2025 marked 25 years since the first SPEAK gathering (sound check 2000) and 2023 marked 25 years since we set up and sent out our first campaign resource Pray and Post card on refugees rights September 1998. Marcus reflects on 25 years on and his journey with SPEAK. Marcus De Matos is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Brunel University of London and a member of the Anglican Communion at St Margaret Uxbridge, in Greater London. He was the General Secretary of Fale (The SPEAK Network in Brazil) from 2006 to 2010 – https://redefale.blogspot.com/ Contact: marcus.dematos@brunel.ac.uk
Speak was a groundbreaking experience in my life. As a young Christian leader growing up in Rio, Brazil, I often found myself asking the question that James asked before: how is it possible to talk about faith without works? How was it possible to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ among the hungry, the poor, the refugees, the prisoners and the widows while they were suffering in poverty and death? The Speak Network offered us a theological way forward. We were to be “prophetic voices” denouncing sin and injustice. Like the prophets, we were to raise our voices against the accumulation of wealth by a few and the outrageous use of power by the rich. We were to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is nearby.
When we started our prayer and postcard campaigning activities in Brazil in the 2000s, Ziel Machado explained the theology behind it all in the funniest way possible: “The Bible tells us to pray for the authorities, but some people pray for them to live longer, while others pray for them to have a shorter life! What you are doing is praying for them to be just.” The Speak Network inspired sister movements all over the world. Fale (Speak Brazil) was one of the first to kick off and gather support in Latin America. This support came from both Pentecostal churches and progressive Christian organisations. The “Fale” Network in Brazil was able to gather donations and institutional support from Christian organisations as diverse as the World Council of Churches, Tearfund and World Vision. We prayed and campaigned on topics such as trade justice, gender equality and anti-racism. Even If our campaigns did not always change the political authorities, they certainly changed our hearts and minds – to be more like Jesus.
Now, as I have moved from campaigning work to academia, I often find myself reflection on what remains from those actions and what legacy The Speak Network has given us. And the answer is not far at all – I still see its impacts on my personal life. As a foreign academic in the UK, I struggle with the current anti-immigration climate. I am an immigrant and suffer when I see this country going deep into the rabbit hole of racism, xenophobia and scapegoating refugees. But then, when I look around, it is the actions of my sisters and brothers from Speak that speak louder. I cannot mention all of you, but when I look at the people who are standing up against fascism in this country, I find so many familiar faces.
I see Holly Petersen and the people she gathered in the “Christians for a Welcoming Britain” group facing those angry crowds who want to burn a hotel hosting refugee families. And then I have no doubt: in seeing you, I am seeing Jesus. As Shane Claiborne once said, we should not call Christianity that which does not look like Jesus. So this is it: speaking up for those who cannot not speak for themselves is a way of living – and the best way to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is near.
Marcus De Matos is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Brunel University of London and a member of the Anglican Communion at St Margaret Uxbridge, in Greater London. He was the General Secretary of Fale (The Speak Network in Brazil) from 2006 to 2010 – https://redefale.blogspot.com/ Contact: marcus.dematos@brunel.ac.uk