According to the report, the initial £100million was insufficient “relative either to the scale of the [commissioners’] endowment or to the scale of the moral sin and crime”.
The Church Commissioners – the body which manages the CofE’s financial assets – said it accepts the report but will not increase the £100million investment.
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Gareth Mostyn, chief executive of the Church Commissioners, said £100million was the “appropriate financial commitment… at this stage” to ensure they can commit to other responsibilities with parishes and church activities.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said the report was “the beginning of a multi-generational response to the appalling evil of transatlantic chattel enslavement”.
In January 2023, the CofE publicly acknowledged its historical benefit from the international slave trade.
It launched the Independent Oversight Group after an £10billion endowment fund was partly traced to Queen Anne’s Bounty – a scheme based on transatlantic chattel slavery.
The Church Commissioners then announced a £100million fund over nine years.
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The group said the fund should aim to attract capital from three sources: “The Church Commissioners; other institutions once complicit in African chattel enslavement; and contributors who “outraged by injustice, wish to make common cause against racial inequality.”
The report called for a fresh apology from the CofE for “denying that black Africans are made in the image of God and for seeking to destroy diverse African traditional religious belief systems”.
The Right Rev Dr Rosemarie Mallett, the bishop of Croydon and the group’s chair, said: “No amount of money can fully atone for or fully redress the centuries-long impact of African chattel enslavement, the effects of which are still felt around the world today.”
She added that the impact of slavery was “measurable and apparent in everything from pregnancy and childbirth 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 start and is a catalyst to encourage other institutions to investigate their past and make a better future for impacted communities.”
* Original Article:
https://www.gbnews.com/news/church-england-slavery-fund-justin-welby
