Slavery: But many will ask, who will the Church be apologising to?

To select comment then select News Commentaries or
To save file Save File
Church of England urged to repent over slavery - Margaret Rodgers - Anglican Media Sydney

"The Synod of the Church of England will meet next month in London. Amongst the agenda items is the plan to have a debate on slavery to recognise the bi-centenary of the end of slavery coming up next year.
Two of the Synod members have indicated that they intend to move that the Church of England should apologise for its part in the evil slavery trade in the 18th century.
It was, of course politicians who were committed C of E members, and that included William Wilberforce, who led the campaign to bring slavery to an end. It is certainly a matter of infinite regret that there should have existed such an evil trade that treated human beings mercilessly and as a commodity.
But many will ask, who will the Church be apologising to? The victims died a long long time ago.
To remember this awful bi-centenary there are two things that would be much better to do rather than giving an empty apology for the past
These are: First, to commit themselves to seek for peace and justice for all, and for an end to racial discrimination in our age; and second, to work for an end to slavery in this age, for let’s not forget that there are many hundreds of thousands of people today who are slaves, for example in the Sudan. Ending human trafficking and the commodification of people today would also be a much better apology for the evil trade of the past."