A Place on the Table: What the Photograph Couldn’t Say (Part Two)

Read the primary a part of Rev. Franklyn James’ reflection, printed earlier this month: A Place on the Table: What the Photograph Couldn’t Say (Part One)

A query got here to the fore in my thoughts as we have a good time Black History Month and honour Black folks, in Canada and within the United Church. 

There was a second on the A Place on the Table picture shoot final summer season when a query about whether or not my ear bandage would possibly sign political allegiance momentarily caught me off guard. I used to be reminded how shortly our our bodies could be learn, or misinterpret, by way of lenses not our personal. That second, and the broader query of who’s lacking from the desk, pushed me towards a deeper reflection: Who is totally embraced on the desk?

What occurs when somebody exhibits up with a unique theological imaginative and prescient of Christianity than the dominant one within the room? What if my political commitments don’t align with the group’s assumed consensus? Will these variations de-centre my Blackness, or solid suspicion on my belonging?

These questions led me to marvel about how id is known and honoured inside group. Are Black folks and different marginalized teams solely considered as these in want of rescue or advocacy? What would it not imply to really acknowledge our company, tenacity, braveness, and energy? 

Black folks throughout this nation are navigating actual challenges and deserve assist, however that assist should not come at the price of being decreased to victims or outlined solely by battle. The fullness of Black expertise consists of grief, sure, but additionally brilliance, pleasure, and ethical readability. To have a good time Black History Month is to inform the entire story, not simply of what now we have endured, however of how now we have led, created, resisted, and reimagined.

These are the quiet tensions that dwell beneath illustration. For Black presence to imply greater than visibility, it should embrace house for nuance, disagreement, and the complexity of being seen as a full particular person.

For me, the session that I co-led as a part of the United Church’s 40 Days of Engagement on Anti-Racism was my first alternative to replicate on the A Place on the Table picture from an out of doors perspective. It was an opportunity to return to the depth of what we lived. It was an opportunity to say: the desk is broad. It at all times was. No single narrative can carry the entire fact.

I now ask the church a easy query:

How will we maintain the desk trustworthy about race, tradition, language, queerness, and the entire identities the United Church names as a part of its group, and achieve this with care and integrity?

That is the work of anti-racism.

That is the work of full participation of all peoples and all identities.

That is the work of intercultural ministries.

That is what it means to dwell into our fairness aspirations.

And for me, that’s the coronary heart of what A Place on the Table was meant to be.

In 2025, I confirmed up with my full Blackness: Jamaican-born, preacher, poet, and public witness, diasporic and embodied, telling a narrative about what it means to belong with out dilution.

This Black History Month, Black tales should stay within the dialog. We are known as to have a good time Black presence as important, central, and worthy of continued consideration. It is a presence that’s foundational to the life, religion, and way forward for the church. And we, as Black folks, should proceed to heart ourselves—refusing to let others outline our voice, dictate our values, or determine how we should always act, suppose, or really feel.

—Rev. Franklyn James, initially from Jamaica, is minister at West River United Church in Cornwall, Prince Edward Island. 

Read “The Journey Worth Taking,” a poem written by Rev. James on the A Place on the Table gathering, within the downloads beneath.

The views contained inside these blogs are private and don’t essentially replicate these of The United Church of Canada.