Last night 60 people attended a screening of the MJR documentary ​‘After the Flood: the church, slavery and reconciliation' at the Light Cinema in Stockport. Organised by Stockport Racial Equality Partnership and United Stockport Methodist Circuit In partnership with the Movement for Reconciliation and Justice charity, the screening was followed by a conversation and Q&A hosted by S-REP's Aba Graham with panel members: Rev Cathy Bird, Rev Raj Patta and historian Linford Sweeney.

​If you would like to host a screening of After the Flood, find out more here.

According to a report by the Black Equity Organisation two-thirds of Black people in the UK have experienced prejudice from healthcare professionals, but Black women in particular felt that their concerns were not being listened to. This is why Health Secretary Steven Barclay last week telling NHS Trusts to stop recruiting diversity officers has met with protest from front-line staff. His comments came just hours before a major report by the care regulator revealed huge inequalities in the healthcare system, with ethnic minority communities being among the most likely to receive poor care.

The "strong Black woman" stereotype has its roots in slavery, when the myth emerged that Black people had a higher pain threshold, according to social historian Professor David Olusoga. “That idea is still in the subconscious of both Black people and clinicians.”

​Read more in this article which also includes a number of individual stories.

Screenings of 'After the Flood: the church, slavery and reconciliation' continue to take place around the UK and other countries. Coming up during Black History Month are two in Greater Manchester. Both followed by discussion.

• ​Monday October 23, 1pm, Brunswick Church. Free, no booking necessary.
• Wednesday October 25, 6:30pm, the Light Cinema, Stockport. Free, click here to book a ticket.

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This article by Jane Shaw in the November issue of Prospect magazine discusses the Church of England's new £100m fund for “projects focused on improving opportunities for communities impacted by historic transatlantic chattel slavery”, saying it should be called what it is: reparations. Coming out of an admission of complicity in the trade of captive human beings known as the transatlantic slave trade, the church seeks reconciliation with the communities who suffered. The article asks if this can be found and looks at the history of calls for reparations from within the church.

In setting up this fund the Church of England has joined other institutions such as Lloyd's insurance and Greene King Brewers and the group 'Heirs of Slavery, composed of descendants of some of Britain's wealthiest slave-owning families, in taking action. Though welcomed as a first step it is pointed out  that the £100m sum "is less than 1 per cent of the Church Commissioners’ £10.3bn fund and will be taken from its income over a period of nine years, so that the original endowment remains untouched." 

A useful read to go alongside watching the MJR documentary ‘After the Flood: the church, slavery and reconciliation'. Read the article here.