Abstract
This article uses insights from the life of a network designed to equip ethnically minoritised women ministers in the Baptist Union of Great Britain (Baptist Union) to explore how engaging in a practice of communal womanist readings of biblical texts might aid churches in living out convictions concerning the priesthood of all believers. It sets out a framework for this practice that draws on the work of Renita Weems Just a Sister Away: A Womanist Vision of Women’s Relationships in the Bible. This framework advocates for churches in their discernment processes to centre Black women’s experiences of being marginalised and reflect on the ways in which these experiences might correlate with how women in the Bible relate to each other. It then encourages churches to use these reflections to help enable all believers (‘saints’) who share in the ‘priesthood’ that rests collectively with the church, trust in, and partake in a more just sharing in the responsibilities associated with this priesthood.
1 Introduction
The Baptist Union’s BME Women Ministers’ Network (Network) was established in 2014, in order to help more ethnically minoritised women emerge, survive, and thrive as ministers in the Baptist Union. The story of the life of the Network is in part captured in Richards Ain’t I a Deborah? 1 and in the report the Network facilitators shared to mark the Network coming to a formal end in 2020. 2 These accounts reveal the covenantal nature of the Network gatherings which was expressed through its members (of which I was one) committing themselves to cultivating ‘a culture of honour’. This was about the Network members journeying together ‘in a way that honoured each other and the Christ, under whose rule we were seeking to journey together.’ 3 At the heart of this journeying together was ‘centring the experiences and perspectives of its Black women members, in order to address the barriers that we and others faced in emerging and surviving as ministers, often with the good of the [Baptist Union] as a whole in mind’. 4
Baptists were among the groups of Christian believers in the wake of the Protestant Reformation who adopted a view of the church that can be called “covenantal”. This distinctive ecclesiology…should be regarded as the important fourth strand of the Reformation, alongside Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican forms of church. 5
In such a covenantal understanding of the church, the ‘priesthood’ is said to rest collectively with the local church and not in any individual. This principle is commonly referred to as the priesthood of all believers. Accordingly, members of local Baptist churches, including any ministers of them, have to discern ways of appropriately sharing the responsibilities (e.g. pastoral oversight including preaching, leading Bible studies and the Lord’s Supper etc.) that are associated with this priesthood that collectively rests with them. 6
In the context of the Baptist Union of Great Britain there is also no agreed detailed statement or confession of faith summarising doctrinal positions to which ministers and church members are bound. Rather, there is a short Declaration of Principle (DoP) 7 which all churches and ministers of the Baptist Union promise to adhere to, which as Goodliff has argued has some parallels with the Nicene Creed. 8 Additionally, the DoP can be said to be a shared commitment to arrive at an agreed position on doctrines through a process of together discerning the mind of Christ as revealed in the scriptures. 9
At the heart of churches navigating this terrain well will be building the required trust between all the parties concerned who will often be from a range of social backgrounds. For British Baptists this task of trust building is set within the wider context of British church and society having been shaped by the modern colonialist era that largely oppressed and marginalised groups such as women and Black people. 10 Accordingly, this article will explore how a framework for the practice of communal womanist readings of biblical texts utilised in the life of the Network – a covenantal community – might also be utilised by local churches (and regional and national expressions of church). This is on the premise that the use of this framework might address any injustice in how the responsibilities associated with the priesthood that collectively rests with the church are shared.
2 The Framework for the Practice of Communal Womanist Readings
Before exploring the nature of this framework for communal womanist readings of biblical texts, it is necessary to set out the understanding of ‘womanist’ that is being utilised in this article. This understanding is rooted in Delores Williams’ definition of womanist theology which is concerned with the ‘prophetic voice’ of Black women who are one of the most oppressed and marginalised groups in society. It is about doing theology in ways that take Black women’s experiences (and their wellbeing) seriously. This is on the basis that such approaches will likely offer helpful correctives to understandings of how the Christian faith is to be taught, shared, and lived out for the benefit of the entire church and wider society. 11
I will now consider in turn the four elements of the framework observed in the life of the Network as helpful for the practice of communal womanist readings of biblical texts, that I suggest local churches might usefully adopt for addressing any injustice in the way the responsibilities associated with the priesthood that collectively rests with the church are shared. These four elements comprise a suitable facilitator(s), an appropriately constituted gathering of people, pertinent biblical texts, and a commitment to renewed practices.
