
In This Derth of Decent Leadership Which Has Led To Democracy Dangling By A Thread In The West, Politics Descended To An All Time Low, And Criminals Often Outsmarting The Police, It Seems Like Some Help From On High Through Spiritual Leaders Might Provide Some Inspirational Assistance (As Part of Our Pods on A Page Interview Series).
We Started With Bishop Rosemarie Mallet, The First Black Female Bishop of Croydon And The Second Bajan Bishop of The Area.
Croydon Is Located Within The Diocese of Southwark, Which Has Its Own Diocese Bishop, Responsible For All The Pastorial Geographical Areas Within It. These Are Divided Into Three Main Areas Each With An Area Bishop Who Assist Him In Looking After The Whole Diocese. The Bishop of Southwark Lives In Bishop House In Streatham, Whilst The Three Area Bishops Are Based In Either Croydon, Kingston Upon Thames And Woolwich.
Bishop Rosemarie Is Headquartered Near Croydon South Station, A Short Distance From The Local Church There, Namely St. Peter’s, Where She Holds Church Services There In Addition To Other Churches In The Vast Croydon Area. Hers Is The Largest of The Three Areas And The Most Rural, As It Encompasses Lots of Different Villages, And Reaches As Far A Field As Gatwick And Reigate.
There Are 42 Anglican Church Diocese, Including The Diocese of Europe. And They Are Overseen By The Archbishop of Canterbury And The Archbishop of York. King Charles III Is The Supreme Governor of The Anglican Church And Defender of The Faith. Each Diocese Has Its Own Coat of Arms.
The Jewel In The Crown of The Southwark Diocese Is Southwark Cathedral At London Bridge.
Woolwich Includes Borough Market, Close To Southwark Cathedral And Stretches Right Down To Lewisham And Greenwich.
Croydon Includes St John’s Church Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace Football Club And Down To As Far As Gatwick Airport Within The Parish of Horley, And The East Surrey Area.
Finally, Kingston Up-Thames Covers A Vast Enough Region To Include Areas As Far Apart As Both Brixton And Wimbledon.
As Well As Having An Oversight Bishop The Diocese Also Has A Diocean Bishop Who Coordinates Things To Help All The Bishops With Their Work And Make Sure Events Run Smoothly Within The Diocese. So That’s Five Bishops For The Southwark Diocese. An Oversight Bishop. A Diocean Bishop And Three Area Bishops.
As An Area Bishop, Bishop Rosemary Is Responsible For Looking After Approximately 115 Churches And Parishes, And 130 Clergy.
The Whole Southwark Diocese Encompasses 12 London Boroughs And Approximately 3 Million People.
In The Above Video The Venerable Rosemarie Mallet Speaks of Her Hopes For Her New Role Following The Announcement of Her Appointment As Bishop of Croydon In 2022.
Sadly One of Bishop Rosemarie’s First High Profile Jobs Was To Support A Local Family And Community Following The Murder of A Teenage Girl By A Teenage Boy. Following The Tragic Stabbing of School Girl Elianne Andam In September 2023 Bishop Rosemarie, Members of The Local Police Service, Stormzy And Other Members of The Croydon Community Stood With Elianne’s Family At A Vigil On October 3rd 2023 Outside The Whitgift Centre Croydon.
Croydon Did Elianne, Her Family, Her School And Themselves Proud That NIght.The Turnout Was Very Moving And Sent A Message That Violence And Knife Crime Is Not Wanted. And Those In Charge Need To Do Better In Combating These Issues.
Above: Elianne, Shinning Bright In Her School Uniform.The 15 Year Wanted To Become A Lawyer.
Elianne’s Mother, Cousin – The Rev. Denzil Larbi, And Local Bishop – The Bishop of Croydon, Rosemarie Mallet, Addressed The Crowd Very Eloquently & Movingly. The Family Asked Supporters To Light Candles As Elianne Was A Ray of Light
Bishop Rosemarie Is A Graduate of Both Sussex And Warwick University, An Expert In Sociology, Ethno Cultural Mental Health, And International Development. In Addition To Britain She Has Lived And Worked in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Barbados. The Latter Is Her Motherland, Although She Came To Britain As A Child And Was Raised In The UK, Ultimately Training As A Minister At St Augustines Theologoly College (aka South East Institute of Theological Education – SEITE -). She Was Ordained As A Priest In 2005.
Her Theological Credentials Are Very Outstanding. She Is A Former Curate (Junior Priest) of Christ Church, Brixton Road, London SW9, In 2007 She Became Priest-In-Charge At St John the Evangelist, Angell Town, Also In Brixton. She Became Vicar In 2013.
She Was Also Made Director of Ordinands For the Kingston Episcopal Area. In 2015, She was additionally appointed Diocesan Director of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation.
Then, In 2020, Fiveteen Years After Being Ordained In 2005 She Had Worked Her Way Up The Church Ranks And Achieved The Role of Archdeacon of Croydon. In May 2022 She Became Bishop of Croydon. The Rapper Stormzy Is From Croydon And Known To Be A Religious Man. She Counts Him A Member of Her Congregation @stormzy
She Is A Fan of The Ever Popular Tale of ‘Oliver Twist’ By Victorian Author Charles Dickens As It Chimes With Her Firstly Because It Is Set In & Around Her Area of The Southwark Diocese, In Victorian London, And Secondly Because It Deals With The Issues of Poverty And Crime And The Consequences Thereof.
