Benefited from slave trade
Feb 9, 2006 The Guardian

The Church of England last night said sorry for the role it played in the 18th century in benefiting from slave labour in the Caribbean.

The church's general synod in London began its deliberations yesterday by commemorating its role behind the abolition of slavery in 1807, pledging members to continue campaigning against modern slavery. But the debate was transformed at the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with an apology being issued for the church's complicity in sustaining - and profiting hugely - from the trade. Although the motion was passed unanimously, the synod stopped short of endorsing a specific call for financial or other reparations.

Parliament voted compensation in 1833 - to former slave owners rather than the slaves themselves
The church received £8,823 8s 9d, (£500,000 in today's money), for the loss of slave labour on its Codrington plantation in Barbados. The then Bishop of Exeter and his business associates received even more, nearly £13,000.

Rowan Williams, the archbishop, told the synod that the church ought to acknowledge its corporate and ancestral guilt: "The Body of Christ exists across history and we therefore share the shame and the sinfulness of our predecessors, and part of what we can do is prayerful acknowledgment of the failure that is part of us, not just of some distant 'them'.

"To speak here of repentance and apology is not words alone; it is part of our witness to the Gospel that the past must be faced and healed and cannot be ignored ... by doing so we are actually discharging our responsibility to preach good news, not simply to look backwards in awkwardness and embarrassment, but to speak of the freedom we are given to face ourselves, including the unacceptable regions of ... our history."

 

The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, told the synod: "The profits from the slave trade were part of the bedrock of our country's industrial development. No one who was involved in running the business, financing it or benefiting from its products can say they had clean hands.
"We know that bishops in the House of Lords with biblical authority voted against the abolition of the slave trade. We know that the church owned sugar plantations on the Codrington estates."

A recent book, Bury the Chains, by the American author Adam Hochschild, clearly influenced the debate. It says the church's missionary organisation, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, branded its slaves on the chest with the word SOCIETY to show who they belonged to.

The church's admission follows similar apologies by the late Pope John Paul II for the historic transgressions of the Roman Catholic church, its anti-semitism and the Inquisition.

 

11 Feb 06, D Telegraph
Codrington family wants more than apology
Slaves of British planters often were given the names of their masters. Planter Christopher Codrington dies in 1710 leaving his 800-acre Barbados plantations to the Church’s newly established Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). The SPG branded its slaves on the chest with the word SOCIETY to remind them they were ‘slaves of the Lord’.
The SPG used slave labour to run the Codrington estates in Barbados in 1710-1834, that is, from Codrington’s death until the abolition of slavery more than 120 years later.

Lisa Codrington, 28, traces her slaves ancestors to the Codrington sugar estates and lived there until 1710 but she didn’t know that they were slaves of the Church of England. She was born in Winnipeg, Canada of Barbados parents and works as an actress in Toronto. She has returned several times to Barbados to trace details about her slave ancestry.
The slaves were freed in 1834.
After hearing of the Church apology, she asked: “But is that all? Does it involve reparations? Does it involved further work & education by the church? Slavery is not something you can sorry for and be done with it.”
Lisa’s aunt, Ivy Davenish-Scott, 48 who lives in NE London, added: “The church should now provide more for the families who suffered.
Mention of reparations send shivers down the spines of slave owning institutions, including the British government. They have hesitated apologising because of the implications.
The church, while ready to highlight the role of reformers, has been less keen, until the General Synod debate (08Feb), to acknowledge its own involvement. The church accepted the prevailing beliefs that slavery was part of God’s order on earth. In 1788, a CoE cleric, Raymond Harris event sought to justify the practice by a pamphlet entitled Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade, showing its conformity with the Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion. [So much for the Gospel message.]
The SPG’s governing body, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote in 1760:
”We have long lamented the decrease of Negroes in our plantations and the need for new supplies. Surely this proceeds from some defect, both of humanity and policy. But we must take things as they are at present.”
[It’s amazing the learned clerics felt no Christian compassion for the slaves – forcibly uprooted from Africa, transported to another continent under inhuman conditions and had to live and work under abominable conditions.]