2.1 Suitable Facilitator(s)
In the life of the Network, these communal womanist readings were often facilitated by Black lay women who had not undertaken any formal theological studies. The decision to utilise lay facilitators was partly a desire to not further burden Black women ministers, by giving them responsibilities for organising the gatherings, when they already had many other commitments competing for their time. In addition to this, as the coordinator of the Network, I brought to this role a conviction that there are potentially real benefits in utilising lay leaders in the formation of ministers. This conviction stemmed in part from my experiences of being one of a number of lay leaders (who in that instance had undertaken formal theological studies) who served as a tutor at Northern Baptist College (NBC) – also known as Northern Baptist Learning Community (NBLC) – offering one-to-one support and supervision to individuals being formed for ordained Baptist ministry.
we have long worked with God’s people at their own crossroads, not only those who sense a call to ordained ministry but those who are yearning to develop other giftings, seeking validation through learning for lives of wider service as they plumb the depths of all God has to offer to and through them, often breaking cycles of disempowerment. These ministries are not always recognised or valued, and women and children, people of colour or disability, or different sexuality, still suffer injustice and discrimination in the church…we have a track record of standing in solidarity with many marginalised people groups, and have played – and still do – a small part in bringing about change for many hitherto unseen and unheard. 12
In addition to bringing this NBLC vision with me to the Network, I also brought with me (as did a number of the Black women I had encountered) an awareness that over the years, I had garnered much spiritual wisdom from fellow Black women (e.g. family members, deacons at churches I had been members of) who had no formal theological qualifications. This was a spiritual wisdom that helped me navigate life as a Black woman in church and society. Dixon echoed this as she too reflected as a Black woman on the wisdom that she had received from fellow Black women during her journey of becoming an Anglican deacon and priest. She observed that African paradigms of pastoral care have a ‘cultural continuum that stretches back into Africa and into the present,’ and are a ‘communal action and not just the role of the Christian minister.’ Further, ‘Black women have always held (and continue to do so) a central place in this process.’ 13
I therefore suggest that local churches (and regional or national expressions of church) should embrace the potential benefits of utilising lay facilitator(s) for biblical reflections that underpin their discernment processes for justly sharing responsibilities associated with the priesthood that collectively rests with the church. In Baptist settings at least this should not be seen as controversial given Baptists’ founding commitments to congregationally-led ways of being church. Where this task of facilitating biblical reflections as part of discernment processes is delegated to someone who has not undertaken formal theological study, it is helpful if there are others in the space – as was the case in the Network – who have had some formal theological education. This helps to ensure there are some insights available as to how the chosen biblical text fits within the overarching narrative of the Bible; the historical backdrop of the text; and the reception history of the text. At the very least, the gathered group would need to have access to suitable commentaries on the biblical text which provides some of this information.
It is also imperative that any facilitator (whether they are an ordained minister or not) helps to ensure that the voices of all present are heard and helps the gathered group reach consensus agreement on the matters being considered. In the case of the Network, the lay facilitators brought with them experience of moderating spaces in ways that ensure all voices were heard (skills they had gained in public facing caring or other civil service roles). In the task of arriving at consensus agreement in the life of the Network, the facilitators reminded members of the gathering of the covenantal focus of ‘cultivating a culture of honour’. In a local church or wider church contexts, the facilitator would similarly need to remind the gathered group of a commitment to addressing the barriers that Black women and other marginalised groups are facing in church and society.
