Black History Month 2026 runs from 1–31 October, centred on the theme “Honouring Our Communities.” This focus invites us to celebrate the people whose everyday contributions sustain and enrich GMH (Global Majority Heritage) life across the UK – work that is often vital yet overlooked.
Resources for Black History Month
Difference Course
The Difference course is a five‑session programme that helps people follow Jesus in a divided world by learning to cross divides, handle disagreement well, and work toward a more just society. Built around three habits—Be Curious, Be Present, and Reimagine—it offers practical tools for transforming relationships and is free to run in churches, schools, and community groups.
Christian Aid ‘Belong’
Belong is a resource which acts as a guide for youth workers to engage 11–18-year-olds through 11 sessions exploring issues of faith, social justice, and how we can put our faith into action.
Wonderful Youth ‘No Outsiders’
Five Biblical sessions created for Black History Month to empower young people between the ages of 13 and 16 to become ‘The best that you can be’.
After the Flood
The documentary aims to be educational and redemptive and addresses the historical neglect of slavery in British Christian history.
Liturgical Resources for Black History Month
These resources, which are designed for use during Black History Month, include Services of the Word, a Eucharistic service, Prayers of Lament and of Commission, and links to further resources for Bible studies, youth work, Messy Church, and music.
Events Across the Diocese
Thursday 1 October – BHM South Flag Raising Ceremony, Southampton City Council, Civic Centre, 11.30am-12pm
Friday 2 October – Àṣà Mi Supper Club, Winchester Cathedral Cafe
Àṣà Mi (My Culture) is a special three-course dinner created and prepared by Nigerian-British chef Opeoluwa Odutayo, known as Chef Opy. Redefining African cuisine through a sustainability-led lens, Chef Opy’s cooking transforms humble ingredients into bold dishes rooted in her Nigerian heritage.
Saturday 3 October – Racial Justice Day, Christ Church, Freemantle, Hosted by Winchester Diocese’s Racial Justice Group
Join us for a day of reflection, participation and learning, followed by a short Holy Communion.
Saturday 3 October – Andover Black History Month Celebrations, Andover Town Mill Park
Cultural performances, music and dance, food, exhibitions and storytelling, community stalls and opportunities to meet local organisations.
Saturday 3 October – Nu Civilisation Orchestra, Turner Sims, Southampton
A live Miles Davis‑centenary performance by Peter Edwards and the Nu Civilisation Orchestra Ensemble accompanies John Akomfrah’s documentary on Stuart Hall. The pairing deepens the film’s exploration of identity, race and cultural change, turning the music into an integral part of Hall’s story.
Wednesday 7 October – African Soul Rebels, The Anvil, Basingstoke
African Soul Rebels brings together a remarkable line-up of artists celebrating the creativity, energy and diversity of contemporary African music.
Through rhythm, improvisation and performance, the evening explores the role music can play in resistance, joy, identity and cultural exchange.
Thursday 29 October – Honouring our Communities: Black Stories Screening, Mayflower Studios, Southampton
Watch up to ten short, made-by-mobile stories created around the theme, “Honouring Our Communities”. Each piece is created by individuals during Our Version Media’s Mobile Storytelling training, offering a first-hand view into their lives and communities.
Book Recommendations
The Gospel Beyond the Grave: Toward a Black Theology of Hope by Lewis Brogdon
Lewis Brogdon’s The Gospel Beyond the Grave brings Black history and experience into eschatology, insisting that any faithful account of “last things” must reckon with slavery and racism. He offers a renewed vision of Christ’s reconciling work that speaks hope into the wounds of racism and imagines a shared future in a new heaven and earth.
The Sam Sharpe Lecture: History, Rebellion and Reform, Edited by Rosemarie Davidson and E. P. Louis
Marking ten years of the Sam Sharpe Lectures, this collection gathers powerful contributions from scholars, activists and ministers reflecting on how Sharpe’s legacy fuels justice work today. Rooted in a radical Jamaican narrative, it shows how an enslaved man’s faith driven commitment to compassion, justice and self determination continues to inspire transformative action in the face of modern injustices.
Haunting Questions of Liberation Theology, Edited by Jione Havea
Liberation is an ongoing, unfinished task, and so is theology. This book traces the journey of liberation theology and brings together voices from the global south (and a few northern allies) to confront contemporary realities that mainline theologies often overlook.
Augustine the African by Catherine Conybeare
Augustine of Hippo, long celebrated as a foundational Christian thinker, has often been stripped of his North African identity, despite writing his major works as a Berber-born bishop in a collapsing empire. Augustine the African restores that context, tracing how his theology emerged from exile, movement and African intellectual traditions, reshaping our understanding of the origins of Christian thought.
Interpreting the Bible and the Qur’an Through Love: Scripture, Love, and Hermeneutics by Tareq Hesham Moqbel
This book explores how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpreters have used love to understand Scripture, arguing for reading the Bible and Qur’an through a hermeneutic of love. By engaging key exegetical voices across the Abrahamic traditions, Tareq Hesham Moqbel highlights diverse examples of love shaped interpretation and shows how love gains depth when viewed comparatively. The study ultimately proposes love as a shared exegetical tool and an ethic of reading that links these traditions and can be applied more widely.
Decolonising Development and Religion: Theoretical Frameworks, Case Studies and Theological Models, Edited by Joerg Rieger and Sanjana Das
Ideas of development have shaped the modern world in both constructive and damaging ways, serving at times to justify colonialism and at others to inspire resistance. This volume brings contemporary development and decolonial perspectives into conversation, exploring communities navigating economic and religious pressures and offering alternatives to neoliberal, neocolonial models as part of the Council for World Mission’s DARE (Discernment And Radical Engagement) series.
The Oxford Movement and the People of God: Enslavement, Education, and Empire by Benjamin J. King
In 1833, John Henry Newman urged the Tractarian Movement to depend on the laity, whose disciplined and educated faith he saw as vital to the Church’s mission. The Oxford Movement and the People of God revisits overlooked themes, from enslavement and Empire to debates on the Church’s role in the State, showing how Tractarian views of lay discipleship shaped both their theology and their social positions.
Dancing to the Heartbeat of God by the Anglican Communion – The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2026
A powerful lent resource that brings together voices from across the global Anglican Communion. Through real stories, prayer and reflection, it shows what discipleship looks like in everyday life-from remote villages and refugee camps to busy cities and small parish churches.
Hurricanes Roar: 30 Reflections on Black Spiritual Poetry by Elizabeth S. Dodd and Jarel Robinson-Brown
Hurricanes Roar gathers 30 poems from across the Black Christian tradition, offering a space to listen to faith, hope and praise forged through struggle. Drawing on voices from Ancient Ethiopia to contemporary poets, each piece is paired with a brief reflection, inviting slow, prayerful engagement in any season that calls for deeper attention to justice, spirituality and poetry.
