THE Archbishop of Canterbury, during a trip to Jamaica last weekend, apologised for the Church of England’s links with the transatlantic slave trade, but said that there “remains in many hearts resistance to the concept of enslavement as our sin”.
On Sunday, the 200th anniversary of the diocese of Jamaica — renamed Jamaica & the Cayman Islands in 2001 — was celebrated with a eucharist in the National Arena in Kingston.
In his sermon, Archbishop Welby said that he was “deeply, deeply, deeply sorry. We sinned against your ancestors. I would give anything that it could be reversed, but it cannot.”
On the same day, The Observer published research showing that the 18th-century British merchant and slave trader Edward Colston made a bequest to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG).
In May, The Observer uncovered documents showing that one of Archbishop Welby’s predecessor’s, the Most Revd Thomas Secker, approved payments for “new negroes” in 1758 and 1760 (New, 31 May).
In a panel discussion on Saturday morning, Archbishop Welby said that the Church Commissioners’ establishment of a £100-million impact investment fund to benefit communities affected by the transatlantic slave trade (News, 10 January 2023) had prompted “fiery debate” within the C of E.
“But it is my firm belief that we are called on to embark on this painful road to understanding, healing and repair,” he said.
He defended the idea of “corporate sin by a company, an institution, or a Church”, and said that those who had benefited must “make the case for transgenerational ethics” — a concept that applied to climate change just as it did to the slave trade.
The Primate of the West Indies, the Most Revd Howard Gregory, introduced the panel discussion, hosted by the University of the West Indies (UWI) and streamed online.
“We must acknowledge as Anglicans that the coming of the Church of England to the Caribbean in the 17th century was part of a transplantation of an imperialistic and colonising movement on the part of Britain, intended the serve the interest of the plantocracy, while regarding the Black population, which then consisted of the enslaved, as mere private property not worthy of evangelisation and the ministry of the Church,” he said.
Archbishop Welby said that he was “humbled” to be speaking alongside experts on reparatory justice, including two UWI professors and a former judge in the International Court of Justice, the Hon. Patrick Robinson.
Slavery was “the greatest of evils”, Archbishop Welby said. “For the Church of England to be involved institutionally is a cause of infinite shame for me personally.”
Meaningful apology required action, and for the Church this meant “transparency about history”, he said; but “the debate in England remains very vigorous, with many people who challenge whether or to what degree the Church profited.”
Professor Richard Dale, formerly of the University of Southampton’s business school, has argued that Queen Anne’s Bounty — which was later joined with the Ecclesiastical Commissionrs to form the Church Commissioners — did not profit from the slave trade, because it was invested in South Sea Company annuities, and these were a separate business operation from the transatlantic trade in chattel slaves (Comment, 22 March).
The Commissioners’ chief executive, Gareth Mostyn, has defended the research, criticised by Professor Dale, which underlies the decision to create the new investment fund (Comment, 14 June).
“One of most extraordinary comments I’ve heard made to me is: ‘But we didn’t make much money out of it,’” Archbishop Welby said on Saturday. This was, he suggested, akin to arguing that he was blameless if he tried to murder someone but failed.
The responsibility of making restoration fell on “the descendants of the enslavers”, he said said, and “in the absence of binding legal decisions . . . reparatory justice is a broader and more flexible way of compelling the moral duty of bodies to consider their obligations.”
He contrasted reparatory justice of this sort, which the Commissioners were pursuing, with “reparation” payments. There was no international court that could mandate such payments by English bodies.
“I prefer reparatory justice, which, to my mind, includes the concept of reparations, so that, one way or another, those who have moral obligations face up to them, whether for legal reasons, or out of conscience,” the Archbishop said.
ON HIS visit, Archbishop Welby also met the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, and the Governor-General, Patrick Allen. The conversations focused on education, Archbishop Welby said.
After a visit to the Church Teachers’ College, in Mandeville, the Archbishop said that “education is a gift,” and commended the students for “dedicating their lives to delivering that gift”.
In a post on Instagram, he wrote: “They are training a future generation of educators — each a shining example of the college’s philosophy that focuses on individual worth and excellence. I pray that your careers are long and enriching for you and your pupils.”
Archbishop Welby was accompanied by his wife, Caroline, who met clergy spouses during the couple’s visit.