Whilst the Network only utilised Black facilitators, that need not be the case in discernment processes in local church or wider church contexts. However, I suggest there is a need for the facilitator to have a commitment (through formal or informal theological education) to contextual 14 and liberative 15 approaches to doing theology. This is not a requirement generally expected of facilitators in Baptists gatherings at least, as is evident in Moriarty’s research. Moriarty suggested that effective discernment processes for Baptist churches was encapsulated in the term ‘slow wisdom.’ This helpful ‘slow wisdom’ approach she outlined echoes some of the features found in the Network life – meetings ‘marked by slowness, prayer, prophetic voices, listening, small group work, dialogue and consensus agreement’. 16 However, what her research did not establish was a central role for scripture in these discernment processes. 17 Correspondingly, Moriarty’s research made no reference to the need for facilitator(s) of Baptist gatherings to have a commitment (through formal or informal theological education) to contextual and liberative approaches to doing theology. However, experiences in the life of the Network suggest a central focus on the reading of scripture and a facilitator(s) that has commitments to contextual and liberative approaches to doing theology are important. The potential importance of both of these should become clearer as the next component of the framework for adopting communal womanist readings is considered – an appropriately constituted gathering of people.
2.2 Appropriately Constituted Gathering
One of the ways local churches (and wider regional and national expressions of it) can address colonial legacy issues in their approaches to sharing in responsibilities associated with the priesthood of all believers, is through seeking to reflect on Black women’s experiences of being marginalised in church and society. However, one of the obstacles to doing this is that unlike the Network gatherings, many local churches do not have significant numbers of Black women in their congregations. The potential absence of Black women in some local churches points to just one of the reasons why in many church gatherings the task of reflecting on Black women’s experiences of being marginalised may well need significant curating. However, that is not the only reason.
In some local churches there may be Black women present but they may not feel they have experiences of being marginalised to share. Black women, after all, are not a homogenous group, whilst many may have had such experiences to share not all may have. This was likely one of the reasons why not every Black woman minister within the Baptist Union felt they needed to be a part of the Network. This lack of a conscious personal experience of marginalisation might also lead to some Black women not embracing the concept of there being structural or systemic racialised inequality in church or indeed wider society.
Some of this lack of acknowledgment of systemic inequality may well be the legacy of some of the African-Caribbean diaspora in Britain having internalised what Turner described as a ‘colonial Missionary Christianity’, that was rooted in a Christendom notion of ‘imposing one culture onto another or one religion on to another’, and ‘centred Whiteness and European identity’. 18 Olofinjana identified a similar legacy in relation to some of the African diaspora. 19 Accordingly, Black people who have bought into a European identity and simultaneously see little value in their African heritage are perhaps more likely to be shielded from some of this systemic racial inequality, and may even collude with some of the oppressive practices that underpin it. Consequently, their mere presence in local church gatherings will not aid the process of naming and addressing the barriers that Black women are facing in church and society.
Alternatively, some local churches may find that they have Black women present who identify with such systemic inequality, however, they may not want to share their experiences of it. This might be because they do not want to relive the trauma or they may feel that it is not a safe space for them to share their experiences for fear they will be met with rebuttals. This is where a facilitator having some understanding of, and a commitment to, contextual and liberative approaches to doing theology potentially becomes important, as the mere presence of Black women in the room does not guarantee they will provide the impetus for centring Black women’s experiences of marginalisation. In the process of enabling such contextual and liberative approaches to doing the theology the facilitator will need to be ready, willing, and able to employ contemporary and historical examples of Black women experiencing marginalisation to aid appropriate reflection. This might be in the form of written or audio or audio-visual recorded accounts of Black women’s experiences either read out or played in the gathering, or an especially invited Black woman speaker might be present onsite as the gathering takes place.
These were all options that at times were employed in the life of the Network, for example where the women ministers did not want to recount personal traumas. However, these options were at times also employed because of a sense amongst Network members that there was spiritual wisdom to be found in the stories of contemporary and historical Black woman figures. In other words, they were embracing the doctrine of the community of saints. A doctrine referenced in the Apostles’ Creed – a creed that dates back many centuries and to this day it is recited or affirmed by many branches of the global church including during national and international Baptist gatherings. 20 Indeed, church traditions such as Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican have long embraced the doctrine through adopting an agreed calendar of named saints and having set days in the year where their churches collectively commemorate them. 21 There is no such calendar for Baptists. This is partly because of the level of freedom afforded to each local Baptist church to determine its doctrine (and related practices) and it is partly because of how Baptists have tended to understand the term ‘saints’.
