A Church of England archdeacon is facing calls to resign amid a “woke” row over “anti-white” comments she made online.
The Ven Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Archdeacon of Liverpool, had said on social media: “Let’s have anti whiteness, and let’s smash the patriarchy.”
But her comments prompted a litany of outraged reactions, with some online commentators describing them as “racist”, “divisive” and “nonsensical”.
When one social media user said: “Slightly confused by this , so being born white is wrong?”, Dr Threlfall-Holmes replied: “No, that was my exact point! Seek out the training.”
Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes said she regretted taking to social media to make the comments
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Another said: “Oh GROW UP. What the heck is wrong with you? Why do you seek to DIVIDE when your job description is literally to bring people together?? It’s utterly grotesque.”
However, the archdeacon hit back, telling the Telegraph: “I was contributing to a debate about world views, in which ‘whiteness’ does not refer to skin colour per se, but to a way of viewing the world where being white is seen as ‘normal’ and everything else is considered different or lesser.
“I do however understand that this is not a definition that is widely shared as yet outside of academic circles, and regret that Twitter was perhaps not the best place for a nuanced argument.”
Last October, Dr Threlfall-Holmes, who advises church leaders on implanting safeguarding reforms, attended the “Racial Justice Conference” in Birmingham on “waking up to and addressing whiteness in the Anglican church”.
MORE CHURCH OF ENGLAND MADNESS:
The day-long event, organised by Reconciliation Initiatives, a charity working with Coventry Cathedral to help churches “contribute to reconciliation in wider society”, aimed to “encourage white participants to take next steps in facing their own whiteness, and in addressing institutional racism within Anglican churches and provinces”.
Reconciliation Initiatives also runs a “Being White” course aimed at church members who “identify racially as white” which addresses “the ways we are caught up in a system of white superiority and white advantage in UK society”.
Source Agencies
