Professor Robert Beckford will headline at two Black History Month events organised by the diocese's GMH/UKME Ministers Network and partners at Queens Theological Foundation.
On Saturday 18 October he'll be the main speaker at St John's Church, Wolverhampton as part of a Cultural Festival hosted by Bishop Michael and Bishop Tim, alongside live music, food and a gospel choir. The festival has been made possible in part with a grant from West Mids Racial Justice Initiative.
The Revd Canon Dr Taiwo Olumuyiwataiwo, chair of the organising team said:
“Meeting each other in a festival of food, music and friendship means encountering the familiar and unfamiliar. It is my hope that this occasion will be one where we see ourselves and each other, our pasts and our present through the eyes of Jesus to whom we entrust the future.”
More info and free tickets via Eventbrite.
Meanwhile, The Queen's Foundation, our main partner for Reader and ordination training, is holding two events:
The Inaugural Robert Beckford Lecture.
Marking three decades of pioneering scholarship and activism in the intersection of faith, popular culture, and justice, this lecture asks what kind of Christian thought is vital in a world marked by the resurgence of neofascism and the emergence of cryptic forms of reparations. It’s title:
“Where Do We Go from Here? A ‘Fass*’ Christianity for a time of ‘Ginnal*.”
Thursday 23 October 2025, 7.30pm
Free. In person only. *Jamaican Patois: fass - an excessively curious person Ginnal - a nosy or tricky person.
Icons of the Invisible: Painting the sacred in the overlooked
Drawing from an exclusive body of work and two major commissions by visual artist Eddy Aigbe: Stations of the Cross for Hodge Hill Church, Birmingham and We Are All Saints for All Saints Church, Loughborough – this exhibition invites us to see holiness not as something distant or reserved for the few, but as something lived, struggled through, and embodied in the margins.
Tuesday 7 October, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Wednesday 8 October, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Thursday 9 October, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
More information from Queens Foundation
BHM where you are
It isn't necessary to travel to Wolverhampton or Queens to recognise and celebrate the contributions of Black people to Britain.
There is a swathe of resources suitable for Black History Month - interviews, meditations, prayers and more on the Church of England website suitable for personal prayer and comntemplation and congregational use.