The United Reformed Church (URC) is deeply saddened by the death of Professor Jason Arday, who was found unresponsive at an address in London on Friday (14 August).
Professor Arday, 41, became the University of Cambridge’s youngest Black professor in 2023 before resigning from his position as Professor of Sociology of Education last week following unrelenting public allegations of plagiarism about his work.
The Revd Neil Thorogood, Moderator of the URC General Assembly, says: “Congregations across the URC will be holding the family and friends of Jason Arday in our hearts and prayers. We share the shock and sadness of so many at news of his death. His all too brief life was an inspiration in so many ways, even as recent events begged so many questions and leave so much to face now.
“My fifteen years as tutor and then Principal at Westminster College, Cambridge, introduced me to amazing and good people, dedicated to helping others flourish and learn. But, as Jason Arday himself reflected, academia must also be a place of searching questions.
“Critical thinking and seeking to get to the truth are fundamentals to our God-given desire to discover and learn. Many will need to understand how fair such scrutiny of Jason Arday’s work was. When does reasonable questioning become something brutal and cruel?
“I am deeply aware of just how few UK academics come from Black and Global Majority communities; how hard it is to celebrate the rich diversity of experience and backgrounds, and to hear every voice at our universities. It seems that too many hopes, forces and demands became focussed upon just one appointment and one person.
“I pray for those who mourn and for those whose lives are shattered by this news. I pray for the wider Cambridge and academic community as the soul searching and questioning continues. I pray for our communities where too many people are denied possibility and hope through discrimination and bias.”
Prayer
The Revd Andy Braunston, Minister of Digital Worship, offers this prayer for private and public use:
Do Black lives matter, Lord?
Really?
Well I suppose the lives of those in jobs we find useful matter;
where would we be without the black lives we find convenient, after all?
But black academic lives, Lord?
Do they matter?
Black academic excellence,
working class academic excellence,
refugee academic excellence,
neurodivergent academic excellence –
these are all resented; even hated;
hounded to death by jealousy, ignorance, and racism.
Honest mistakes are worked up into a moral panic designed to keep black lives in their place.
In our anger Lord, be with us
and give us the determination to change;
in our sadness comfort us
and those who mourn;
and, in our hearts Lord,
remind us that Black lives matter.
Amen.
Image by ConiferousForest19, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=197515112