by Ian Paul, Psephizo
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, has been visiting west Africa, and was pictured meeting both the King of the Ashanti (above) and visiting the sites of slave trading, in particular the embarkation points for the Transatlantic slave trade, where she was clearly personally moved.
I noticed this comment from Father Richard Woods, a retired parish priest in Canterbury Diocese which I thought worth sharing more widely:
Why I despair at the hierarchy of the Church of England.
Today in the CofE and in our Eucharist we observed the Lesser Festival of William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson, Anti-Slavery Campaigners, 1833, 1797 and 1846.
These Church members worked unremittingly to call the church and country to oppose the West African trade in humans and abolish slavery. (There is much information online about all three.)
I recall reading about Thomas Clarkson as boy. In 1785 he entered a Latin essay competition at Cambridge university that was to set him on the course for most of the remainder of his life. The topic of the essay, set by the vice-chancellor, was “Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare” (“is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will?”), and it led him to consider the question of the slave trade. He read everything he could on the subject, including first-hand accounts of the African slave trade. He also researched the topic by meeting and interviewing those who had personal experience of the slave trade and of slavery. This had such a profound effect on him that he devoted his life to abolition. His essay was translated into English and published, causing widespread interest. In the abolition cause, he supported, researched, and lectured, whilst Wm Wilberforce was working in Parliament.