27/06/2025
More than 150 people from across the world have attended a gathering on the Anglican Church’s involvement in transatlantic chattel slavery and the contemporary legacies, addressed by a series of speakers from the UK, US, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
The ‘Truth Telling’ event was jointly held by the Church of England’s Racial Justice Unit and Senior Research Fellow Dr Leona Vaughn for the University of Liverpool, with support from the Diocese of Liverpool. Taking place over three days this week in the city of Liverpool, it included addresses, and a tour and talks on the city’s historical links with the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and the work to progress racial justice.
The Church of England's lead bishops for racial Justice, the Bishop of Croydon, Rosemarie Mallett, and the Bishop of Kirkstall, Arun Arora, attended the event. Bishop Rosemarie (pictured, above) gave the sermon at a service for the gathering held at Liverpool Cathedral.
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who spoke at the conference, said the Church was ‘humbled’ by the truth of its ‘shameful’ historical involvement in the ‘evil’ commodification and enslavement of human beings.
Speaking at the start of the conference, he quoted the Ghanian proverb ‘until the lion has told his story, the hunter will always be a hero’ - as a means of encouraging the Church to acknowledge how individuals and Church institutions have benefited from the profits from the transatlantic slave trade.
He first heard the proverb in Ghana last November when visiting dungeons in the Cape Coast Castle, used to imprison enslaved Africans before they were loaded onto ships to cross the Atlantic.
He said it was “humbling that it was the Church of Jesus Christ that was so invested in the horrific hunting down, enslavement and commodification of human beings that took place over many centuries through transatlantic chattel enslavement. So first of all, at this truth telling conference, let us in the Church of England, acknowledge that we have been humbled by this truth.”
The Bishop of Edmonton, Anderson Jeremiah, who addressed the conference, said: “To embody the lived experiences of our people, our journey towards justice and peace must be grounded in truth telling.
“Without accountability, without our commitment to speak, to listen, and, crucially, to live the truth – freedom and peace will remain distant and elusive.
“When we embrace the truth revealed in Christ, the way the truth and the life, it will set us free.”
The conference, heard from speakers including Professor of History at Lancaster University Professor William Pettigrew, who has led research into the 11,000 investors – including Church of England clergy – who financed Britain’s contribution to the transatlantic traffic in enslaved people.
There were addresses from Professor Kelly Brown Douglas, (via videolink) Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School in the US and Rev Canon Dr Stephanie Sellers from the US Episcopal Church, as well as from UNESCO representatives.
US Catholics, Monique Maddox, President and CEO of the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, whose enslaved family was sold by the Jesuit order in the 19th century, and Father Tim Kesicki SJ from the Jesuit order, also spoke via video link to the conference.
During the 18th century Liverpool was Britain’s main slaving port with ships from Liverpool carrying around 1.5 million Africans across the Atlantic in conditions of great cruelty.
People attending the conference took part in a tour of buildings near the Port of Liverpool, including Liverpool parish church, burial place of some of the city’s richest slave merchants.
The church has a memorial to Abell, an enslaved man who was brought to Liverpool (see picture, above) who is recorded as having been buried in the churchyard in 1717. Liverpool's Black community had campaigned for the memorial, to acknowledge his importance as Liverpool’s first recorded black resident.
Rev Dr Sharon Prentis, the Church of England’s Deputy Lead Director for Racial Justice, said: “For years, the Church has been far too comfortable in a state of amnesia regarding the horrors of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.
“This gathering’s aim was to affirm that Christ as our compass, guides us as we confront the past concerning chattel slavery. Truth-telling enables the entire Church to address its history with honesty, so that it can in humility and with confidence seek justice, healing, and unity for all of God's children.”
- In 2019, the Church Commissioners, which manages the Church of England’s historic endowment, began a comprehensive investigation into the Church’s financial and institutional links to slavery. The findings included investments in the South Sea Company, profits derived from the slave trade, and artifacts such as "slave Bibles"—scriptures deliberately stripped of themes of liberation.
- In response, the Church Commissioners has committed £100 million toward a long-term impact investment fund, a grant programme, and a research initiative, with recommendations provided by an independent oversight group. This group, chaired by The Bishop of Croydon Rosemarie Mallett (pictured, above, at conference) includes descendant communities, historians, and representatives of populations still affected by the legacy of slavery.
- Monique Maddox and Fr Tim Kesicki spoke to the House of Bishops at their Oxford residential last autumn.
- The Archbishop of York spoke on reparatory justice and institutional accountability at the United Nations Permanent Forum on people of African descent earlier this year.