Racial Justice Sunday shines a light on Caribbean and African songwriters
Last Sunday, 9 February, saw Racial Justice Sunday marked with the launch of an initiative to spotlight the music of Caribbean and African songwriters in British and Irish churches.
The digital platform, called SongShare, aims to address inequities experienced by Black music creators in churches, and to offer them greater visibility.
The launch coincides with the 30th anniversary of Racial Justice Sunday, organized by Churches Together in Britain & Ireland (CTBI) and Churches Together in England (CTE).
Quakers are members of both CTBI and CTE and were founder members of the British Council of Churches, which became CTBI.
Despite theological divides, Quakers work with these organisations to connect across faiths to build communities and oppose all forms of racism.
In 2021 Quakers declared their commitment to becoming an anti-racist faith community. The following year they agreed to consider how to make reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.
SongShare will be an accessible database of audio, visual and downloadable resources of Caribbean and African works.
To mark the launch, SongShare released the Racial Justice Sunday special edition Spotify playlist, including works by Noel Robinson, Muyiwa and Jake Isaac.
British churches are increasingly diverse, but still marked by racial inequality.
CTE's Shermara Fletcher-Hoyte said: “We can continue to treat [Racial Justice Sunday] as a mere notation on our liturgical calendar, or we can embrace it as God's call to transformation."