The Times reports that CofE is pressing ahead with plans for a £100 million slavery reparations fund despite a legal challenge which is delaying the church’s plans to set up its “Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice”, also known as Project Spire, a grant-making programme to benefit black communities.
….research showed that the church invested some of its historical wealth in the slave-trading South Sea Company in the 18th century.
Church leaders faced questions from members of the General Synod, querying the progress, legitimacy and legality of the fund. Some historians questioned the research published by the Church Commissioners, who control more than £11 billion of church assets, in 2023. Critics claimed the church used money granted to it by Queen Anne to invest in what were known as South Sea annuities, arguing that it invested relatively little directly into the South Sea Company’s slave trading operations.
Neil Burgess, a lay synod member from the York diocese, asked church leaders: “What profit did Queen Anne’s bounty specifically make from direct slave trading activity, as opposed to investing in government debt through South Sea annuities?”
….The programme has “not been abandoned” in the face of criticism or legal difficulties, Bishop Usher of Norwich explained. “We had planned by now to apply to the Charity Commission to register the proposed Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice. .. A legal challenge in relation to this work must be ….factored into our planned timetable for progress.”
The church fund will not pay reparations to descendants of enslaved people, but rather distribute grants to businesses and community projects that benefit black communities….
The Archbishop of Canterbury, said just before she took up the post in January tried to alleviate fears from struggling churches by insisting that the money would not eat into the cash provided to parishes, explaining that this comes from a separate, far larger pot.
Josile Munro, a lay synod member, said that parishes still needed “accurate information about the part our church played in slavery and the vision and aims of Project Spire”. Usher said an “explainer” had been produced for circulation to parishes.
A total of £1.15 million has already been spent by the Church Commissioners on research and other fees associated with launching the project, according to figures disclosed in answer to a synod question
Read the full Times report (£) here https://www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/article/church-of-england-slave-reparations-fund-100m-gmwk060dx