Watch: Justin Welby takes a pop at CofE ‘whiteness officer’ job

Just when you think the woke wars can’t get more ridiculous, they do. It transpires that the Diocese of Birmingham is advertising for the role of ‘Anti-Racism Practice Officer (Deconstructing Whiteness)’ to work in a ‘racial justice’ team across churches in the West Midlands for £36,000 a year — and Justin Welby is not happy about it. The Archbishop of Canterbury has taken a pop at the job advert, telling Times Radio today that he rang up the diocese and asked them: ‘What on earth does that mean?’ If they’ve got any answers, Mr S would like to know too…

The 11-person team has received funding to ‘fan into flame a movement of change’ and ensure that ‘structures, practices and behaviours embrace people of GMH [global majority heritage] and UKME [UK minority ethnic] backgrounds’. 

Unsurprisingly, the move has been met with a rather sceptical response. Welby blasted the advert, telling his interviewers it sounded like the BBC management lingo used in the satirical sitcom W1A, while Rev Dr Ian Paul of the Archbishops’ Council slammed the wording for appearing to have been ‘imported from the culture wars in the US, in which all society is understood in a binary of conflict between “black” and “white”’.