This article by Jane Shaw in the November issue of Prospect magazine discusses the Church of England's new £100m fund for “projects focused on improving opportunities for communities impacted by historic transatlantic chattel slavery”, saying it should be called what it is: reparations. Coming out of an admission of complicity in the trade of captive human beings known as the transatlantic slave trade, the church seeks reconciliation with the communities who suffered. The article asks if this can be found and looks at the history of calls for reparations from within the church.

In setting up this fund the Church of England has joined other institutions such as Lloyd's insurance and Greene King Brewers and the group 'Heirs of Slavery, composed of descendants of some of Britain's wealthiest slave-owning families, in taking action. Though welcomed as a first step it is pointed out  that the £100m sum "is less than 1 per cent of the Church Commissioners’ £10.3bn fund and will be taken from its income over a period of nine years, so that the original endowment remains untouched." 

A useful read to go alongside watching the MJR documentary ‘After the Flood: the church, slavery and reconciliation'. Read the article here.

Following up our recent post on the Church of England's new fund to address the legacy of slavery, Bishop Mike Royal, General Secretary, Churches Together in England, and MJR advisor has written this article for Premier Christianity magazine. His verdict is that "£100m is a drop in the ocean in terms of righting the wrongs of the slave trade", but "it does attempt to direct compensation in the right direction".

Mike also refers to contributions about the slave trade by historian David Olusoga, journalist Afua Hirsch and academic Prof Kehinde Andrews in the recent Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary. This important content has been lost in the subsequent media attention on other issues. Hirsch tells viewers that: “the first ever commercial slave voyage conducted by Britain was personally financed by Queen Elizabeth I. It continued to be financed by kings and queens right up until its abolition”. Olusoga reflects on what he was taught about the slave trade at school, “the only aspect…that was ever talked about was the abolition of slavery.” This is a “very selective slice of the history”, he says, and misses out “a critical aspect.” Slavery wasn’t just abolished, the slave owners “were compensated enormously. £20 million for their human property!”.

Read the full article here.

The Church of England has committed £100m to a new fund to compensate for its historical benefit from the international slave trade. The money will be used to support projects “focused on improving opportunities for communities adversely impacted by historic slavery” and deliver a programme of investment, research and engagement over the next nine years. 

The fund has been set up as a result of a report for the Church Commissioners, the body that manages the C of E’s £9bn-plus endowment fund. The origins of this fund have been traced partly partly to Queen Anne’s Bounty, a financial scheme established in 1704 based on transatlantic chattel slavery. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the report “lays bare the links of the Church Commissioners’ predecessor fund with transatlantic chattel slavery. I am deeply sorry for these links. It is now time to take action to address our shameful past.”

Read more here. Read the Church Commissioners Report here.

At their annual meeting Quakers have agreed they will make practical reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism and economic exploitation. They took this decision after hearing powerful evidence about Lancaster Quakers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, who profited from the enslavement of people. They also heard about the personal experience of racism of some of their own members. Quakers summarised their thinking in a statement they call an epistle which will be shared with all Quaker bodies nationally and locally, so they can consider how to respond with practical and meaningful action. It states: "Britain Yearly Meeting resolves to build on our decision last year to be an anti-racist church, working with partners, including churches and faith groups, to look at ways to make meaningful reparations for our failings."  Read more. Read the full epistle here.

During the ceremony marking Barbados’s historic transition to a republic, Prince Charles referred to the “appalling atrocity of slavery”, describing the period as the “darkest days of our past” and adding that, moving forward, the “creation of this republic offers a new beginning”. Though this was welcomed by some as a bold statement, it stopped short of an apology and was felt to be  a missed opportunity to make amends, on behalf of all that he represents, for the impact of slavery, a system in which Britain played a leading role. Britain’s entire infrastructure, and that of all its institutions, was built off the backs of enslaved black people.

As the legacy of slavery continue to violently reverberate across generations of black people, any form of apology or reparations from the crown or the British government have yet to be received. Writing in the Independent, Nadine White says: "There’s more work to be done in truly escaping the grips of colonialism and reclaiming a sense of black identity, above and beyond the brutal corridors of our past, even if that aspect of the journey will forever be included in the story. Those who benefit from the plight of black people, whether inadvertently or otherwise, ought to take responsibility because simply stating facts isn’t going to cut it. That cannot buy bread."
Read the full article here.

I Will Repay is a Church and Reparations webinar series from Churches Together in England examining British engagement with reparations for descendants of enslaved and colonised African peoples. The Racial Justice Advocacy Forum (RJAF) partners with the National Church Leaders Forum (NCLF) and Movement for Justice and Reconciliation (MJR) to facilitate leading Black Christian voices on the various aspects of reparation and its implications for both church and government. It has three core aims:

• To articulate the various Christian positions around reparations
• To equip the church to speak with confidence on reparations
• To help solidify the Christian work around reparations.