Baptists, as is evident in their earliest confessions of faith, have typically understood ‘saints’ to mean members of Christ’s church whether they are alive on earth or form part of the great cloud of witnesses referred to in Hebrews 12: 1. Furthermore, early Baptists were known to be resistant to designating some saints as ‘the saints’ who were to be seen as particularly worthy of commemoration. They believed this helped to avoid any possibility of leading people into a form of idolatry. 22
Whilst Baptists may not have a formally agreed calendar of saints to work from some local Baptist churches have consciously or unconsciously adopted informal ones. For example, as highlighted by Fiddes, Haymes and Kidd in national British Baptist contexts aspects of the lives of 17th, 18th, and 19th century Baptist figures such as ‘Thomas Helwys (religious liberty), William Carey (the call to mission), and William Knibb (the struggle against slavery and racism)’ have been singled out as worthy of reflecting on as they embody particular characteristics of God. 23 It is notable that the list they provide is entirely of White men because it is only in more recent times in national Baptist life that the examples of some Black women and men have been seen as worthy of reflecting on. An example would be Sam Sharpe, a Black Baptist deacon who led a rebellion against slavery in Jamaica in 1831. Since the launch of the Sam Sharpe Project in 2012, Sharpe has often been remembered in national British Baptist life for his struggle against slavery and racism. 24
In the life of the Network, African-American, Sojourner Truth’s (1797–1883) life story and her struggles for Black women’s rights – captured in her Ain’t I a woman? speech at the 1851 Ohio Woman’s Rights Convention – was drawn upon. 25 As were aspects of the life stories of other notable Black Baptist women in the 20th and 21st centuries who have been singled out as worthy of attention in wider ecumenical settings for challenging racial injustice. This included Revd Dr Kate Coleman (first Black woman minister in the Baptist Union), Pat White (former moderator of the Baptist Union’s Racial Justice Group), and Rosemarie Davidson (first appointed racial justice coordinator for London in the Baptist Union). 26
The use of such Black women’s stories in the life of the Network highlights living out convictions concerning a just sharing in the responsibilities associated with the priesthood of all believers is not unconnected to the communion of saints. Namely, the church comprises ‘the whole company of God’s people, alive and dead…we cannot be the church in all its fullness without one another. To ignore or forget the saints is to diminish our calling in Christ’. 27 Accordingly, an appropriately constituted gathering of people focused on centring Black women’s experiences will need to include those members of the church (saints) visibly present, and as required, also draw on helpful aspects of the life stories of members of the wider communion of saints not present. Such a gathered group would then be well placed to engage with the next element of the framework for communal womanist readings – pertinent biblical texts – to aid the just sharing in responsibilities associated with the priesthood that collectively rests with the church.
2.3 Pertinent Biblical Texts for Communal Womanist Readings
There are three Bible stories that Weems…offered womanist readings of that also featured in Bible reflections offered in life of the Network – Hagar and Sarah, Martha and Mary, and Ruth and Naomi. These reflections in some instances were inspired by Weems’s readings but even in those instances they were by no means read word for word, rather as co-facilitators, we offered the stories of these women in the Bible to be engaged with organically, by all the women present at the gathering. All were invited to bring to the text our experiences of being Black women living in Britain and ministering in the [Baptist Union] in order to equip and care for one another. 28
Each of these three reflections on relationships between women in the Bible experiencing different forms of marginalisation opened up different angles for reflection. Firstly, there was the relationship between Hagar and Sarah told in Genesis 16:1–16; 21:1–21 described by Weems as a story of ‘exploitation and persecution suffered by an Egyptian slave woman at the hands of her Hebrew mistress.’ 29 Weems highlighted an African reference in the text (Egypt) and correlated Hagar’s experiences as an Egyptian with African-American’s experiences of exploitation at the hands of White European American women (and men) during slavery and later in domestic help roles. In the life of the Network there were similar stories shared of British Black women’s African ancestors having also been enslaved and their descendants later being mis-treated and exploited in post-second world war Britain as they migrated there from British colonies (or former British colonies) in continental Africa and/or the Caribbean. 30
