Equality

We believe that everyone is made in the image of God and is of equal value, and is worthy of love and respect. That includes you! Therefore, we want to be a welcoming community where everyone, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy (protected characteristics), can find a home and feel comfortable and valued; where people encounter the Holy Spirit and are transformed. 

We also want to be inclusive of those who are vulnerable, disempowered and overlooked for whatever reason. We know that disadvantage and discrimination exist in society, and that the church is not immune to this. We are committed to striving to eliminate inequality. See more about our vision for equality here. 

We believe that  black lives matter. We are appalled by the injustices in this world, brought to light again in the brutal death of George Floyd.   As we are members together of one race, the human race, racism of any kind is evil.  We know that the church has not always stood against injustice and we are sorry for staying silent when we should have spoken.

We stand alongside the Evangelical Alliance's call for justice to unite across all ethnicities and to say and show that all people are equal, regardless of their race or ethnicity. As Latymer Community Church, we commit to pray, act, listen, learn and change. We are part of the Pioneer Network and their statement can be found here

As part of our commitment to learning, we have been watching some really helpful content online.
LCM Missionary, Andrew Barnett who was based at Latymer Community Church,  had a Covid Conversation: Race, Racism, Covid and Christ which can be viewed here
Ben Lindsay, author of "We need to talk about race" talks about bringing down racial and ethnic barriers in our congregations here
Watch Pastor Agu Irukwu, Senior Pastor of Jesus House, London response to George Floyd's murder here  
Talking about Race: Difficult Conversations that Lead to Change from the Global Leadership Network can be found here
Racism and Corporate Evil: A White Guy's Perspective by Tim Keller is here

We recognise that unconscious bias affects us all - find out more here  
Rather than being overwhelmed by the scale of the issue, there are practical things we can do. For example, you can check out which big companies  have signed the Race at Work charter   and use this to inform your choices. This article  explains more about the links between slavery, racial injustice and the need for change in global trade and encourages us to buy Fairtrade products. At Latymer, we are proud to be a Fairtrade Church.