London – The Church of England voted Wednesday to acknowledge its complicity in the global slave trade and to urge governments to fight its modern equivalent: human trafficking.
The General Synod – a national assembly elected from the laity and clergy of each diocese – voted unanimously to commemorate next year’s 200th anniversary of Britain’s abolition of slavery by apologizing to slaves’ descendants for its role in the injustice.
“Many people and institutions in every part of the country were complicit in the transatlantic slave trade; and I have to say that this includes the Church of England,” Thomas Butler, bishop of Southwark, said before the vote.
The Rev. Simon Bessant told the synod how the church’s Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts owned slave-holding sugar plantations in Barbados. He said slaves had the word “society” branded on their chests with a red-hot iron. After emancipation, he said, compensation was paid to owners, not to slaves.
“We must actually recognize our history and offer an apology,” Bessant said.
