11.02.2025
‘Embrace difference with love’ – Racial Justice Sunday Service
“The world needs to see us embracing one another’s difference with love and harmony as one people of God.” So said the Revd Kevin Ronne who was the preacher at Choral Evensong in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin to mark Racial Justice Sunday on February 9. “They need to know that colour is beautiful and only the very sad cannot see how beautiful the colours of God and Jesus Christ are. We are the colour of God and Jesus Christ,” he added.
The service took place in the presence of the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd John McDowell and members of his Reference Group on Ethnic Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Justice. It was introduced by the Dean, the Very Revd William Morton, who outlined the work of the Primate’s Reference Group and the background to Racial Justice Sunday.
The group advises the Archbishop of Armagh on ways in which the Church of Ireland can reflect upon and practice the full inclusion of ethnic minority and migrant members in church and wider society.
The theme of this year’s Racial Justice Sunday was, ‘Coat of Many Colours’, reflecting the increasing diversity that exists in churches in Ireland.
In his sermon, the Revd Kevin Ronne said that we needed to be the vine and see the branches coming in from all over the world. He said that colour was one of those branches and white and black were both beautiful.
Kevin is Rector of Raheny and Coolock in Dublin and a member of the Primate’s Reference Group. He is from South Africa and spoke of his own experiences growing up during the time of Apartheid as a member of a bi–racial family, his father being European and mother French Mauritian.
“I was born with twins inside of me. These twins I wrestled with all of my life. I had a black twin and I had a white twin. Sometimes they were good. Other times they left me quite angry. When we deal with racial prejudice we deal with colourism. And colourism is found within your very own because you belong to neither – for the one you are not right because you are too white and for the other you are not right because you are too brown. So where do we fit into the scheme of things?” he asked.
He said growing up in the Apartheid era he knew that white was good and black was bad. “The more white you were the more blessed you were, the more prosperous you were. The more black you were… well you didn’t want to be black,” he commented.
But he said inside his church he began to discover that difference was beautiful and black was magnificent and from the Scriptures he realised that the Creator was a loving Creator. “This Creator loves me so I am exactly the right person to be. I am not you and you are not me,” he said.
But he said that the world we live in does not appreciate the beauty and joy of colour. He asked if Christians had a responsibility in this regard. “How many people of the Church of God are truly speaking in our communities, talking about this difficult topic. To me it is not difficult. It is a topic I like to engage with. When I found that the brown and the black and the pink were a good thing… and when I accepted that I learned to accept you and all other people. We can love. The answer lies in taking the chance on each other, loving each other,” Kevin stated.
“People of God, racism is real. It lives among us. We as the people of God can make the difference. We can say ‘no’ to this racism. We can say ‘yes’ to the goodness of God… that the colours of the world are beautiful. But we need to do it if we are to be part of the vine.” He observed that Jesus said people would know the people of God by the love they have for one another. “We all need to stand up as the Christian family of God and let them see the love of God in action,” he said. He urged people not to be afraid to use the words black or white as they were the words given to describe colours, but do not let that be the excuse not to love each other.
Racial Justice Sunday is an initiative of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, of which the Church of Ireland is a co–founding member. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Racial Justice Sunday, which was established by the Methodist Church in 1995 following the tragic racist murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence in southeast London in April 1993.
