Racial Justice Sunday 2025

Sunday 9th February 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Racial Justice Sunday.

This tradition was started by the Methodist Church in 1995, following the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. It’s an opportunity for churches and Christians from all backgrounds and traditions to pray for a world where everyone’s dignity is respected, and our diversity is celebrated.

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland have produced resources around this year’s theme of ‘Coat of Many Colours’ which you can find here.

Leeds Church Institute has been working on faith and racial justice for years. We’ve compiled all the resources we’ve created into one place, so you can explore racial justice on this special Sunday.

The Hook Lecture 2025

Our 2025 Hook Lecture was given by Richard Reddie, Director of Justice and Inclusion for Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI), who called us to tend to our anti-racism like a garden, and embed anti-racism in every aspect of church life.

You can see the full recording here, and hear responses from Leeds community leaders here.

Testament to Truth: Exploring Racism

Writer, rapper and beatboxer Testament devised these hard-hitting monologues for our Churches Against Racism event in April 2025. They are excellent insights into the everyday microaggressions faced by Black people in white-majority churches. These videos were created by the Church of England as learning resources for clergy training.

Visitor (8 minutes)

A family looking for a new place to worship desperately need community, welcome, and a real Church family. Instead, they are met with pleasantries – but two years later, it’s clear they’re still outsiders.

Chocolate Digestive (6 minutes)

The vicar of a parish church is thrilled to welcome the new Black curate as ‘a breath of fresh air, yeah brotha’. But his ignorance is uncovered when he’s reluctant to speak out for true racial justice.

Leeds Lives

LCI hosted a series of conversations with people from the Black community in Leeds, inviting them to share their stories of faith in the city, and the marginalisation they have experienced.

Questions Against Racism

These are the questions you asked at our Churches Against Racism event last April. They could be helpful discussion starters for your church, or prompts for your own reflections.

You can download the resource as a pdf here