Conservatives urge incoming Archbishop to drop £100m slavery reparations

Conservative MPs and peers have written to the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, urging her to desert plans to pay £100 million in slavery reparations.

The parliamentarians argue that such a payment would set a nasty precedent and will fall foul of Charity Commission rules that require charitable funds be used for the aim they were donated for.

Mullally is as a result of be installed as Archbishop of Canterbury in March following a proper Confirmation of Election ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral in January. Her appointment as the primary woman to carry the office for the reason that role was created almost one and a half millennia ago was controversial as a result of her liberal stance on sexuality and has already alienated conservative Anglicans like those represented by the Gafcon movement.

Now Mullally is facing pressure to place an end to plans by the Church Commissioners, who’re speculated to use their considerable endowment to support local parishes and clergy, to us £100 million on reparations.

A spokesperson for the Church Commissioners told The Times, “The Church Commissioners, as a 320-year-old Christian in-perpetuity endowment fund, has committed £100 million to establish a recent investment fund to support healing, justice and repair, in response to the invention of its historic links with Transatlantic African chattel enslavement.

“This is consistent with the Church of England’s Fourth Mark of Mission: to ‘seek to rework unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of all types and pursue peace and reconciliation’. Governance arrangements are being developed transparently — in step with charity law, our fiduciary duties, and our moral purpose — to make sure proper oversight and accountability.”

Shadow Home Office minister, Katie Lam, disagrees and has written to Mullally calling on her to drop the plans.

The letter, which was signed by 27 senior Conservatives, says that the Church Commissioner fund ought to be used to strengthen local parishes and never for “high-profile and legally dubious vanity projects”, reports The Sunday Times.

The letter also states that Charity Commission rules require charitable funds be used for the aim for which they were donated.

“By law, the endowment should be used to support parish ministry, maintain church buildings, and take care of the Church’s historic records,” the letter reads.

“At a moment when churches across the country are struggling to maintain their doors open — many even falling into disrepair — it’s mistaken to attempt to justify diverting £100 million to a project entirely separate from those core obligations.”

It has been reported that the Church Commissioners will create a recent charity and transfer the £100 million as an ex-gratia payment. The Church has reportedly held informal talks with the Charity Commission concerning the plan. Lam also organised a letter to the Charity Commission outlining her opposition.

In the letter to Mullally, Lam and other Conservatives warned concerning the precedent of paying reparations: “If a serious national institution redefines its charitable purposes to embrace political projects of this type, it’ll put pressure on every other historic institution — universities, museums, galleries, even the Crown — to follow suit, no matter their legal objects or donors’ intentions.”