Reparations and the rectory

Jul 27, 2023 by Jill

by Sebastian Millbank, Artillery Row:

Can the Church of England buy its way into progressive paradise?

Five hundred years ago Protestants made rather a lot of fuss about people purchasing advance tickets to paradise through the sale of indulgences — three hundred years off purgatory if you buy a new pew; ten thousand if you fix the church roof; direct to heaven if you can give long term employment to a dozen or so monks to pray for your immortal soul. The Church of England really ought to consider it as an innovative new funding model, but at the moment it appears to be keener on going into the business of buying rather than selling salvation.

This week the Archbishop of Canterbury announced that £100 million pounds had been found (where, many are asking? Does one of those Sunday school Jesse trees double as a magic money tree? Did John Dee discover the secret of turning lead into gold and leave it with our established church?) to serve towards making reparation for the Church’s alleged involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

What does this participation involve? It goes back to 1704 and Queen Anne’s Bounty, a scheme whereby part of the taxes on church property would be diverted to improving the incomes of poor clergy. This scheme would later form the financial basis of the Church Commissioners who now manage much of the wealth of the Church of England. According to the report by the Church Commisioners, some of these funds were invested in the South Sea Company, which had a monopoly on the British slave trade in the South Atlantic. Moreover some of the bounty was formed from donations, of which a portion came from slave traders like Edward Colston.

You can see the narrative forming already: the Church of England — that great edifice of English tradition, respectability and humble, understated piety — is actually built on the backs of African slaves, its wealth and properties purchased through brutal imperialism. There are a few awkward details, however, which may have already occurred to those readers who belong to the dwindling portion of the British population that knows its history.

Read here

Must watch: Douglas Murray on slavery reparations