The Church of England has called for a billion-pound reparations package to atone for its historic links to slavery, a move critics are calling “anti-Christian” and a “death wish.”
A new C of E report has dubbed its previous £100 million reparations fund insufficient to “fully redress” the centuries-long impact of the great evil of slavery, calling instead for a reparations purse of £1 billion.
“The sum of £100 million is very small compared to the scale of racial disadvantage originating in African chattel enslavement,” said the independent oversight group responsible for the report.
One hundred million pounds is inadequate to counter the “historic and enduring greed, cynicism and hate with penitence, hope and love,” the report declares.
“The Church Commissioners have therefore embraced a target of £1 billion for a broader healing, repair and justice initiative with the fund at its centre,” it adds.
The engorged fund is meant to address “enduring harms from enslavement,” it states.
The funds would be invested in “members of disadvantaged Black communities,” in an effort to “back their most brilliant social entrepreneurs, educators, healthcare givers, asset managers and historians.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby praised the move, asserting that it is “the beginning of a multi-generational response to the appalling evil of transatlantic chattel enslavement.”
Some, however, such as Reverend Ian Paul of the Anglican Archbishops’ Council, have argued that such a scheme is “anti-Christian” and smacks of “a death wish for the Church of England.”
This report “appears to be based on an essentially racist reading of history – that white people are all bad and the oppressors, and black people are nothing more than victims,” Rev. Paul said. “This is insulting to both black and white.”
“It is anti-Christian,” he continued. “Unbelievably, it calls on the Church to repent for having preached the gospel.”
Paul said that African Christians, including the vast numbers of Anglicans in Africa, “will be very angry to read that,” adding that the authors of the report “appear to be completely ignorant of the Church’s own beliefs.”
“It will imperil local ministry and mission,” he said. “Why would ordinary churchgoers continue to give to their local church when it appears we have these vast sums to throw around?”
General Synod member Prudence Dailey echoed Rev. Paul’s opposition to the reparations, lamenting that “the Church of England is effectively apologising for converting people to Christianity.”