The Reverend Sybil Theodora Phoenix, OBE (née Marshall; 21 June 1927[1]) is a British community worker of Guyanese birth.
[3][6] In 1971 she founded a youth club for black teenagers in New Cross, on Pagnell Street and named it Pagnell Street Centre (later changed to Moonshot)[3][7] The club operated out of an old mission hall in Pagnell Street and it became a community centre for local black people, with academic classes, a lending library, dances, a football team, daytime drop-in classes and support for young mothers and social evenings for the elderly.
[7] However, the center was destroyed one night in an arson attack by members of the right-wing extremist National Front.
[16] Sybil Phoenix was a Methodist local preacher for many years, working closely with the British Council of Churches to forge links between peoples of all faiths.
[17] While based at Clubland Methodist Mission on Walworth Road in South London, Sybil Phoenix was instrumental in setting up anti-racist training for members of the clergy, known as the Methodist Leadership Racism Awareness Workshop (MELRAW) and as Director she took this work to many countries around the world.
[3] In 1996, Sybil Phoenix was made an Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Lewisham,[18] and in 1998 was awarded the Freedom of the City of London.