JUSTICE within the wake of the Church’s “shameful” and “humbling” involvement in transatlantic chattel slavery may be achieved only through the pursuit of truth, a conference in Liverpool heard last week.
The three-day event on the theme of “Truth Telling” was jointly held by the Church of England’s Racial Justice Unit and Senior Research Fellow Dr Leona Vaughn for the University of Liverpool, with support from the diocese of Liverpool. More than 150 people from world wide attended.
Among the speakers was the Bishop of Edmonton, the Rt Revd Anderson Jeremiah, who said: “To embody the lived experiences of our people, our journey towards justice and peace have to be grounded in reality telling. Without accountability, without our commitment to talk, to listen, and, crucially, to live the reality — freedom and peace will remain distant and elusive. When we embrace the reality revealed in Christ, the best way the reality and the life, it can set us free.”
The Archbishop of York, also addressing the conference, quoted the Ghanian proverb “Until the lion has told his story, the hunter will all the time be a hero” as an instance how the Church should acknowledge how individuals and institutions had benefited from slavery profits. He had first heard the proverb in Ghana last November when he was visiting the dungeons within the Cape Coast Castle that had been used to imprison enslaved Africans before they were loaded onto ships to cross the Atlantic.
It was, Archbishop Cottrell said, “humbling that it was the Church of Jesus Christ that was so invested within the horrific hunting down, enslavement, and commodification of human beings that took place over many centuries through transatlantic chattel enslavement. So, to begin with, at this truth-telling conference, allow us to within the Church of England acknowledge that we’ve been humbled by this truth.”
Among those that attended were the Church of England’s lead bishops for racial Justice, the Bishop of Croydon, Dr Rosemarie Mallett, who delivered the sermon at a special service at Liverpool Cathedral, and the Bishop of Kirkstall, the Rt Revd Arun Arora.
Other speakers included Professor William Pettigrew, a historian at Lancaster University who has led research into the 11,000 investors — including Church of England clergy — who financed Britain’s contribution to the transatlantic traffic in enslaved people. Among those that spoke via video-link were Professor Kelly Brown Douglas, Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School within the United States; Canon Dr Stephanie Sellers, from the US Episcopal Church; and UNESCO representatives.
During the 18th century, Liverpool was Britain’s principal slaving port. Ships carried around 1.5 million Africans across the Atlantic in horrific conditions. As a part of the conference, a tour was conducted of buildings near the Port of Liverpool, including Liverpool Parish Church, where among the city’s wealthiest slave merchants were buried. After an area campaign, the church now has a memorial to Abell, an enslaved man dropped at Liverpool, who’s recorded as having been buried within the churchyard in 1717.
The Church of England’s deputy lead director for Racial Justice, the Revd Dr Sharon Prentis, said: “For years, the Church has been far too comfortable in a state of amnesia regarding the horrors of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.”
The aim of the conference, she said, had been to “affirm that Christ as our compass, guides us as we confront the past concerning chattel slavery. Truth-telling enables your complete Church to handle its history with honesty, in order that it could actually in humility and with confidence seek justice, healing, and unity for all of God’s children.”