These aims are geared towards action-based outcomes that build upon historical and current efforts in Britain, for example, a permanent memorial, a scholarship fund, strategies for church engagement, a service of lament. 

Session 1: ‘I will repay: the Church and Reparations’ will be on Wednesday 6 October 2021 at 7.30pm, will explore the theological rationale with Professor Robert Beckford, Eleasah Louis, Rev. Ronald Nathan and Dionne Gravesande. Six more sessions will follow. More details and how to book can be found here.

The Jesuit Conference of U.S. and Canada, an order of the Catholic Church, has announced the goal of raising $100 million to benefit the descendants of enslaved people historically owned and sold by Jesuits. The money will go toward a new 'Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation' created by the church in partnership with the GU272 Descendants Association, a group of descendants of enslaved people who were sold by Jesuits in 1838.

Fr. Tim Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference said: "Jesuits have always known our history of slaveholding, but it was not until 2016 that we met the descendants of Jesuit slaveholding and that completely changed our understanding of this historic sin. I think for a church which preaches forgiveness and reconciliation, this is an incredible opportunity to model what true reconciliation is." The ultimate vision of the foundation is to raise $1 billion. The Jesuit network is committed to raising the first $100 million.

Read more here.

At an extraordinary meeting on March 2 Bristol City Council voted in favour of a motion for "Atonement and Reparations for Bristol’s role in the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans", becoming the first city outside London to do so. The cross-party motion passed by 47 votes to 12 and was the result of a grassroots campaign dating back many years.

Cllr Cleo Lake said in the meeting: “Reparations, as I hope was made clear in this motion, does include but goes beyond monetary compensation. The contribution of African civilisation, culture and people versus how we have been treated is one of the world’s great paradoxes". She added later: "I want to be very clear this is not about rewriting history, but rather about casting a bright light on it. Instead of clinging to comforting myths about Britain’s heritage, let’s face up to the reality of our history – let’s talk about it – and let’s learn from that to create a better future for all of us.”

Mayor Marvin Rees acknowledged the complexities in conversations around race, class and social immobility and spoke of the need for discussions around reparatory justice to be attached to real policy. He added: “I’m not just a mayor, I still experience the world as a black man and, even within this organisation, I experience the consequences of having black skin. Race does not disappear just because we want to wish it away.”

Read more here. Watch a recording of the meeting here.

Two major British firms have pledged to make payments to representatives of black people, as well as those of other minority ethnic backgrounds, as they seek to address their founders’ roles in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.The pub chain and brewer Greene King and the insurance market Lloyd’s of London both revealed on Wednesday evening that they would be making the reparations.

Greene King CEO Nick Mackenzie said: “It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s.” He added that the firm will “make a substantial investment to benefit the BAME community and support our race diversity in the business”.

Lloyd’s of London said it would “invest in positive programmes to attract, retain and develop black and minority ethnic talent”, as well as providing “financial support to charities and organisations promoting opportunity and inclusion for black and minority ethnic groups”.

Records of British slave ownership archived by researchers at University College London (UCL) show that founder members of both Greenes and Lloyds owned slaves and were compensated as part of the Government bail-out of slave owners in 1833. The slaves received nothing.

​Read more here.

MJR trustee Dr Joe Aldred, interviewed in Christian Today about the #BlackLivesMatter protests has said he welcomes "this simultaneous combustion of racial justice consciousness. The nerve that George Floyd's public slaying by a police officer - while his colleagues looked on even as passers by protested - was a historic one made tender by the enduring injustice that has been gnawing away at black people's patience for years - centuries, even."

"In my view, this devaluing of Black life has its roots in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, chattel slavery, colonialism, apartheid, and Jim Crow laws. Black people who live in 'Western' societies understand this through experience and observation to a lesser or greater extent, which mean this was a fire set to blaze and simply waiting for a match to ignite it. Many white people seem unaware of the heightened resentment black people have towards the racism that blights so many black lives in a world that moves to the tune of whiteness."

Turning to the complicity of Western Churches in "the history of the practice of racism", Dr Alred states"any acknowledgement of that complicity needs to go deeper and further than being stirred by the current incident of George Floyd's killing and the Black Lives Matter-led protests that have so effectively channelled the raw emotion of exasperation, grief, anger and demand for justice." Characterised by the Biblical notion of repentance, which calls for a "high price of giving up and restoring what has been stolen", he continues, "Churches need to take this opportunity, not by any means their first, to look deep into their souls and reckon with their history concerning black people; then act in a spirit of reparatory justice. Racial injustice is a systemic issue in society and in the Western Church.  The Church must call for systemic solutions that match the seriousness of historic and contemporary racial injustice."

​Read the full interview here.