In contrast, Weems’ reflections on the book of Ruth and the relationship within it between Ruth and Naomi, who are from different ethnic backgrounds, offered some insights into the possibilities of achieving healthy inter-ethnic relationships. In Weems’ words, their relationship ‘typifies the special friendship that can develop between women, despite differences in age, nationality, and religion.’ 31 The foundation of such a relationship was highlighted by Weems as a covenantal commitment akin to ‘words spoken between a woman and a man, pledging faithfulness to each other in holy matrimony.’ 32 In the life of the Network there was scope for similar hope that such inter-ethnic friendships might be possible between White and Black women (and men), and that such friendships would additionally entail these friends seeing value in the cultures associated with their respective ethnic backgrounds. 33
Weems’ reflections on the story of Mary and Martha found in Luke 10:38–42, John 11:1–44; 12:1–8, whilst focused on two women of a same ethnic background, highlighted the fact that they were ethnically Jewish and thus part of an ethnic group under imperial rule within their wider context. 34 This enabled her to then highlight the discrimination they experienced as women who are also part of an ethnically minoritised group and how Mary and Martha had differing but equally valid ways of navigating this according to their respective giftings and callings. In the life of the Network, there was also recognition that its constituent members also had equally valid and differing ways of navigating the challenges they faced as ethnically minoritised Black women in Britain. 35
These are just three examples of biblical stories that centre women’s relationships that could be used to open up all sorts of possibilities for reflecting on ethnically minoritised women’s ongoing experiences of oppression and marginalisation. These reflections should then lead to questions and commitments about how these insights might inform a renewed praxis, that addresses Black women’s and other’s experiences of marginalisation and oppression in church and wider society.
2.4 Renewed Practices and Communal Womanist Readings
Womanist readings of the kind of pertinent biblical texts, such as the three already outlined in this article, can then serve as potential aids for highlighting the need for church practices to be transformed as part of an ongoing journey of reparation. A journey that seeks to remove barriers to some marginalised groups justly sharing in the responsibilities associated with the priesthood of all believers. The life of the Network was set in the wider context of the British Baptists’ own journey of reparation in relation to the treatment of Black people, and the Network sought to use its communal womanist readings to aid this journey.
The roots of this British Baptist journey of reparation might be traced back to the wider story of abolition of slavery in overseas British territories, through efforts of White British campaigners such as William Knibb (a Baptist), and Black enslaved activists like Sam Sharpe (a Baptist) and the unnamed women who assisted him. 36 It is however unfortunate that the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 contained provisions for a £20 million pay-out to the slave owners as opposed to the enslaved, and required these now ‘free’ people to work an unpaid apprenticeship for a number of years. Thus, it did little to further the journey of reparation. 37
Reddie, Hudson-Roberts, and Richards note some of the key components of the British Baptists ongoing journey of reparation which includes the Baptist Union national council’s actions of establishing a racial justice group in the 1990s; issuing an Apology in 2007 for Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and delivering it to the Jamaica Baptist Union; and commissioning The Journey research and then affirming the resultant The Journey recommendations issued in 2011. The preamble to the six The Journey recommendations stated the recommendations were designed to ‘address and overcome the sin of racism, which the Baptist Union of Great Britain fully recognizes to be present among individual Baptists, our churches, associations, colleges, central offices and structures.’ 38
The Network, when it was established in 2014 for Black and ethnically minoritised women ministers, was actually part of the outworking of these recommendations. The Network was also an important vehicle for assisting the Baptist Union in centring Black women’s experiences in its discernment processes. The suggestions and recommendations for transformed practices the Network offered to the Baptist Union came out of a Network life shaped by its members reading pertinent biblical texts from their social location.
A clear theme within these calls for changed practices was the need to centre Black women’s experiences to aid wider understanding within the Baptist Union about the ongoing impact of the legacies of British Black women’s African ancestors having been enslaved, and their descendants later being mis-treated and exploited in post-second world war Britain. In making this call, the Network could be considered as suggesting there must be concern for the mistreatment of Hagars (Black women) not just Sarahs (White women), as it offered critical reflection on the women’s justice agenda within the Baptist Union. There were also suggestions from the Network that inter-ethnic friendships rooted in covenant relationship might still be possible, which could be said to be drawing on a womanist reading of story of Ruth and Naomi. Similarly, the Network’s insistence on there being a recognition of the diversity in the giftings and callings of ethnically minoritised women in how they articulate and seek to navigate the barriers they face, could be said to be drawing on a womanist reading of the story of Mary and Martha.
