A Church of England advisory panel has said that The £100m earmarked by the Church of England for a new investment fund to help repair damage caused by its historical links to slavery is insufficient relative to the scale of the moral sin and crime.
The report was drafted by an independent “oversight group” comprising Black experts from various fields recruited to advise the Commissioners on the new fund.
The Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners has warmly welcomed the report of the independent Oversight Group, the recommendations from which will shape the new Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice. The Oversight Group were tasked with advising on the Church Commissioners’ response to its historical links with African chattel enslavement.
It said that the Church of England should create a fund of one billion pounds, or US$1.27 billion, to address its historical links to slavery. That is ten times the amount the church previously set aside.
In accepting the report in full, The Church Commissioners, the body that manages the C of E’s substantial financial assets, said they will not increase the £100m but aim to attract co-investors to increase the fund’s value. Among those likely to be approached to join the initiative are pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and foundations.
Chaired by Barbadian Bishop Rosemarie Mallet, The oversight group was set up in 2023 by the Church Commissioners after revelations that its predecessor, called Queen Anne’s Bounty, had links with African chattel enslavement. In the 18th century, it invested significant funds in the South Sea Company, which traded in enslaved people. It also received numerous benefactions, many of which are likely to have come from individuals linked to, or who profited from, transatlantic chattel slavery and the plantation economy.
Among the group’s recommendations is that the Church fund be used to invest in Black-led businesses focusing on education, economic empowerment, and health outcomes, as well as to provide grants to address issues in communities impacted by the legacies of slavery. It called for a fresh apology from the C of E for “denying that Black Africans are made in the image of God and for seeking to destroy diverse African traditional religious belief systems”.
It also requested that the funds’ delivery timeline be accelerated and delivered faster than the nine years initially envisaged.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican community of about eighty-five million Christians, said in a statement accompanying the report that the group’s work was the beginning of “a multi-generational response to the appalling evil of transatlantic chattel enslavement”.
Bishop of Croydon Rosemarie Mallett, a descendant of slavery herself, said implementing the report’s recommendations would demonstrate a commitment to healing and justice.
The impact of slavery persisted today, she said and 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.”
“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,” she added.
