The Church Electoral Roll - Why it is so important

The ethnic survey

This year, for the first time, another form will be attached to the Electoral Roll form and we hope that everyone will fill it in. This form is an ethnic survey and it will be used across the whole of the Church of England to find out authoritively what proportion of the congregation is minority ethnic and how such members are represented in church governance structures.

This survey has come about because of a motion put to the General Synod on behalf of Southwark Diocese which encouraged the collection of this information. So, we need to ensure that as many people as possible in Southwark fill in the form.

The survey is an opportunity to recognise the diversity that currently exists within the church. Recognising diversity may lead to awareness of under representation of the kind that we have discovered here in Southwark Diocese. This in turn can lead to action to address such under representation. So, an ethnic question can be a powerful tool in pointing the way towards improving how we make our institutions more inclusive.

"We are all one in Christ"

Some people say that, whereas we are all one in Christ, a question about ethnicity draws attention to racial differences and is divisive. To be all one in Christ means that God loves and values us equally, with our differences, so the Church on earth should reflect and value our God given diversity. Ethnic monitoring gives us a factual basis for establishing whether we are valuing the diversity within the congregation. Without the facts, we are left to deal with gut feeling, making guesses, and supposition - always a poor basis for making decisions about racial difference that do matter.

What the Diocese of Southwark is doing

The Diocese takes the electoral roll and the issues it raises this year very seriously. We have used the services of Operation Black Vote to identify ways of encouraging good levels of enrolment. There will be a poster and leaflet campaign in churches as a positive reminder to all the congregation to re-enrol. This campaign celebrates the multi ethnic nature of our congregations, and highlights the benefits of enrolment. The Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns Committee will take a keen interest in the information which results, looking to see whether minority ethnic representation is improving, and to determine if further work is required to enable the Diocese to celebrate its racial diversity throughout all its structures.