Welby has been damaging to his church and he should stand down, he said.

"As I keep pointing out the CofE has lost 50% of its congregation in the last decade."

Lord Sewell - a man of color - said; "We need to have a conversation with the archbishop and ask him what he is doing."

"It would be much better [for him] to focus on bringing people back to a time when the church was packed."

"They need to repair their base but they are doing something political, giving away this cash. It's strangely materialistic for a spiritual organization.

"The church needs to rethink its purpose and stop using the race element as a mechanism to solve their own uncertainty in the world," said Sewell.

As one senior cleric told VOL; "We are giving £10m a year over ten years to support projects dealing with black poverty. Another group personally commissioned by Welby announced their aspiration to achieve match funding from comparable sources with a target of £1bn, but contrived to present this in such a way as to appear to the media as if the Church was going to give £1bn. “Church to give £1bn in slavery reparations” is the message which has gone out to the public including churchgoers, many of whom are now cancelling their giving. It will cost local parishes very dearly, who have no responsibility for Welby’s actions at a time when they can least afford it."

END