One of the clearest ways in which these calls and suggestions can be seen as rooted in such womanist readings is through the Network’s involvement in the Baptist Union’s Celebrating, Surviving and Thriving – Women in Baptist Ministry conference in 2018. The conference was held to mark the centenary of the first woman in the Baptist Union – Edith Gates – holding pastoral charge of a church. There were opportunities for input from the Network in the context of the planning team that organised the conference, as well as in shaping the programme content and the end of conference statement that was developed for the wider Baptist Union.
The planning team for the conference consisted of two White British women from the Baptist Union’s Gender Justice Group, and one Black British woman (myself) from the Network. One of the challenges we faced was how to build trust and understanding between us as we discerned the programme content, whilst navigating the ongoing legacies of an ongoing journey of reparation in British Baptist church life and beyond. Whilst we were together overseeing the development and implementation of the programme and end of conference statement, we were in effect asking – How might two White women – the ‘Sarahs’ – appropriately exercise their power towards ethnically minoritised Black women – the ‘Hagars’? Additionally, how might we build inter-ethnic friendships rooted in covenantal relationship (like ‘Ruths’ and ‘Naomis’) to aid this? In the end of conference statement, how might we recognise and articulate the diversity in the giftings and callings (like Mary and Martha) of ethnically minoritised women in how they see and seek to overcome the barriers they face?
I never explicitly brought these exact questions into the planning meetings or the conference, and the three of us never engaged with these biblical texts together in order to address the barriers Black women face in Baptist Union life. However, I did so implicitly. These kinds of questions had been rehearsed in the life of the Network, and thus informed what I brought to the planning and actual conference space. It will also have likely informed what other Network participants brought to the conference space and in the Network’s post-conference comments on the published end of conference statement.
The signs of this are evident in the Network’s sense of need to add post-conference commentary to the published end of conference statement that had been written by all the women present at the conference, in order to emphasise the potential different experiences and treatment of women of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This need is expressed firstly through the Network’s commentary naming the ‘different cultural lenses that people from different ethnic backgrounds might bring in their understandings of womanhood and manhood’, and then suggesting there was a need to subject these different understandings to theological reflection. It is also expressed in the Network’s call in its commentary for ‘those in positions of influence’ within Baptist Union structures to educate themselves as to the diverse experiences of Black women, to ensure they are able to put in place ‘appropriate accompaniers’ for them as they explore and pursue ordained Baptist ministry. Additionally, it is expressed in the Network’s call within its commentary for ‘an ethnically diverse range of Baptist churches’ be encouraged ‘to declare an interest in offering opportunities’ for Black women. Finally, it is also expressed in the Network’s call for ‘the collection and analysis of data and use of stories and images’ pertaining to Black women’s experiences (including of marginalisation), in order to inform the Baptist Union’s plans for discerning how best to reshape its policies, processes and structures. 39
3 Conclusion
This article, using a British Baptist perspective, has explored how engaging in a practice of communal womanist readings of biblical texts might aid local churches (and regional and national expressions of it) in living out convictions concerning the priesthood of all believers. It has focused on how such womanist readings might enable local churches to centre women’s experiences of oppression and marginalisation to address any injustice in how the responsibilities associated with the priesthood (e.g. pastoral oversight including preaching, leading Bible studies and the Lord’s Supper etc.) that is said to collectively rest with the church are shared.
It has also suggested that an appropriate framework for these communal womanist readings needs to include a suitable facilitator(s), an appropriately constituted gathering of people, pertinent biblical texts, and a commitment to renewed practices. Such a framework, it has been argued, might help enable all believers (‘saints’) who share in the ‘priesthood’ that rests collectively with the church, trust in, and partake in a more just sharing in the responsibilities associated with this priesthood, as God intends.
