Bishop of Kirkstall says C of E has people ‘deeply resistant to any funding for racial justice’ after budget halved
The Church of England is susceptible to the influence of “extreme views from abroad and at home”, a bishop has warned after church officials made a “brutal” cut in funding to tackle racism.
There were people in the C of E who were “deeply resistant to any funding for racial justice”, said Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall and joint leader of the church’s racial justice work.
He made his comments after the officials cut funding for racial justice from £26.7m over the past three years to £12m for the next three. The budget was more than halved despite the value of the C of E’s endowment fund rising by 10.3% to £11.1bn last year – the 16th consecutive year of increases.
Arora said: “At a time when the evils of racism are increasingly rising to the surface in our world, there is a danger that extreme views from abroad and at home are starting to leak into the C of E’s decision-making bodies.
