The pressure on the Church of England to ditch its slavery reparations plan

8 hours ago

Aleem Maqbool Religion editor

BBC

The soaring, light-filled quire in Rochester Cathedral has witnessed centuries of worship. But beneath where the cathedral's singers sit, under its timeworn paving stones lies a dark financial legacy.

Hidden in an archive until just a few years ago, were share dividends from the early 18th Century showing the cathedral's dean and chapter invested directly in a company that trafficked slaves, making profits of around 400%.

"We think it paid for a huge renovation project here at that time," says the Very Reverend Philip Hesketh, Dean of Rochester, pointing out the quire paving that was relaid.

"There were some major things like seven Georgian houses in Minor Canon Row just outside the cathedral, accommodation for staff, clergy, and an organist's house," he says.

In the south aisle of the nave is also an elaborate wall monument commemorating John, 1st Lord Henniker who was buried at the cathedral in 1803. He was one of the most prominent anti-abolitionist members of parliament and had close personal links to the slave trade.

"I think it's important to identify it, acknowledge it and to tell that story," says Hesketh.

What is happening at Rochester mirrors a broader reckoning happening across churches, cathedrals and the Church of England.

In 2023, the Church announced that the predecessor to its modern endowment fund had invested heavily in the South Sea Company, a business involved in transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic during the 18th Century

It said it had made profits from those investments that would be the equivalent of around £1.4bn in today's money. Those profits were all integrated into the Church's modern day investment fund, which is now worth many billions of pounds.

The disclosure prompted an apology from the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who said he was "deeply sorry for the links" and promised to make amends through a £100m "social impact" fund.

Reuters

The then Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he was "deeply sorry for the links"

But today the money remains unspent.

What began as one of the Church's biggest attempts to confront its links to slavery has become the focus of a fierce row.

Supporters of the Church's promise to make amends say it has a responsibility to address the legacy of slavery. Critics argue the historical case has been overstated and question whether the money should be spent at all.

More broadly, the dispute raises questions about the promises many institutions made after the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was killed in Minneapolis in 2020 after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.

Floyd's killing sparked protests across the United States and around the world. In Britain, institutions came under growing pressure to look at their own records on race, discrimination and historical injustice.

Six years on, will the Church's commitments still be delivered, or do shifting political winds mean there is no longer the will to do so?

The George Floyd moment

Following the reaction to George Floyd's murder by a police officer in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020, universities launched investigations into their links with the slave trade and the British Empire. Museums reassessed collections. Businesses announced diversity initiatives. Charities and churches also began looking again at their histories.

Reuters

George Floyd's murder sparked protests across the United States and around the world

The Church of England was part of that wider moment.

The Church had already spent years engaged in a process of reflection about its own role in the slave trade. But it would take George Floyd's murder by a white police officer to spur the Church on to speed up its examination of ties to historic slavery and explore some form of repentance.

What did the Church find?

The most significant investigation was already underway, spearheaded by the Church Commissioners, the body responsible for managing the Church's multi-billion-pound investment fund.

They commissioned a forensic audit into the origins of a historic financial fund known as the Queen Anne's Bounty, originally set up to support clergy and parishes and the precursor of the modern-day fund.

Dr Helen Paul, an economic historian at the University of Southampton, was one of the experts brought in to decipher 18th Century ledgers. The audit found that many donors to the fund had connections to the transatlantic slave trade. But the most significant revelation concerned the Church's own investments.

Researchers reported that between 1723 and 1777, the Church of England put its investment monies almost entirely into the South Sea Company.

"The company was based in London and worked with the Royal African Company to go to West Africa to deal with enslavers there and force enslaved people onto their ships and sail across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and then further to Spanish held ports," Pa…