The Anglican Diocese of Ottawa has retained the international consultancy firm GlobalLK to lead it through a major staff development and training program: Project Anti-racism: advancing inclusion and reconciliation in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.
Bishop Shane Parker said that the program will be mandatory for senior staff, all clergy and all community ministry managers. Preliminary work began over the summer and the project will officially launch with a keynote address from GlobalLK’s president and CEO Laraine Kaminsky on Sept. 22. The intent is to “build our capacity to address issues of equity, diversity and inclusion in our church and specifically take on racism in all its forms,” the bishop said.
The summer was marked by the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at the sites of former Indian Residential Schools and by the tragic deaths of four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont., apparently targeted in a hate crime based on their religion. Both are reminders that racism is a current and systemic issue in Canada, as it is around the world.
Bishop Parker said that the Diocese of Ottawa takes this issue very seriously and wants to take all positive actions possible. “The hope is that this training and education program will build our capacity to offer further education and development using our own resources.”
GlobalLK is a boutique consultancy firm specializing in customized diversity, equity and inclusion strategies for organizations of all sizes. Based in Ottawa, GlobalLK has provided services to organizations such as 3M, Google, CBC and the UN. In an interview with Crosstalk, Kaminsky said that although she has done some volunteer consulting with parishes and one of her colleagues has done some work with the Anglican Diocese of Montreal, this is the first time GlobalLK has been hired by a religious organization and described it as pioneering work.
See Crosstalk’s interview with Laraine Kaminsky.
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