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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

Good morning!

On the 22nd June I will be joining with friends, colleagues and a range of other folks at Southwark Cathedral in south London, for a church service that marks the 75th anniversary of Windrush. The Empire Windrush was a ship that arrived on these shores on 22 June 1948 with several hundred Caribbean passengers. For many historians and cultural commentators, this event heralded the rise of multi-ethnic Britain.

My parents, who came to this country from Jamaica in the 1950s, were part of the ‘Windrush Generation’, as these Caribbean people were subsequently dubbed. Travelling to Britain on British passports, they believed they were coming to the Mother Country, a country they had heard so much about, as all the English-speaking Caribbean countries at that time were part of the British Empire. While my parents faced racism and other forms of bigotry, especially when they first arrived, they really enjoyed their four decades in this country, before retiring to Jamaica in the 1990s.

So, among other things, the Windrush anniversary is an opportunity for us all to, remember the struggles that the Windrush generation had to overcome when they first arrived in this country. Equally, it’s a moment to celebrate the invaluable and indelible contributions that the Windrush generation have made to this country. Britain is all the greater because of the on-going impact of the Windrush generation. And this should be celebrated by everyone.

And finally it’s an opportunity to equip the descendants of the Windrush generation with the knowledge to tell these important stories for their generation, thus allowing them to build on the hard work of their forebears.

Gracious Lord, I pray that the forthcoming Windrush anniversary will be a real opportunity to celebrate our existing diversity, and the unity that can be found in it.

Amen