St Augustine has been depicted as a black man in a kids’s guide written by Church of England officers as a part of its variety drive.
The saint, some of the influential figures in Christian historical past, has been illustrated as black in a brand new guide referred to as Heroes of Hope.
This guide says it seeks to encourage kids with examples of ‘Black and brown saints, usually erased and whitewashed from historical past, who fashioned the church and subsequently trendy society as we all know it at this time’.
Aurelius Augustinus was born in 345 AD in a Mediterranean coastal city now in modern-day Algeria, occurring to develop into a bishop of the North African settlement of Hippo.
Over time, most depictions of St Augustine have been of a white man.
At the moment in historical past, the realm was a Roman province, though Augustine and his mom Saint Monica could have originated from the North African Berber ethnic group.
Though this may not make him black, there have been efforts to use this id to him by some teams, together with on the Catholic College of Villanova in Pennsylvania.
An official on the college wrote in 2023 that it was vital to depict the saint as black as a result of ‘depicting St. Augustine as a Black man actively decentres whiteness’.
St Augustine has been depicted as a black man in a kids’s guide (pictured) written by Church of England officers as a part of its variety drive
Aurelius Augustinus (pictured as a white man) was born in 345 AD in a Mediterranean coastal city now in modern-day Algeria, occurring to develop into a bishop of the North African settlement of Hippo
St Augustine was illustrated as black within the new guide Heroes of Hope – alongside 21 different various figures
Heroes of Hope was co-authored by The Rev Dr Sharon Prentis, who was appointed the deputy director of the Church of England’s Racial Justice Unit in January 2023.
The unit was arrange in 2022, within the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, to assist meet the Church’s commitments to attaining racial justice.
Dr Prentis’s co-writer was Alysia-Lara Ayonrinde, the Church’s nationwide training lead for racial justice.
The Church’s earlier work on racial justice has included efforts to make Christian paintings extra various, whereas clergy have declared that ‘God is just not a white man’.
Though the CofE is predicated in white-majority England, round 80 per cent of the worldwide Anglican Communion is black.
Heroes of Hope describes itself as a guide that ‘celebrates the achievements of Christians of worldwide majority heritage’, the place youngsters will uncover 22 inspirational individuals from totally different backgrounds and cultures.
The guide is being revealed by the Society for Selling Christian Data, the most important unbiased Christian writer within the UK.
The writer wrote: ‘From the cities of Europe to the deserts of Africa, from the wild open areas of America to the busy streets of China, and from the inexperienced, tropical Solomon Islands to the mines of Bolivia, every individual featured on this guide has made a distinction of their native communities in their very own distinctive approach.’
The Church can have a restricted variety of free copies to distribute to colleges, in line with the Telegraph.
Heroes of Hope was co-authored by The Rev Dr Sharon Prentis (pictured), who was appointed the deputy director of the Church of England’s Racial Justice Unit in January 2023
Though the CofE is predicated in white-majority England, round 80 per cent of the worldwide Anglican Communion is black. Pictured: Canterbury Cathedral, Kent
In 2023 the Every day Mail revealed kids in Church of England colleges have been being taught the ‘pyramid of white supremacy’ anti-racism concept. Pictured: the graphic given to colleges
The foreword of the guide was written by Lord Paul Boateng, a Labour peer who was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005.
He was the UK’s first Black Cupboard Minister in Might 2002, when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
The depiction of St Augustine as black comes as kids’s books are putting a larger give attention to variety.
An illustrated kids’s guide entitled Sensible Black British Historical past raised eyebrows in 2023 when it claimed that ‘the very first Britons have been black’ and that Stonehenge was constructed whereas Britain was ‘a black nation’.
It was written by Atinuke, a Nigerian-born British writer, with the introduction stating that Britain has been ‘largely a white nation for lots much less time than it has been largely a black nation’.
The CoE’s St Augustine portrayal comes within the wake of the earlier Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, calling the church ‘deeply institutionally racist’ in 2020.
He has led the church from 2013 till January 2025, and within the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd protests arrange a taskforce which produced the Lament to Motion report.
The report reviewed 36 years of racial justice historical past within the church and made 47 proposals to finish a ‘rut of inaction’ spanning a number of a long time.
In the meantime, it was revealed in 2023 that Church of England colleges have been being taught the ‘pyramid of white supremacy’ anti-racism concept.
The idea was displayed to colleges in a graphic put collectively by the US-based Equality Institute, which describes itself as a ‘international feminist company working to advance gender equality and finish violence towards ladies and women’.
The doc explicitly informed academics to make use of ‘visuals’ together with the pyramid to ‘assist pupils perceive how bias, stereotypes and prejudice can result in racist phrases and actions, resulting in bodily hurt and loss of life’.
The function works to deal with monuments and artworks linked to the slave commerce.
It’s a part of the 11-person staff from the church’s Racial Justice Unit and features a director, programme supervisor, theologian, communications catalyst and 6 improvement employees.
Though some Reverends disapproved of the spending and accused the Church of ‘ingesting the crucial race Kool Help’ and indulging in ‘scholar politics’.
