New archbishop urged to scrap £100m fund over slavery links

BBC News –  The incoming Archbishop of Canterbury has been urged to scrap plans to spend £100m over the Church of England’s historical links to slavery.

In a letter seen by the Sunday Times, a group of Conservative MPs and peers has urged Dame Sarah Mullally to stop the Church from spending the money.

They claim the funds can only legally be spent on churches and the payment of clergy wages.

In a statement, the Church Commissioners said that arrangements for the fund were being “developed transparently – in line with charity law”.

Mullally, who currently serves as the Bishop of London, will take up her new role as the first-ever female Archbishop of Canterbury next month.

The Church of England’s slavery links proposal was announced in January 2023 following the publication of a report into the Church’s historical links to transatlantic slavery.

The report, requested by the Church’s financing arm – the Church Commissioners – found that a fund established by Queen Anne in 1704 to help poor Anglican clergy was used to finance “great evil”.

According to the report, the fund, known as Queen Anne’s Bounty, invested in African chattel enslavement and took donations derived from it.

After the report’s publication, the then-Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he was “deeply sorry” for the links and said action would be taken to address the Church’s “shameful past”.

The Church Commissioners announced a new £100m fund, committed over a nine-year period, to be spent on “a programme of investment, research and engagement” in communities damaged by the enslavement of African people during the transatlantic slave trade.

However, in their letter to Mullally, MPs and peers have urged the Church to focus on “strengthening parishes” rather than on pursuing what they describe as “high-profile and legally dubious vanity projects”.

The letter, whose co-authors include MPs Katie Lam, Chris Philp and Claire Coutinho, adds: “By law, the endowment must be used to support parish ministry, maintain church buildings, and care for the Church’s historic records.

“At a moment when churches across the country are struggling to keep their doors open — many even falling into disrepair — it’s wrong to try and justify diverting £100 million to a project entirely separate from those core obligations.”

A spokesperson for the Church Commissioners said: “The Church Commissioners, as a 320-year-old Christian in-perpetuity endowment fund, has committed £100 million to set up a new investment fund to support healing, justice and repair, in response to the discovery of its historic links with transatlantic African chattel enslavement.

“This is consistent with the Church of England’s Fourth Mark of Mission: to ‘seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation’.

“Governance arrangements are being developed transparently — in line with charity law, our fiduciary duties, and our moral purpose — to ensure proper oversight and accountability.”

Mullally will formally replace Welby in a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral in January before being enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral in March.

A former NHS chief nurse, the 63-year-old became a priest in 2006 and was appointed as the first female Bishop of London in 2018 – the third most senior member of clergy in the Church of England.

The Church has been without someone in the top job for almost a year after Justin Welby resigned over a safeguarding scandal.