The Church of England’s plan to place £100 million towards slavery reparations has been condemned as “poorly justified, historically uninformed” and possibly lacking in legal justification.
Two years ago, the Church Commissioners announced Project Spire, an impact investment fund for use for causes that take care of the “after-effects of slavery”. The plan was announced after historic connections between Church funds and slavery were allegedly discovered.
As well as providing funds to black leaders, communities and organisations, the project is committed to additional research into potential historic links between the Church and slavery.
The scheme has been challenged in a report by Policy Exchange, which questions the research that claimed to search out historical connections between the Church and slavery.
The report says that “links” to slavery were assumed or considered to be likely quite than actually proven. For example, a historic church benefactor who merely had “naval connections” was considered a possible financial beneficiary of slavery.
The report claims that the Church’s initial research essentially declared the Church guilty before any investigation had been conducted.
One of the stated assumptions of the research that led to the fund states, “The immense wealth accrued by the Church Commissioners has at all times been interwoven with the history of African chattel enslavement … Many donors to the Church made their wealth through enslavement-based industries.”
Policy Exchange noted of their report that, even when a historic link between the Church and slavery were to be established, the Church Commissioners could be departing from their core duty in the event that they channelled funds intended for the event of local parishes towards reparations.
Lord Sewell, a former Chair of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, in his foreword to Policy Exchange’s report spoke of among the difficulties of growing up as a black boy in Sixties’ England.
However, Lord Sewell also said of the Church and its reparation plans, “The Church of England that raised me gave me my moral compass, agency, and a few great biblical adventure stories.
“Rather than addressing the real challenges in our society today, the Church allows itself to be dragged into the quagmire of a narrative concerning the legacy of slavery and systemic racism.”
The Chief Executive of the Church Commissioners, Gareth Mostyn, has defended the reparations plan and solid doubt on the Policy Exchange report.
“This report features factual errors and fundamentally mischaracterises our project — including the research carried out by independent, skilled historians and forensic accountants, which established the indisputable fact that our predecessor fund was invested in a slave-trading entity,” he said.
“The Board of the Church Commissioners determined that, as a responsible investor, it’s entirely right that we learn from our history and respond appropriately to those shameful findings, and we at the moment are in discussion with the Charity Commission concerning the establishment of a recent fund for healing, repair, and justice, and are exploring such authorisations as could also be required.”
