During Black History Month,  we want to say a massive thank you to our Jigsaw Team for supporting our journey to become a more multicultural space, and also to hear how you’ve found some of our Jigsaw prayer meetings or Mirrors courses. Read below  to see what members of our congregation have to say. If you would like to share your story, get in touch with Hannah.

In May 2021, Aileen spoke brilliantly at one of the Sunday morning services about multiculturalism and cultural diversity within the church and amongst other things, that black people need to be seen, heard and listened to. I was triggered emotionally because that Sunday when I entered church, I was made to feel invisible.  I cried all the way through the service, all the way home and most of the following week.
I grew up in a Caribbean culture where children are seen, not heard. I grew up muted. I landed my dream job in banking in my twenties and experienced racism for the first time in my life. The constant discrimination rendered me invisible and a feeling of worthlessness when I was told constantly that my work was not good enough and subsequently dismissed because of that.
The muted and invisible characters played major roles in my life over the next three decades within church, the workplace, and social environments.
I never shared the racism I endured with any of my white friends for fear of being told I’m “using that darn racist card” until the awful death of George Lloyd. The whole world saw for the first time and reacted when they saw the life drained from a black man whilst the enforcer of the law kneeled on his neck like the victorious hunter who had just hunted and killed his prized stag.
Because of the death of George Floyd, we all started to speak about racism and injustice in the world. I was on a social distanced picnic in Hyde Park when I first shared my experiences of racism with some white friends.
The Mirrors Prayer meetings at St Mary’s were created as a safe place for members of the church to meet, pray and have candid conversations about racism: institutional and otherwise and for the black community to share their experiences of same without judgment. It felt like a special train had pulled into the St Mary’s Church Station and was welcoming all who would, to board. It felt like the train I had been waiting for all my life and I jumped onboard. They were the most open and honest prayer meetings I had ever attended so it was easy for me to show up with my whole self. The church leaders were on the train also. They were contrite for the pain and the sufferings of the black community for the first time and acknowledged that “they had gotten it wrong” in terms of institutional racism faced by the black community. There was no getting off the train until it had reached the desired destination.
It felt like my life had been imprisoned by the pain of racism and the lack of childhood freedom to speak. During the Jigsaw Course, these unhealed and unresolved pain re-surfaced, and would not be pushed away until they there resolved. I didn’t know who I truly was; I had been stuck in a muted and invisible life with such deep-rooted pains for most of my life.  The many prayers at the end of each Jigsaw Course gave me the courage to let go of the pain of racism I had experienced so many years ago. The healing came when, for the first time, I prayed God would forgive the lady who had caused that hurt in the first instance.
I felt 30 years of baggage was lifted off and me and I am no longer ruled by muted and invisible but living and enjoying the freedom of knowing that I am seen, and I have a voice.
Change can happen when we make a start. It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens little by little. Prayer by Prayer and I believe St Mary’s is a church that is committed to working on inclusivity and multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism presents us with a world of unknowns. It’s easy to relate to the familiar, but in a church which has a culturally diverse congregation there are life experiences and expressions of one another that are unfamiliar and new. We want to REALLY get to know each other and seek to appreciate what makes us us.  Getting to know US is a space for everyone to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about your experience of life. Every member of the church is welcome to share a 2-5min video about themselves, a playlist of music they love or a book that has informed their life. Use the button below to send us anything you'd like to share and it will make its way onto this page.