We Discuss This In Relation To Her Own Area of Croydon Which Has Been In The News Lately Following A Particular High Profile Tragedy Which Rocked The Community. This Is The Murder of 15 Year Old School Girl Elianne Andnam Who Was Murdered By Stabbing On Her Way To School By A 17 Year Old Boy After Getting Off A Bus. This Is In Effect Children Killing Children. And It Has Devastated Elianne’s Family After She Was Stolen From Them, Her School And Her School Friends.
Stormzy @stormzy Was Amongst Local Community Members Who Attended A Vigil After News of The Tragic Killing. The Killer Was Arrested Shortly Afterwards And Is On Remand Awaiting Trial For Murder. The Bishop Spoke At The Vigil And Has Been Supporting The Family.
A Family of Deep Faith
Tough Love!
We Need To Let Our Young Know That They Can Be Part Of Making A Difference
“Within The Law We’ve Got So Many Barristers, Within The Professions We’ve Got So Many Doctors.”
“Everyday People Get Up. Wake Up. Get Up. Breath And Get On With Life.”
“And They’re The People Running Our Buses, That Are Driving Our Taxis, That Are Cooking Food In Our Restaurants, That Are Leading Our Institutions – That Are Running Our Hospitals – That Are Leading Our Care Homes.”
“And Everyday That Continues. Life Still Continues.”
“And As Long As Life Continues We Have A Part To Play. So Let’s Play Our Part.“
Why 1800s Nineteenth Century Fagin & Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens Is Still Relevant Today
Historical Racism In The Anglican Church
In Ep.2 of Sir Lenny Henry’s Six Part Comedy Drama ‘Three Little Birds’ (Streaming On ITV X) Hosanna, Played By Yazmin Belo @yazminbelo Clutches Her Bible On Arrival In Britain And On Arrival At Her Local Church. But She Is Subjected To Some Unholy Treatment By Some of Her Fellow (Not So Fellow) Christians. Including The Vicar!
He Based The Six Part Drama On The Real Life Experiences of Windrush Pioneers Who Came To Britain At The Government’s Invitation To Help Rebuild Post War Britain. This Includes His Own Family And Their Experiences of Growing Up In Dudley, And Around The Black Country In The West Midlands (So Called Because of All The Smog In The Air From By Products of The Area’s Intense Manufactoring).
It’s An Excellent Watch And We Thoroughly Recommend It As An Education And Entertainment Tool To Help With Understanding What The Windrush Generation Went Through And An Insight Into British History And Britain’s Relationship With And Treatment of Its Black Citizens. Including In Religious Quarters. You Can See Our Clips of A BAFTA Interview With ‘Sir Lenny Henry & The Cast of Three Little Birds’ Which We’ve Broken Down And Called ‘Sir Lenny Henry & The Cast of Three Little Birds On The Importance of Blk Hstry on TV’ (Video Clips: a – e) On Our YouTube Channel youtube.com/@theorator.press7608.
The Windrush Generation Were Rejected By Anglican Churches When They First Arrived In Britain
Bishop Rosemarie Acknowledges Historical Racism In The Anglican Church (…And Some Kindness)
The Growth of Anglican Church Leadership In Britain After WindrushAnd Pentecostal Churches
The Best Should Have The Right To Apply And The Best Should Come Through
Different Churches Have Different Styles of Worship. So Much So That Many Black Christians Felt Compelled To Build Their Own Churches After Facing Racism, Repression And A Rejetion of Their Style of Worship From White Chrisitian Churches. This Was A Reality Both In The UK And The USA.
As A Jamaican Windrush Gentleman We Know (And Good Friend of The Magazine) Put It When Describing How He Felt After His First Visit To An Anglican Church Having Arrived From Jamaica In The Windrush Era; “The Devil Himself Could Have Walked Right In And Sat Right Down And Made Himself At Home.”
By This He Meant That In His Opinion The Atmosphere And Style of Worship Was So Reserved That The Devil Would Have Been Unperturbed By The Fact That It Was A Church Full of Worshippers. In Comparison Gospel Churches Are Not Reserved At All But Full of Loud, Joyful, Soulful Gospel Music And Singing, And Personal, Powerful, Public Expression Within The Pews, The Church Aisles And The Pulpit.
When It Comes To The Matter of How The Windrush Generation Was Treated By The Anglican Church There Is A Scene In This Excellent Comedy Drama Launched On ITV In Black History Month 2023 (Last October), Which Illustrates Part of The Problem Perfectly. In Addition To The Harsh Reality That Racism Exists Even Within The Realms of Religious Worship, There Is Also The Fact The Caribbean Culture Has A Different Style of Worship To Anglican Culture.
We Spoke To Bishop Rosemary About This And Various Other Issues Too, As Readers Can Hear Right Hear As They Listen To Another of Our Interviews Within Our ‘Pods On A Page’ Series.
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