#BHM: Q&A with Amiola

Written by Sonya Kayson on Oct 12th 2022

For Black History Month, we wanted to profile a number of key folk from across Crown and celebrate what they bring to us. Today we’re introducing Amiola who lives in Ruislip and has been at Crown since 2004. Thanks to Amiola for taking time out of her busy life to answer some questions and allow us to get to know her a bit more!

Gavin: Can you tell us a bit about your background, your family and where you grew up?
Amiola: I grew up in Ruislip with my parents and two brothers. I’m mixed race, with a mixed dad and a Nigerian mother. However, my dad is perceived as white and my mum as black.

Gavin: Can you tell us about your education and work experience before joining Crown?
Amiola: I was born into Crown Church and therefore before crown I have no education and work experience, however, I’m 18 and just finished full-time education.

Gavin: How long have you been at Crown and in what capacity do you serve?
Amiola:  I’ve been at Crown for 18 years, and when I was younger, I used to put out chairs with my dad but now I am doing an internship with crown called intentional discipleship (Impact) where I work with the youth, mainly the 16-18 year olds.

Gavin: What does Black History Month mean to you?
Amiola: Black history month used to mean very little to me. It felt like a time when my school would have 1 assembly going over black American people who affected America greatly, but I knew very little about black history in this country. It still feels like a time that’s not celebrated that much by me or other black people I know, but hopefully, as time goes on I can, and others can learn about the history of black people in this country and how it has influenced how we live today the good and the bad.

Gavin: What do you like about Crown?
Amiola: I like the diversity at Crown, the worship and how welcoming it is especially because of Sonya, shout out to Sonya.

For more information about Crown Church’s response to the ongoing issues of race and justice, please see our sermon series Amazing Race together with footage from our International Celebration Weekend. For those wishing to further explore issues of race, we would recommend Ben Lindsey’s book We Need to Talk About Race and Crossing the Divide, by Owen Hylton – both authors are dear friends of Crown. Owen heads up Reconciled Churches Group and Ben leads Power The Fight, which works to reduce youth and gang violence, supported in part by Crown Church.

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• #blackhistorymonth
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