The Caribbean Contribution - Stories from Notting Hill Methodist Church

By Claudius Steven

In the fast paced 21st century United Kingdom, for people of African Caribbean origin, white Anglo-Saxons and everyone else, the personal stories we tell are mostly of our day-to-day lives and future aspirations. But what can we learn from the stories of the Windrush Caribbean generation and its successor generation in telling t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notting Hill Methodist Church
• Release date: Jun 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781739695118

Book preview

The Caribbean Contribution

Stories from Notting Hill Methodist Church

Claudius Steven with Others

Church entrance and people 1960s

From Action Project Lent 1974

Street scene 1960s

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1. Racism

2. Housing

3. Youth

4. Politics – the Church in the world

5. Priesthood of all believers

6. Worship

7. Carnival

8. And today…

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

References

A note from Courtney Pine, British Jazz Musician

Foreword

Anthony Reddie

I was born into Methodism. Mine has been a long and not always easy relationship with British Methodism. For several years, for reasons that need not detain us at this juncture, my relationship with the church into which I was born was a fractious and difficult one. In these difficult years the one bright spot was being invited to Notting Hill Methodist Church on Sunday 19 May 2019 to preach on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Programme to Combat Racism (PCR). Being invited to lead the worship and preach on the Sunday morning was both a personal delight and an honour, but it also helped to restore my faith in the inherent radicalism and prophetic nature of British Methodism.

In what proved to be a wonderful day, in which worship was followed by a community meal, we then had the highlight, a pilgrimage to the old church site in order to unveil a plaque to mark the spot of the 1969 WCC consultation that gave rise to the Programme to Combat Racism. This day was a special one for Notting Hill Methodist Church and also for the wider tradition of British Methodism.

In remembering this day, I was reminded of the powerful, prophetic mission and ministry that has been exerted by this remarkable church. Remembering the 50th anniversary of the founding of the PCR was a marvellous occasion. Seeing one’s ‘mothers and fathers’ in the faith featured, such as the Rev Donald Eadie and Mr Ivan Weekes, both of whose voices are recorded in this splendid book, was a reminder of what has made this church such a special place in West London. This church also exemplifies the wider mythology of the Methodist tradition and its impact on the Christian story of these islands. This book not only seeks to tell the story of Notting Hill Methodist Church, but it also provides the narrative backdrop to what has made the Methodist Church of Great Britain distinctive in terms of her commitment to social and racial justice and wider issues of equity in this country and beyond. I would not have become a Black liberation theologian were it not for the formative grounding in this particular Christian tradition.

This fine book reminds us that the formation of the Programme to Combat Racism in Notting Hill Methodist Church in 1969 was no accident. The seeds of a form of Christian radicalism and prophetic missional work had long preceded this event. This book outlines the many areas where this church blazed a trail of radical anti-racism that many other churches are struggling to emulate in our present post-George Floyd epoch. This book uses the first-person experience of prominent members of the church to tell their story. The story of Notting Hill Methodist Church is a story of the passionate desire to live out the practical dimensions of social holiness that is seeking not only to transform individual hearts and minds, but is also attempting to redeem unjust structures and systems.

Programme to Combat Racism plaque at Etheline Holder Hall

Photo by Stephen Duckworth

The story of Notting Hill Methodist Church represents in microcosm all that has made the Methodist tradition in the UK important. It is a reminder of what the best of us is. And yet it is also a distinctive story that reminds us that not all churches have had such a radical social vision, not even all Methodist ones. I read this book as an inspiring narrative that reminds us of the possibilities of personal and social transformation when hearts are strangely warmed and there is a collective vision of change amongst the people of God.

I hope that all people reading this book will be inspired. Inspired by the stories of hope and righteousness recounted in the words of ordinary people of faith. Inspired to believe that we can all make a difference and that faith can make a difference. But it is also an important reminder that as British Methodism seeks to find a new way forward against a backdrop of numerical decline and diminished resources, the tradition would do well to heed the stories of Notting Hill