A selection of essays and pieces Franklyn has written for other outlets, journals, and organizations, gathered here in one place.
Unity and Legacy: Celebrating Black History in Canada and the United Church
The United Church of Canada, January 29, 2024
A reflection on Black History Month as both a celebration of Black achievement and a call to sustained understanding and action, connecting the wider Canadian story to Black leadership and belonging within the United Church.
Black History Month: The Purpose and Practice of Celebration
The United Church of Canada Foundation, February 24, 2025
Frames Black History Month through cause, celebration, and continuity, asking what is remembered, who carries the story, and how celebration takes form, with practical ways to honour Black history through worship, education, storytelling, art, food, and community gatherings.
Beyond a Piece of Pie: Embracing the Challenge and Invitation
The United Church of Canada Foundation, March 13, 2025
Written for PIE Day, this reflection examines justice, moral freedom, political instability, and the dangers of enforcing ideological conformity, proposing that advocacy be public, intentional, and humble, rooted in conscience, law, and respect for human dignity.
Beyond a Piece of Pie: A Deeper Hunger for Justice
The United Church of Canada Foundation, March 14, 2025
The second PIE Day reflection asks who remains unseen or uninvited even within movements committed to inclusion, and closes with the poem “A Piece of Pie, Please,” using the shared table as an image of belonging, dignity, and justice that leaves no one hungry.
A Place at the Table: What the Photograph Couldn’t Say, Part One
The United Church of Canada, February 10, 2026
A reflection on taking part in the United Church’s centennial photograph and the community formed at Loon Lake, asking whether public representations of diversity can overlook race, language, accent, migration, and cultural identity even when inclusion is sincerely intended.
A Place at the Table: What the Photograph Couldn’t Say, Part Two
The United Church of Canada, February 18, 2026
Considers what full belonging requires when people bring theological, political, racial, cultural, and sexual identities that resist simple categories, and calls for Black presence to be received with room for agency, strength, disagreement, and the whole person.
Conversations and Features
A Place at the Table: Franklyn James
The United Church of Canada
A profile telling the story of Franklyn’s call to ministry as a response to exclusion and injustice in Jamaica, his move to Canada, his ministry within the United Church, and his understanding of justice as part of Christian faith itself.
Echoes of Resilience
Centre for Christian Studies
A report on Franklyn’s February 2024 presentation on Black legacies in Canadian society and the church, covering Black pioneers, resilience, religious leadership, and the continuing work of confronting exclusion.
Coffee With: Franklyn James Webinar Replay
The United Church of Canada Foundation
The recording of a United Church Foundation conversation about Black History Month, introducing the framework of cause, celebration, and continuity that Franklyn developed further in his Foundation guest blog.