Church of England told to increase fund size to address slavery’s legacy

The Anglican Church has been told to increase a proposed £100m fund to tackle the legacy of slavery to £1bn to reflect the scale of “moral evil”.

Churches should work with other organizations to create funds to invest in black-led businesses globally and provide grants, a report by an independent advisory group commissioned by a church council said.

The £100m initially earmarked by church commissioners was ‘insufficient relative to the size of the church’ [commissioners’] It says: “The magnitude of natural or moral sin and crime”.

The report has been accepted in full by the Church Commissioners, the body that manages C of E’s financial assets.

The £1bn fund will dwarf the actions taken by other UK institutions to tackle the legacy of slavery.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the report was “the beginning of a multi-generational response to the appalling evil of transatlantic chattel slavery”.

The independent monitoring group was established after the European Commission publicly acknowledged in January 2023 its historical benefits from the international slave trade. The origins of the European Commission’s £10bn endowment can partly be traced to Queen Anne’s Bounty Scheme, a financial scheme established in 2023. 1704 based on transatlantic chattel slavery.

At the time, Welby said the church must “take action to address our shameful past” and the church commissioner announced £100m of funding over the next nine years.

The watchdog group said the proposed fund was “very small compared to the scale of racial disadvantage caused by chattel slavery in Africa” ​​and that the delivery timetable should be accelerated.

Instead, it proposed a “healing, repair and justice fund” with a target of £1 billion. The organization said the fund should aim to attract money from three sources: church commissioners; “other institutions formerly involved in chattel slavery in Africa; and contributors who are outraged by injustice and want to work together to fight racial injustice.”

The report said church councilors had “accepted the £1bn target”. The consequences of slavery “inflicted enormous damage that will require generations of patient effort to address,” the report said.

The fund will be Black-led and will invest in members of disadvantaged Black communities, the report said. As a first step, church commissioners should deliver on their £100m pledge, with £70m earmarked for “investments seeking returns within the first five years” and £30m for a grant scheme to be distributed over 10 years.

The fund “is designed to support the most outstanding social entrepreneurs, educators, healthcare providers, asset managers, and historians. It will not pay cash compensation to individuals or provide grants to government agencies.”

It also recommends that “a significant portion” of the Church Commissioner’s extensive property portfolio “increase socioeconomic mobility across race by initiating and expanding initiatives to provide competitive and/or below-market leases to black-owned businesses.”

It called on the Council of Europe to issue a new apology for “denying that black Africans are created in the image of God and seeking to destroy Africa’s diverse traditional religious belief systems.”

The report states: “African chattel slavery inflicted severe trauma on human societies. Severe disparities in physical and mental health, nearly insurmountable barriers to economic empowerment, and unrelenting social divisions perpetuated by toxic racism and white supremacy. , are the continuing legacy of this moral evil and crime. Complete restoration will not be possible for centuries, but the Fund is committed to restoration as an ongoing and intentional process.”

Dr Rosemary Mallett, Bishop of Croydon and chair of the organisation, said: “No amount of money can fully undo or completely redress the centuries-long effects of chattel slavery in Africa, which are still felt around the world today. But implementing these recommendations will demonstrate the Church Commissioner’s commitment to supporting processes of healing, restoration and justice for all those affected by chattel slavery in Africa.”

She said the impact of slavery still exists today and is “measurable and evident in everything from pregnancy and birth outcomes to life chances at birth, physical and mental health, education, employment, income, property and the criminal justice system .” We hope this initiative is just the beginning and serves as a catalyst that encourages other institutions to investigate their past and create a better future for affected communities. “

Last year, the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian, apologized for the paper’s founder’s role in transatlantic slavery and announced a ten-year restorative justice program with more than £10m in funding (US$12.3 million, AU$18.4 million) Specifically aimed at communities descended from links to the Guardian’s 19th-century founders.