Research by Rev Dr David Wise questions the real impact that the high-profile murder of Stephen Lawrence had on the perception of many White British Christians at the time.
Just over a year ago I completed a Doctorate in Theology that explored the transition of Greenford Baptist Church (GBC) in West London from a White British congregation to one with people from approximately forty-five nationalities regularly attending. During worship different languages were used with songs, dance and prayer in styles that were used ‘back home’. Every aspect of congregational life reflected the cultures from the different ethnicities that made up the congregation.
My research included interviews/focus groups with 47 people who were, or had been, members of GBC.
In December 1997 there was a racially motivated attack on an Asian family who were a core part of the church. The attack took place during the night and left three of the four family members with very serious injuries. The attack was the culmination of a campaign of racial harassment of this family. It became clear that the police and local authority had not taken appropriate steps to protect the family. In fact the police seemed to have taken the side of the perpetrators of the harassment. It also soon became clear that the local police did not properly investigate the assault. Witnesses were not interviewed. Evidence was not examined, for example a fingerprint on a bottle that was broken over the head of one of the family members was not checked against any database. To raise the profile of the case GBC held a public meeting on July 1st 1998. Among the speakers was Neville Lawrence, the father of Stephen Lawrence. Revd David Haslam, the secretary of the Churches’ Commission for Racial Justice, a part of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland (now CTBI), was also a speaker at the event. The meeting was attended by some journalists and a BBC radio crew. There was subsequent extensive coverage in Christian media and in some other media. Later I was asked to give evidence to the second phase of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.
With the support of GBC one of the family members raised a series of complaints with the Police Complaints Authority, in due course nearly all of the complaints were upheld.
Naturally, these events had a significant impact on GBC and one component of my research was interviewing some of those who had been a part of the church at the time, to help assess the nature of the impact on the development of GBC into a genuinely inter-ethnic church. Unexpectedly my research casts a little light on the response of Christians at the time to Stephen Lawrence’s murder. I have used pseudonyms for the research participants I refer to below.
During my research I asked six of the research participants, who were part of GBC at the time of the assault, what they remembered about the impact on GBC of the attack on the Asian family. Each person remembered hearing about the attack and recalled their own personal shock and anger at what had happened. Natasha, a church member who had been born in the Caribbean, said:
“I think people were very shocked when it happened. People were very sad it happened and I think outraged as well …Especially with the way the whole incident was handled by the police and things. I can remember that. That was outrageous and I think the church, the people you talk to about things like that, they were really disgusted that it happened and how it was handled.”
There was awareness too of the impact on the GBC community. Betsy, who is White British, commented:
“Well, you see I think that it was because we’d seen first-hand how terrible it was and talked to them and realised what they were going through. But if we had just heard, oh so and so had been attacked, we’d say “Oh that’s terrible isn’t it” and then go on and talk about something else. But when you sort of see first-hand and you are involved with the people it has a very different effect.”
Brian, also White British, noted:
“Of course, it was around the time of the Stephen Lawrence stuff as well and because that was slightly remote from us, it didn’t quite affect us in the same way, but then it did when it happened to them. You suddenly realised there is an issue within our society… it made me think about my thinking with regard to other people from other ethnicities as well and so making sure I wasn’t having prejudiced thoughts towards them because of somebody’s ethnicity.”
Janice, White British, commented :
“When it happens to your own, then you start thinking and questioning yourself, your thinking and your beliefs and what you understand about race and people.”
By “your own” Janice was referring to her perspective that when someone you know who is a part of your own church community is a victim of a racist attack, the reality of racism and its impact becomes real to you.
For Betsy, Brian and Janice, three White British members of GBC, what happened to the Asian family brought home to them the reality of racism in a way that the high-profile murder of Stephen Lawrence elsewhere in London had not. Because this attack happened to some of ‘our own’, what was a reality on the outside of GBC became earthed inside. The fact that I as the church pastor, with the support of the church leadership and membership, was to the forefront of not only campaigning for justice for the Asian family, but also to expose the systemic racism in our society and its institutions further made clear some of the challenges that faced us. The research seems to support my previously held view that this series of events, with the continual focus on systemic racism over a two-year period, changed the way that people who were a part of GBC at the time saw racism. Racism was exposed as an ugly, dangerous, daily reality that afflicted the lives of people who were a part of the church congregation. It was seen as sin and consequently something that needed to be confronted in our lives and in the life of the congregation. The attack on the Asian family and the subsequent events, as the comments recorded above demonstrate, changed the self-understanding of people who were a part of GBC, especially the majority White British attendees, and therefore it seems clear that these incidents significantly affected the trajectory of the church’s transition.
It is of course inappropriate to generalise from a small sample in one church. However, the comments related above do support the view that Stephen Lawrence’s murder alone did not at the time have a significant impact on the perception of many White British Christians concerning the institutional racism present at that time in UK society.
About the author
Rev Dr David Wise believes that every person has been created by God with potential. His passion is to help people realise more of their potential, to become more of the person that God has created them to be. David served as a Baptist pastor in churches in and around London for 37 years (until August 2019). For more than 20 years he has been mentoring Christian Leaders and he is accredited by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council as a Senior Practitioner.
Between 2011 and 2018, David worked as a part-time tutor and module leader on Masters programmes in Missional Leadership. In September 2018 he joined the faculty at Waverley Abbey College as the Programme Leader for Spiritual Formation.
Racial Justice Sunday 2023
Resources for this year’s Racial Justice Sunday, 12 February 2023, mark the 30th anniversary of the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence.
