A Hackney vicar and anti-racist campaign group have thrown their support behind calls for the Church of England to increase reparations funding for its historical links to slavery.
Father (Fr) Simon Cuff, vicar at St Peter’s Church, De Beauvoir, said that the Church of England must “overcome and challenge” its links to the slave trade, while the Executive Committee of Caribbean Labour Solidarity (CLS), called reparations a “good start”.
Their comments follow the publication of a recent paper by an independent oversight group which argued the £100m fund the Church of England established in 2023 was too small and should be increased tenfold to £1bn. In response, the head of the Church Commissioners has said that while it shared the “ambition” of expanding the fund, £100m was an “appropriate financial commitment” at present.
Last year, the Church said its £100m fund would address the “enduring harms from enslavement” by providing investment and grants to Black-British-owned organisations and businesses. This came after a report by the Church Commissioners traced a significant share of its £10.3bn endowment to slave-trade profits.
The Church has said it will encourage families, institutions and impact funds to contribute to increase the size of the reparations pot.
Slavery’s economic legacy vindicates argument for reparations
Fr Cuff, who has been the parish vicar in De Beauvoir for three years, said: “People say that slavery happened because of underlying racist beliefs. But a lot of experts who work in racial justice and social justice say that racist ideology also became a system reinforcing an economic choice.
“Whilst slavery ended, the conditions that were created to sustain that economic choice persist. That’s where the argument for reparations comes in. There’s a persistent legacy, and these reparations must be viewed in the context of […] dethroning that racist legacy.”
The 2023 measures were also given qualified support from the Executive Committee of the CLS, a London-based campaign group that supports equality and social progress in the Caribbean. They said: “[The Church of England is] the first organisation from the British establishment to make a positive move towards reparations, the first crack in the wall.
“[However,] there is little in this report that will do anything to improve the lives of workers or poor farmers of African heritage, either in the UK or in the Caribbean.”
Arguments around the reparations have shone a light on stark divisions in the Church of England. Some vicars on the Church’s conservative wing have called the reparations “anti-Christian”. The reparation fund’s critics have also warned of the effect that vast sums being discussed will have on ministries’ finances. Reverend Ian Paul of the Archbishops’ council questioned why “ordinary churchgoers would continue to give to their local church when it appears we have these vast sums to throw around”.
But Fr Cuff argued that the report’s methodology made its findings hard to refute. “Rather than doing a historical or political analysis of the legacy of slavery, they the Church Commissioners] undertook a process of forensic accounting.
‘Complete paper trail’ to slavery money
“There is a complete paper trail to exactly how and where money entered into the Church Commissioners either from the proceeds of slavery or from compensation [that took place alongside the abolition of slavery]. So this isn’t simply a window dressing. We have this on our books. Are we content with that? Or do we think that this is unjust?”
At a meeting of the Hackney Stand Up to Racism campaign held last October, councillor Soraya Adejare said: “It is our families and our communities who still experience racism, whether in the form of discrimination, oppressive policing or stereotyping.
“There needs to be a much stronger commitment to challenging discrimination and to putting in support.”