 

The Daily Telegraph editorial (11Feb06) was characteristic in its rightwing sentiment that sees the Others as lesser beings whom the rapacious west is free to exploit at will: "The church has chosen to beat its breast in vicarious guilt for the sins of previous generations. By emphasising the crime of slavery rather than abolition, the Synod has shown itself inward-looking and sanctimonious - combining hypocrisy in handling its own contradictions with faulty judgment on more distant matters."
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Church of England Votes to Divest from Israel

On Feb 6th, the Anglican Church of England voted to end financial investments in companies supporting Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. The General Synod, a policy-making assembly, overwhelmingly backed the call by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem to divest from "companies profiting from the illegal occupation ... until they change their policies."

One of the companies identified as a target includes Caterpillar Inc., the American manufacturer that produces the bulldozers Israel uses to build the West Bank separation wall. Israel also uses them to demolish Palestinian homes--since 1967, Israel has demolished 12,000 Palestinian homes, leaving 70,000 homeless.

The Anglicans invest about 2.5 million pounds in Caterpillar. The move to divest follows months of negotiations with the company about Israel's use of their equipment. Caterpillar insists publicly it does not provide the militarily-modified bulldozers directly to Israel. It claims the US military sells them to Israel, a possible violation of the US Foreign Arms Export Control Act of 1976. This law limits the use of US weapons against civilian populations.

The Daily Telegraph reported the vote does not bind the Church Commissioners, the managers of denominational investments. Still, it is "hugely symbolic" since it is now a stated position on the morality of the Israeli occupation and companies abetting it. The decision was well-received by many, opposed by others, and follows a church tradition of economic activism on this issue. Nick Dearden, of War on Want, urged "the Church Commissioners to enforce the Synod's decision, and to send a clear message that companies like Caterpillar have a responsibility to ensure their products are not used to violate human rights."

Former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African activist and Nobel Prize winner, is a vocal champion of Palestinian rights. He compared Palestinian life under occupation to his own experiences living under Apartheid.

Archbishop Tutu wrote in 2002, "yesterday's South African township dwellers can tell you about today's life in the Occupied Territories." In the same article, he promoted a letter several hundred Jewish South Africans wrote drawing "an explicit analogy between apartheid and current Israeli policies."

The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, stated that this vote "sends a clear message to Caterpillar that profiting from human rights violations is not compatible with socially responsible business practice." Joining in support of the resolution, Rev. John Gladwin, Bishop of Chelmsford told the meeting that although the cause of the conflict was the government of Israel, not Caterpillar, it is still vital to invest with ethics in mind.

The American-based Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) commended the move. Their statement suggested that divestment "stands in the best tradition of nonviolent efforts for change." JVP supports divestment since "governments have failed to end the occupation." They contend that non-governmental groups such as faith-based institutions, unions, companies and individual citizens have to "take the lead in seeking justice."

Pro-Israeli groups protested immediately. The Anti-Defamation League called it a "moral outrage." Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey claimed to be "ashamed to be an Anglican." He charges it "ignores the trauma of ordinary Jewish people" in Israel subjected to "terrorist attacks."

The Anglican decision was not made in a vacuum. Other churches, particularly in the United States, are exploring the use of economic engagement to pressure Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories. Increasingly, churches and Christian religious leaders in Palestine are calling for divestment and boycott from outsiders.

Last year, the Geneva-based World Council of Churches central committee urged WCC members to take economic measures against the Israeli occupation to push for a peaceful settlement.

In 2004, the Presbyterian Church (USA) passed a bill to explore "phased, selective divestment," after a period of economic engagement. They argued it was part of their commitment to morally responsible investment. They are re-considering this decision at their June, 2006 General Assembly meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Heavy external pressure from supporters of Israel are causing some within the church to doubt the move. It passed by a vast majority, so spectators expect a lively debate.

In the United States, student activists are meeting later this month at Georgetown University for the 5th annual Palestine Solidarity Movement conference. They will discuss rebuilding the campus divestment movement and hold training sessions for new and experienced solidarity activists. Speakers include Palestinian activist Omar Barghouthi; British academic boycott advocate Sue Blackwell; Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Initfada; and dozens of veteran divestment activists.