Church leaders Statement:

We the Church leaders of Bourne End, Flackwell Heath, Wooburn Green, and

Loudwater want to add our voices to the indignation which has been shown

across the world at the brutal killing of George Floyd, and the systematic racism that lies behind it.

We name racism as a sin that causes division and as being against the will of God,

who created all people in His own image and likeness.

It is not enough to assert that we are ‘not racist’, we must be actively anti-racist and so we commit ourselves to root out racism, in all its forms, both within our church communities and in the areas within which we are called to minister.

We affirm the words of The Bible from the book of Revelation: ‘Before the throne

of the Lamb (who is Jesus) there was a huge number from every nation, race, tribe

and language’ (Revelation 7:9). 

We declare that God loves all humanity throughout time, not just one group, one person or one period of historical time. God has made known his ways to us through Jesus who chose to become one of us and taught us to love all people.

We offer the following prayer, attributed to St Francis of Assisi, as a focus of our own

prayer for our divided world:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen