







































Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(2), Winter 2024  
 

Bray, "Decolonization in the World of Christian NGOs": A Theological Response 127 
 

 

"Decolonization in the World of Christian 

NGOs": A Theological Response 

 

Charlotte Bray 
 

 
 

On January 17, 2024, the Accord Research Alliance Faculty Group organized a webinar to provide a 

space for discussion on the Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy (CRDA) journal’s special 

issue on decolonization published a few months before in November 2023. The webinar was 

moderated by Nina Kurlberg, one of two co-editors of the special issue, and started with remarks by 

two main discussants. This second response is written by Charlotte Bray, who is currently studying 

anti-racism and power in international development from a Catholic theological perspective at the 

Lincoln Theological Institute at Manchester University. Believing that our theologies are central to 

our self-understandings and our actions, for both good and ill, Bray argues that historical Christianity 

bears much responsibility for the way the Global North skewed power toward themselves, a legacy for 

which we must account. Working from the perspective of Catholic Social Teaching, a rich resource 

for putting our theology on a more constructive path, she argues that Christians must take advantage 

of opportunities to make amends and work toward reconciliation in a newly structured anti-racist, 

decolonized world.  

 

The full recording of the webinar is found at https://vimeo.com/903813593?share=copy, and further 

online discussion on the topic can be accessed at https://groups.google.com/g/ara-faculty-group-forum. 

The special issue of the journal with all the articles is located at 

https://crdajournal.org/index.php/crda/issue/view/69.  

 

 

Like Mafer, I will start by stating my positionality. 

I am a White British theologian speaking from the 

University of Manchester in the UK. I was previously 

lead trustee for racial justice, equity, diversity, and 

inclusion at CAFOD, the international development 

agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, 

where my role was to accompany CAFOD staff in their 

task of creating a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive 

organization committed to anti-racism. I am now 

working on a research project at the University of 

Manchester that explores theological themes in relation 

to anti-racism work in the sector.
1

 

In the UK, where I am from, it seems that 

conversations around decolonizing development have 

been predominantly happening in “secular” spaces. So, 

this special edition provides a much-needed space and 

opportunity for practitioners and academics to explore 

these issues from an explicitly Christian perspective. It  

 
1 To learn more about the research project “Anti-Racism and Power in International Development: A Catholic 

Theological Approach,” please go to the Lincoln Theological Institute’s webpage, 

http://lincolntheologicalinstitute.com/anti-racism-and-power/ [accessed 20.02.2024]. 

 

invites us to ask what it means to be a Christian agency 

journeying towards anti-racism and decolonization. The 

articles help drive the conversation forward regarding 

what a truly anti-racist decolonized sector could look 

like. They also show what a mammoth task lies ahead 

as every aspect of an organization's work needs to be 

critically analyzed through an anti-racist and decolonial 

lens. For example, as Rebecca Shah demonstrates in 

her article on decolonizing data, something as 

commonplace as collecting data for reporting, research, 

or governance purposes can reinforce harmful power 

inequities between organizations in the Global North 

and those from the Global South (Shah 2023). As 

activist-scholars such as Robtel Neajai Pailey have 

shown, standard ways of working in the sector can 

perpetuate the white gaze and foster racist stereotypes 

that have their origins in coloniality; for example, 

organizations or individuals from the Global North 

being regarded as more trustworthy or knowledgeable 

https://vimeo.com/903813593?share=copy
https://groups.google.com/g/ara-faculty-group-forum
https://crdajournal.org/index.php/crda/issue/view/69
http://lincolntheologicalinstitute.com/anti-racism-and-power/


Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(2), Winter 2024  
 

Bray, "Decolonization in the World of Christian NGOs": A Theological Response 128 
 

than organizations or practitioners from the Global 

South (Pailey 2019). Important questions are raised for 

anyone involved in the sector, such as — What is 

expertise and who has it? How do we decide on our 

measures and models of success? Who has decision-

making power and who sets the agenda both for 

development and decolonization work? Do the 

narratives organizations tell the world about themselves, 

their work, and the people they work with perpetuate 

stereotypes or power inequities? Within the broader 

task of decolonization, there are a plurality of goods to 

be achieved and challenges to be overcome. As these 

authors demonstrate, there is a huge diversity of work 

and thinking taking place. 

I was also struck by how many of the contributors 

critically examine how power continues to function in 

their organizations and how they honestly appraise the 

tensions and challenges they continue to encounter. 

This sort of honesty, transparency, and accountability is 

so important to help collectively drive change as it 

spreads awareness and helps others identify what the 

barriers to and enablers of this type of work are. The 

authors do not shy away from speaking of the barriers 

they face due to being embedded in wider systems, such 

as those that demand due diligence and reporting in 

ways that might hinder progress towards 

decolonization. The authors from Tearfund lead us to 

question whether new ways of approaching 

accountability can be explored (Mahdi and Ncube 

2023, 28). It is only through such honest accounting of 

the ways the sector continues to uphold power 

inequities that historic and contemporary harms can 

begin to be repaired.  

