‘The Reconciled Church’ by Owen Hylton. A Review. # 229. 02/06/2026

Welcome, to a review of a book seeking to bring rich and hard-won experience, and biblical faithfulness and spiritual energy to the church in multi-ethnic Britain

‘The Reconciled Church’ by Owen Hylton.

Reconciliation, mainly between ethnic or racial groups within Christianity, is the central focus of the book. Two-thirds of the book major on the theme of reconciliation in the bible; with the final third orientated towards working that out in the churches.

There are some illuminating expositions of scripture. His lengthy account of the conflict and then reconciliation between Jacob and Esau I found particularly rich and suggestive Understandably, he devotes a whole chapter to Ephesians given its treatment of reconciliation between Jew and Gentile. Overall, he sees reconciliation as the consequence, of equal importance, to justification. Quite simply being reconciled to God through Jesus naturally calls us on to being reconciled to our fellow believers in Christ. Hylton is alert to the ways in which this comes into the ethical teaching of the New Testament though at points he risks simply underlining what is obvious from the texts.

The book’s great strength is that he grounds relationships between Christians of different ethnicities as flowing out of the central core of Christianity – faith in Jesus and obedience to the scriptures. The oft quoted Revelation 7:9 and parallel passages ‘focus on the Lamb – not the nations or languages, but the Lamb who brings them together’ (p 217). ‘In heaven, we will not gather in cultural dress but in robes, symbolising that we have all been washed, sanctified and purified by His blood’ (p 145). Hylton is pastor of an independent charismatic church, and that church context forms much of the background for his discussion of how reconciliation may be practiced. He is certainly not unaware of the weaknesses within that tradition, but it gives him a vigorous conviction about the bases of church life – a commitment to preaching and practicing the bible, and a strong confidence in the supernatural power of God to break down barriers and bring change. ‘We must learn to win this battle by praying with understanding and humble, expectant faith if we desire a reconciled church’ (p 206). When so much debate about race in the church is dominated by an agenda formed by secularism, Hylton’s grounding of his discussion in the central pillars of Christian theology and spirituality is refreshing. He has a chapter headed ‘The Church should be different’. A discussion on p 155 begins ‘The challenge for the church is to find a more open and humble way of engaging with race that isn’t shaped by the political instincts of the world’, countering both the conservative ‘tendency to downplay racism’ to avoid being divisive, whilst the opposing tendency particularly from the political left, is ‘sincere and often motivated by compassion, but without a higher authority or framework it struggles to deal with sin, forgiveness, or lasting reconciliation’.

Hylton refers to his previous book, ‘Crossing the Divide’ (2009), which he now critiques for believing that you simply had to lay out the biblical teaching on race to change people, and realised instead that racism was more historically rooted and culturally entrenched than he realised, and needed more direct encountering. In particular the fuller study of the history seems to have led to a personal crisis and his own ‘racial reckoning’. As a result he has a more front foot approach to countering racism in the church, notably through the formation of the ‘Reconciled Church’ network which he now promotes. A chapter on ‘Scattered and Rooted: Message to the Diaspora’ is particularly written to other leaders with recent roots outside Britain, and opens the door onto his own experience, especially the pains of trying to assimilate.

As regards how a multi-ethnic church might live out racial reconciliation, his short chapter on ‘The Eradication of the Guinea Worm’, a disease which at one time caused incapacitating pain for 3.5 million people in the world, but which has now been almost entirely eliminated: ‘There was no vaccine, no cure - just a clear understanding of the problem, persistent collaboration, and a deep commitment to change’ (p 192). He sees this widely diversified, small scale approach – rather than any grand schema - as a model for how the church might challenge and overcome racism. The chapter also refers to Keon West’s book ‘The Science of Racism: Everything You Need to Know but Probably Don’t Yet’. West’s argument is that ‘meaningful interaction between people of different backgrounds helps reduce prejudice’, and that shared goals, a cooperative setting, equal status between groups, and the approval of authority provided the optimum context for such interaction (pp 192,3). Hylton rightly sees local congregation as the ideal settings to carry forward such prejudice reduction.

From the above discussion, Hylton rightly argues that a prescriptive, bullet-point, top-down approach is not the way to foster racial reconciliation in the churches, or indeed for the wider society. Those who write on the practicalities of living in a multi-ethnic church and society face the problem of the complexity of the issue. In part this is because of the very broad range of cultural and social class diversities that we have in Britain, so that generalisations that are appropriate for one context might be quite misleading in another. Further the issue is made more complex by the elusive concept of ‘race’, which is, as Hylton recognises, a social construct. So that if the topic is ignored, racism festers – a key argument in the book. But conversely if it is focussed on too much then people’s attitudes and relationships become increasingly ‘racialised’ and it takes centre stage in an organisation.

In the course of his biblical exposition Hylton frequently draws wise applications for a multi-ethnic church, for example on the nature of leadership. He emphasises qualities such as humility, attentiveness, and courage. However the emphases often come as generalisations which can be undone by the complexity and diversity of the situations we face. They are not always equally appropriate. So much depends on specific context. The book would instead have been enriched by far more stories, not as exemplars to be mindlessly followed but as real life situations which may then stimulate readers to make connections with situations they face. The helpful link to Keon West’s book could have been usefully filled out with several pages discussing the ways in which West’s insights have been or could be worked out in congregations.

In the kaleidoscope of multi-racial Britain Hylton has done us a service in highlighting the central importance of reconciliation as a key to the churches’ response and has given stimulating pointers to some of the consequences of this. What is needed is to build up a much fuller deposit of shared memory which leaders can draw on, so that out of the rich experiences of people such as the author we can develop a surer touch in knowing what might fit in our situations.

A final bonus of the book is that it contains many quotable apothegms:

‘Diversity in ethnicity and status is not a challenge to be managed but a grace to be received’ (p 110).

‘Affirming ethnicity is healthy; making it ultimate is captivity’ (p 183).

‘Revelation’s choir does not sing ‘Worthy are the cuisines; but worthy is the lamb who was slain’ (p 184).