An Introduction to HEBA Justice Hub

The Justice Hub is a group of justice-oriented Baptists in HEBA. We are a HEBA Working Group, accountable to our board of trustees. We have a passion for justice and are committed to “Making A Difference for Everyone’ by drawing attention to matters of injustice and working with HEBA churches to change accepted cultural norms. We began our journey in October 2020 following the brutal murder of George Floyd and in response to a call from Rev. Dave Ellis to join him to make a difference to the lives of those in the communities we serve.

Aim of HEBA Justice Hub

To highlight and positively impact individuals and groups that are unjustly marginalised and/or left behind by:

  • Supporting churches to enable the people of God to live out a life of justice in accordance with the will of God.
  • Supporting Baptists across the HEBA region to live out our values of companionship, generosity, diversity, learning and innovation.

The Justice Hub will:

  • Be a resource for building ‘just churches’, structures and processes.
  • Be a justice conscience, speaking into ‘the way we do things’.
  • Offer support when things go wrong.
  • Connect with a network of regional and national Justice Hubs.
  • Concentrate on one main theme a year, whilst continuing to provide support on the other two areas.
  • Ensure that the voices of young people are heard and play a central role in all we do.

HEBA Justice Hub Core Group

The Justice Hub consists of a Core Group which is led by Judith Miller and Rev. Dave Ellis. The Hub also supports three Task Groups focusing on Racial Justice, Disability Justice and Women’s Justice.

2021 – Racial Justice Focus

With the George Floyd incident and the Black Lives Matter movement, we started with racial justice. The Racial Justice Task Group is led by Rev Dave Ellis. To date we have held two online symposia led by Dr Anthony Reddie, Simon Jay and Tim Judson. Both were well attended and received very positive feedback from participants.

2022 - Disability Justice Focus

The Disability JusticeTask Group is led by Karen Martindale. Our year of Disability Justice was launched at our inaugural Justice Hub Gathering on 29th January 2022.

2023 - Women’s Justice Focus

The Women’s Justice Task Group is led by Rev Denise Dobie.  During our year, we will link with Project Violet, a three-year research project, led by Rev Jane Day as part of Baptist Union Gender Justice, looking at the experience of women in ministry and considering ministry.

Young People’s Forum

To ensure that young people’s voices are heard, that they take the lead on specific issues, and feed into the Core Group and the Task Groups.

Want To Get Involved?

Alongside the Task Groups, we are also piloting the development of:

  • Church Representatives
  • Church Justice Study Groups
  • Book Clubs

So if your church is interested in finding out more about how you can get involved, please contact Rev Dave Ellis at email: de@baptist-heartofengland.org