{"id":689887,"date":"2026-07-13T20:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T20:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/689887\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T20:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T20:11:08","slug":"c-of-es-100m-plan-to-address-historical-links-to-slavery-faces-legal-challenge-anglicanism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/689887\/","title":{"rendered":"C of E\u2019s \u00a3100m plan to address historical links to slavery faces legal challenge | Anglicanism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Church of England is facing a legal challenge over Project Spire<\/a>, its \u00a3100m plan to further reparative justice for historical links to enslavement, as staff come under \u201cvile abuse\u201d from critics.<\/p>\n

At the General Synod in York over the weekend, Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, defended the project as a \u201cwork of healing, justice and repair\u201d.<\/p>\n

Daniel Matovu, a barrister who represents the diocese of Oxford at the synod, told this month\u2019s sessions the church had not only profited from the slave trade but \u201csupported, defended and participated in\u201d it.<\/p>\n

Project Spire was set up in 2023, after research into a church endowment fund dating back to 1704.<\/p>\n

It emerged that the fund, called Queen Anne\u2019s Bounty<\/a>, had invested in the South Sea Company, which is known to have transported more than 34,000 enslaved people across the Atlantic. The fund also received donations from individuals such as Edward Colston<\/a>, a senior figure in the enslaving enterprise the Royal African Company.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, the Church Commissioners, the body that manages church assets, made a \u00a3100m funding commitment \u2013 which, it is expected, would develop an \u201cimpact investment fund\u201d<\/a>. That could involve backing startups in descendant communities for social and environmental goals as well as a financial return.<\/p>\n

However, Spire has faced criticism from the rightwing thinktank Policy Exchange and Tory politicians, including Katie Lam, as well as C of E members who say the project is \u201chistorically uninformed\u201d and the church should be using the money elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Describing critics as \u201cdoubting Thomases\u201d, Matovu said it was \u201cthought the church generated roughly \u00a35m per year in today\u2019s money from directly running sugar plantations in Barbados between 1710 and 1838, which would have amounted to \u00a3640m in total\u201d. He asked Graham Usher, the bishop of Norwich, whether he agreed that Project Spire was \u201cbut a pittance, a drop in the ocean\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Anglican missionary organisation USPG, formerly known as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, set up a \u00a37m reparative justice project in 2024 after apologising for owning two plantations in Barbados where thousands of people were enslaved<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Responding to Matovu, Usher said: \u201cNo amount of money can ever repay what happened to the people who were enslaved \u2026 I\u2019ve stood in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle<\/a>, standing on the excrement and the blood and the sweat encased in the floor, and the hardships people faced on plantations \u2026 This is a start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usher confirmed Spire was facing a legal challenge and said Church Commissioners needed to take \u201cfull legal advice\u201d to discuss it.<\/p>\n

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Starting with the Guardian\u2019s own history, Guardian journalists explore the legacies of enslavement and reparative justice around the world<\/p>\n

The Rev Rachel Webbley, a vicar from the diocese Canterbury, said many people were glad Spire had not been abandoned. She asked Usher whether it could have been revealed where \u201cthe legal challenge against this careful and important work\u201d had come from and if there were any links to \u201cthose who have sent hostile communications\u201d.<\/p>\n

Usher said it was not possible to release further details at this time. \u201cI would also encourage you to pray for the staff of the Church Commissioners, who \u2026 have had to put up with some of the most vile abuse and correspondence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The bishop of Norwich said that because Queen Anne\u2019s Bounty \u201cinvested in transatlantic African chattel enslavement \u2026 we have a responsibility for that history, because that trade was so abhorrent \u2013 not only at the time but in the legacies that continue to disadvantage people today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Church of England is facing a legal challenge over Project Spire, its \u00a3100m plan to further reparative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-689887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}