An (auto) ethnographic study of the life of the Network is captured in: Gale Richards, Ain’t I a Deborah? – the womanist perspectives of Black British women leaders and the renewal of Baptist church practices (Unpublished PhD in Divinity, University of Aberdeen, 2024) pp. 85–96. Available at: https://abdn.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/delivery/44ABE_INST:44ABE_VU1/12213765670005941 (accessed 15 April 2025).
The Network operated from 2014–2019 and was formally disbanded in 2020. The coordinator and co-facilitators of the Network – Gale Richards, Leoner Gardner-Howard, and Carol Moore – offered their reflections on the life of the Network in the form of a report in February 2020. Available at: https://www.baptist.org.uk/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=255877 (accessed 15 April 2025).
Gale Richards, Ain’t I a Deborah?… p. 121.
Gale Richards, Ain’t I a Deborah?… p. 121.
Paul S Fiddes, ‘Covenanting Churches’ in van der Leer, Teun, Bakker, Henk, Steven, R Harmon, and Newman, Elizabeth (eds), Seeds of the Church – Towards an Ecumenical Baptist Ecclesiology (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2022), p. 32.
The term ‘royal priesthood’ from 1 Peter 2:9 was used by Martin Luther in the Reformation period to speak of a priesthood of all Christians and this has been interpreted in various ways by different church traditions. For a discussion on how Baptists have interpreted it, see: Brian C. Brewer ‘A Baptist View of Ordained Ministry’ Baptist Quarterly, Volume 43, Issue 3, (2009), pp. 154–169.
The Declaration of Principle comprises three short paragraphs. It is the first paragraph that sets out how local churches may arrive at their doctrinal understandings, and it reads: ‘That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each Church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His laws.’ It is included in the constitutions many Baptist Union churches will have. (A copy of the DoP is available at: https://www.baptist.org.uk/Groups/220595/Declaration_of_Principle.aspx – accessed 15 April 2025). There is also continuing debate as to whether ‘His laws’ relates to particular sections of the scriptures or all of scripture (See: Jeff Jacobson Jeff Jacobson ‘An Exploration of the First Clause of the Declaration of Principle’ in Helen Paynter and Peter Hatton (eds), Attending to the Margins – Essays in Honour of Stephen Finamore (Oxford: Centre for Baptist Studies, Regent’s Park College, 2022), pp. 270–275.
Andy Goodliff ‘English Baptists Confessing the Faith in the Twentieth Century; A Response to Chistopher Cocker’, Baptist Quarterly (2024), pp. 1–13.
However, there is also continuing debate as to whether the phrase ‘His laws’ in the DoP relates to particular sections of the scriptures or all of scripture (See: Jeff Jacobson Jeff Jacobson ‘An Exploration of the First Clause of the Declaration of Principle’ in Helen Paynter and Peter Hatton (eds), Attending to the Margins – Essays in Honour of Stephen Finamore (Oxford: Centre for Baptist Studies, Regent’s Park College, 2022), pp. 270–275.
For discussion on how White Europeans ruled and shaped much of the thinking of the world from the 1500s, see: Willie Jennings, ‘Can white people be saved? Reflections on the relationship of missions and whiteness’ in Sechrest, L. Love, Johnny Ramírez-Johnson, and Amos Yong (eds) ‘Can ‘white’ people be saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission (Illinois: IVP Academic, 2018), pp. 27–28.
See: Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (New York, Orbis Books, 1993), p. xiv.
‘A Departing Message from Anne Phillips’ 3 August 2013. Available at: https://northernbc.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/a-departing-message-from-anne-phillips/ (accessed 28 July 2025).
Lorraine Dixon, ‘A black woman and deacon: a womanist reflection on pastoral ministry’ in Joe Aldred (ed), Sisters with Power (London: Continuum, 2000), pp. 56–57.