I believe that Christian organizations have an 

important role to play in the decolonization of both the 

international development sector and wider society. As 

theologians such as Willie James Jennings and J. 

Cameron Carter have shown, distorted Christian beliefs 

were fundamental in creating and justifying a racial 

imaginary that perpetuated the power inequities and 

racial hierarchies that still exist today (Jennings 2010, 

Carter 2008). Moreover, the international development 

sector in part grew out of the missionary and so-called 

“civilizing” work of Christian communities. Many of the 

theological principles underlying Christian 

commitments to charity and international 

development, while seemingly well-intentioned, have 

historically perpetuated the white gaze and continue to 

contribute to paternalistic or white savior narratives that 

cultivate attitudes of pity, saviorism or self-serving 

benevolence rather than solidarity. There is a need for 

 
2

 See, for example, Pope John Paul II, ‘Sollicitudo rei socialis’ (December 30, 1987), available at: 

<http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30121987_sollicitudo-rei-

socialis.html> [accessed 12 April 2024], §38. 

Christian communities to account for this legacy of 

harm.   

In their article, Clark Buys and Maria A. Andrade 

V. assert that, for Christian organizations such as 

Tearfund, their Christian identity is, in their words, 

“foundational to the organisation’s why, how, and with 

whom” (2023, 36). From my experience, for equity, 

diversity and inclusion (EDI), and anti-racism efforts to 

be sustainable and successful within Christian 

organizations, this work needs to be rooted in their 

fundamental identity and mission as Christian 

organizations. The commitment to decolonize needs to 

come from an organization's fundamental beliefs and 

values as these inform the wider culture of an 

organization. Only in this way will the principles of 

equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and 

decolonization be embedded at every level of the 

organization. So, it is important for Christian 

organizations to address the cultural assumptions and 

norms that guide their work. For example, through 

what theological lenses do organizations view 

development or humanitarian work? Where has 

theology or Church culture perhaps hampered efforts 

to decolonize?  How does theological language function 

within organizations to either resist or collude with 

coloniality and racism?   

Many of the journal contributors show that, despite 

this legacy of harm, Christian theology has the potential 

to disrupt contemporary forms of coloniality and racial 

hierarchies. It can be used to develop a compelling 

vision of the sector's work in ways that lead to specific 

forms of decolonial and anti-racist praxis. For example, 

from a Catholic theological perspective, we can start 

from what the Nigerian theologian Stan Chu Ilo calls 

“the whole story of the human person” (Ilo 2014, xxxi); 

that is our origin and destiny in divine love, as all of 

humanity are lovingly created and redeemed by God.  

Due to this common origin and destiny, we are called 

to become a community of kin who love and care for 

one another as God loves us. The creation and 

redemption narrative makes clear that God intends for, 

what Ilo calls, “life in abundance to be received and 

shared with all” (Ibid., 6). From the perspective of 

Catholic social teaching, we are all called to participate 

in this flourishing by mutually sharing our gifts and 

contributing to the common good.
2

 God calls us to new 

ways of relating characterized by love, solidarity, 

mutuality, reciprocity, friendship, and communion.  

Sin, however, obstructs this flourishing and 

abundance of life. Social sin or structural sin is the sin 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(2), Winter 2024  
 

Bray, "Decolonization in the World of Christian NGOs": A Theological Response 129 
 

present in social structures that cause harm.
3

 

Decolonization and anti-racism are then about 

acknowledging and working to transform — and, for 

those of us who benefit from racial hierarchies and 

colonial legacies, repent from — those sins of structural 

racism and coloniality that mitigate against the divine 

will for the flourishing of all. We cannot build the 

kingdom of God and fulfill our collective vocation to all 

participate in bringing about the common good without 

addressing these sinful structures and legacies and 

actively working to repair society. Moreover, according 

to Latin American liberation theologians such as Jon 

Sobrino, social sins blind people caught up within these 

situations so that those who are privileged are unable to 

fully recognize the unjust reality as sin, nor do they 

recognize their personal roles in perpetuating it 

(Sobrino 2008 and Sobrino 1994). They can only 

overcome this blindness, and therefore come to truly 

recognize structural injustice, through listening to the 

perspectives and lived experiences of communities that 

are marginalized and oppressed by the prevailing status 

quo, that is, those communities and individuals engaged 

in creative practices of survival and resistance against 

these sinful structures.  

For example, without the prophetic 

condemnations from those of the Global Majority, I, as 

a privileged white person, would not realize the extent 

to which coloniality and structural racism infects the 

sector. For those of us who are privileged, therefore, 

part of the process of repentance is through centering 

the lived experiences, voices, and perspectives of 

people who challenge our dominant ways of thinking 

and knowing, what decolonial theologian Nicolás 

Panotto calls the “otherwise thoughts” of “non-

hegemonic voices” (Panotto 2019, 218, 221), 

particularly those from people of the Global Majority.  

