Richard Reddie, Director of Justice and Inclusion, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
Richard Reddie is the Director of Justice and Inclusion at the leading ecumenical body, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI). He is passionate about justice and the need for the Church to be a prophetic voice in the public square on social justice matters.
He believes that serious youth violence (SYV) is a justice issue, as it invariably impacts some of the most marginalised groups in the poorest communities on these shores. He also believes that the Church has the assets and resources to play a major role in tackling SYV, and that it has a moral responsibility to participate in the work to address this scourge on communities.
Richard passionately believes in the potential of our young people, and wants them to be the next generation of lawyers, doctors, teachers and preachers, rather than ‘statistics’ who languish in prison, or corpses buried in cemeteries. As such, he is keen for churches up and down the country to stand with the Synergy Network as it stands against SYV, and stands up for the right of our young people to live the abundant life that Jesus Christ spoke about.
Richard is also a writer, researcher, cultural and religious commentator and broadcaster. He has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Times, BBC Online, The Church Times, The Voice newspaper, The Weekly Gleaner, Christianity, Keep the Faith, Third Way, Reform, ROOTS, and War Cry.
He has taken part in a number of television and radio programmes for the BBC such as Prayer for the Day, Beyond Belief, Songs of Praise, Sunday, Sunday Worship, as well as (BBC) local radio, and Premier and UCB Christian radio stations.
He is also the author of Abolition! The struggle to abolish slavery in the British colonies (Lion Hudson, 2007), and the ground-breaking Black Muslims in Britain (Lion Hudson, 2009), which was the first scholarly research into this growing phenomenon. This book was subsequently turned into the documentary Young Muslim and Black by BBC Radio 4. In 2011, he wrote the well-received biography Martin Luther King Jr: History Maker (Lion Hudson, 2011). His latest book, Race for Justice, which he edited, was published by Monarch/Lion Hudson in August 2022.
Richard worships at St James Church, West Streatham (Church of England).