This is best expressed by Bevans (2012) as ‘a way of doing theology that takes into account (or we could say puts in a mutually critical dialogue) two realities. The first of these is the experience of the past, recorded in Scripture and preserved and defended in the church’s tradition. The second is the experience of the present or a particular context, which consists of one or more of at least four elements: personal or communal experience, ‘secular’ or ‘religious’ culture, social location, and social change’ (see: Stephen B. Bevans ‘What has Contextual Theology to Offer the Church for the Twenty-first Century?’, in Stephen B. Bevans and Katalina Tahaafe-Williams (eds), Contextual Theology for the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co. Ltd, 2012) p. 9.
These are contextual theologies that begin with the experiences of marginalised and oppressed groups (e.g. Black and Brown people, women, people with disabilities, and LGBT+ communities) and are focused on transforming the underlying structures and practices enabling this oppression, womanist theology is one such example.
Ruth Moriarty, How do Baptists discern the mind of Christ at the Church Meeting? (Great Britain: Amazon, 2024), p. 166.
Ruth Moriarty, How do Baptists… p. 114.
Carlton Turner, Caribbean Contextual Theology: An Introduction (London: SCM, 2024), p. 7.
Israel Oluwole Olofinjana, ‘Introduction: Towards African Theology in Britain’ in Israel Oluwole Olofinjana (ed), African Voices: Towards African British Theologies (Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2017), pp. 8–10.
See: Andy Goodliff ‘English Baptists Confessing the Faith in the Twentieth Century: A Response to Christopher Crocker’ Baptist Quarterly, Volume 56, Issue 1 (2025), pp. 12–13.
For examples of calendars of saints in the Catholic tradition, see: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/ in the Orthodox tradition, see: https://www.oca.org/fs and in the Anglican tradition, see: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year#na (accessed 28 July 2025).
See: Paul S. Fiddes, Brian Haymes, and Richard Kidd, Baptists and the Communion of Saints: A Theology of Covenanted Disciples (Waco: Baylor University Press,2014), pp. 10–15.
Paul S. Fiddes, Brian Haymes, and Richard Kidd, Baptists and the Communion of Saints… p. 25.
For more details on the Sam Sharpe Project which is built on a partnership between Jamaican and British Baptists, see: https://www.baptist.org.uk/Groups/310750/Sam_Sharpe_Project.aspx (accessed 28 July 2025).
For more details on the life of Sojourner Truth see: Sojourner Truth, and Olive Gilbert (ed). The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (New York: Open Road Integrated Media, Inc., (2010) [1850]).
For further details on their contributions, see: Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, Racial Justice Champions Volume 1(London: CTBI, 2021), p. 21, and p. 59.
See: Paul S. Fiddes, Brian Haymes, and Richard Kidd, Baptists and the Communion of Saints…p. 20.
Gale Richards, Ain’t I a Deborah?… p. 137.
Renita Weems, Just a Sister Away: A Womanist Vision of Women’s Relationships in the Bible (San Diego: Lura Media, 1988), p. 1.
Gale Richards, Ain’t I a Deborah?… pp. 139–140.
Renita Weems, Just a Sister Away…pp. 24–25.
Renita Weems, Just a Sister Away…p. 28.
Gale Richards, Ain’t I a Deborah?… p. 145.
Renita Weems, Just a Sister Away, p. 45.
Gale Richards, Ain’t I a Deborah?… p. 148.
For a commentary on women involved in the rebellion see: Verene A Shepherd ‘Women in Sam Sharpe’s Army: Repression, Resistance, Reparation’ in E. P. Louis and Rosemarie Davidson, The Sam Sharpe Lectures – History, Rebellion and Reform (London: SCM, 2023), pp. 64–84.
This payment of £20 million compensation was confirmed by the British Government in a response to a freedom of information request in 2018. Details of this are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/slavery-abolition-act-1833 (accessed: 28 July 2025).
Anthony Reddie, Wale Hudson-Roberts, and Gale Richards, Journeying to Justice: Contributions to the Baptist Tradition across the Black Atlantic (Bletchley: Paternoster, 2017), p. 226.
A copy of the end of conference statement ‘..and your daughters shall prophesy' is available on the Baptist Union website: https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/528549/_and_your.aspx (accessed 28 July 2025); and for a copy of the Network’s commentary on the statement, see: Gale Richards, Ain’t I a Deborah?… pp. 197–198.