This is why, for those of us who have privilege, our 

commitments to solidarity must be accompanied by a 

commitment to subsidiarity, which necessarily includes 

working to transform the structures that grant us 

unearned privilege and power in favor of creating a 

more equitable system. So, from a theological 

perspective, decolonization and anti-racism can be 

regarded as both part of our vocation to bring about the 

common good and as part of our duty to resist the 

structural sins in history that cause harm.  

What I want to end on, though, is that it is 

important for us to think about decolonization not just 

 
3

 I have elsewhere constructively developed the idea of social sin in dialogue with Catholic social teaching and liberation 

theologians such as Jon Sobrino. For a fuller treatment of theologies of social sin within the Catholic tradition, including 

that propounded by Jon Sobrino, please see Charlotte Bray, Sin and the Vulnerability of Embodied Life: Towards a 

Catholic Theology of Social Sin (London: T&T Clark, forthcoming). See also Charlotte Rose Bray, “Sin and the 

Vulnerability of Embodied Life: Towards a Constructive Development of the Idea of Social Sin within the Catholic 

Tradition” (doctoral thesis, Durham University 2022). Available at Durham E-Theses Online: 

http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/14701/). 

in terms of challenge, but also in terms of opportunity. 

For example, what new perspectives can we engage with 

that can transform our normative ways of thinking and 

working? What alternative pathways for collaboration, 

partnership, and mutual liberation are there? How can 

we mutually share capacity and learning to enhance 

global solidarity and the common good?  As Bikita 

Mahdi and Thobekile Ncube from Tearfund mention 

in their article, COVID disrupted dominant 

assumptions about what was possible in the sector 

(Mahdi and Ncube 2023, 27). It showed that structural 

and cultural change is possible, even with limited time 

and resources, if there is the willpower and courage to 

dare to be different. 

 

References 
 

Bray, Charlotte. Sin and the Vulnerability of 

Embodied Life: Towards a Catholic Theology of 

Social Sin. London: T&T Clark, forthcoming. 

Bray, Charlotte Rose. “Sin and the Vulnerability of 

Embodied Life: Towards a Constructive 

Development of the Idea of Social Sin within the 

Catholic Tradition.” Doctoral thesis, Durham 

Universit, 2022. Available at Durham E-Theses 

Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/14701/. 

Buys, Clark and Maria A. Andrade V. 2023. 

“Abundant Community Theology: A Case Study 

in Decolonial Theological Research.” Christian 

Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5 (1): 35-45. 

Carter, J. Kameron. 2008. Race: A Theological 

Account. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Ilo, Stan Chu. 2014. The Church and Development in 

Africa: Aid and Development from the Perspective 

of Catholic Social Ethics, African Christian Studies 

Series 2. Eugene: Pickwick Publications. 

Jennings, Willie James. 2010. The Christian 

Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. 

New Haven: Yale University Press. 

Mahdi, Bikita and Thobekile Ncube, et al. 2023. 

“Tearfund’s Decolonisation Journey—from Jubilee 

to the Present.” Christian Relief, Development, 

and Advocacy 5(1): 19-29. 

Pailey, Robtel Neajai. 2019. “De-centring the ‘White 

Gaze’ of Development.” Development and 

Change 51(3): 729–745. 

<https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12550>. 

http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/14701/


Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(2), Winter 2024  
 

Bray, "Decolonization in the World of Christian NGOs": A Theological Response 130 
 

Panotto, Nicolás. 2019. “A Critique of the Coloniality 

of Theological Knowledge: Rereading Latin 

American Liberation Theology as Thinking 

Otherwise.” In Decolonial Christianities: Latinx 

and Latin American Perspectives, edited by R. 

Barreto and R. Sirvent, 217-237. Springer Verlag. 

Pope John Paul II. “Sollicitudo rei socialis.” 

December 30, 1987. Available at: 

<http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-

ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-

ii_enc_30121987_sollicitudo-rei-socialis.html> 

[accessed 12 April 2024], §38. 

Shah, Rebecca Supriya. 2023. “Decolonizing Data and 

Recovering the Person in Christian Relief and 

Development Organizations.” Christian Relief, 

Development, and Advocacy 5(1): 55-71. 

Sobrino, Jon. 2008. No Salvation Outside the Poor: 

Prophetic-Utopian Essays. Maryknoll: Orbis 

Books. 

Sobrino, Jon. 1994. The Principle of Mercy: Taking 

the Crucified People from the Cross. Maryknoll: 

Orbis Books. 
 

 

 

 

Charlotte Bray is currently engaged in postdoctoral 

research on anti-racism and power in international 

development from a Catholic theological perspective 

at the Lincoln Theological Institute at Manchester 

University. 

 

Author email: charlotte.bray@manchester.ac.uk.   
 

mailto:charlotte.bray@manchester.ac.uk

