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Church of England urged to pay for slavery memorial
A report found that "the Church of England did not as an institution call out the evil nature of what was happening"
Kaya Burgess, Religious Affairs Correspondent
The Times
June 29 2022
The Church of England should contribute towards a £4 million national memorial to victims of the slave trade -- the first of its kind in Britain -- in Hyde Park as part of its repentance for profiting from the atrocity, Lord Boateng has suggested.
A report published by the Archbishops' Racial Justice Commission, an independent group led by the Labour peer, found that there was "a sense of deep hurt and of pain" among those who were "still experiencing racial injustice within and at the hands of the Church of England".
A RESPONSE TO THE SLAVERY MONUMENT
Sir, Lord Boateng, in his report on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Racial Justice Commission, makes the excellent point that "There is still no national memorial to the victims [of slavery] and those who resisted slavery and this needs to be rectified" ("Church urged to pay for slavery memorial", news, Jun 29).
We strongly agree that this is a serious omission. There should be a prominent national monument including our many forebears, both celebrated and unknown, who fought tirelessly against slavery, sometimes at the cost of their lives.
Among them would be William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Olaudah Equiano, Hannah More, Elizabeth Heyrick, Daniel O'Connell, Mary Prince, Thomas Fowell Buxton, David Livingstone, Roger Casement, and thousands of men of the Royal Navy, politicians, missionaries, imperial and colonial administrators in Africa and Asia, and diplomats in the Americas and the Middle East, some of whom rescued and sheltered liberated slaves. These are people we should all wish to honour and commemorate.
SIGNED:
Professor Robert Tombs; Professor Nigel Biggar; Professor Jeremy Black; Ursula Buchan; Professor Saul David; Dr Marie Kawthar Dauda; Professor Patrice Dutil; Dr Ruth Dudley Edwards; Professor C Brad Faught; Dr Jeff Fynn-Paul; Zewditu Gebreyohanes; Professor Christopher Hallpike; Professor Simon Heffer; Lawrence James; Professor Liam Kennedy; Dr James Orr; Dr Zareer Masani; Monsignor Dr Michael Nazir-Ali; Dr Alka Segal-Cuthbert; Professor Andrew Roberts; Dr Mark Stocker
The Church of England is obsessed with racial self flagellation: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-church-of-england-s-obsession-with-racial-self-flagellation
