The Church of England's plan to put £100 million towards slavery reparations has been condemned as "poorly justified, historically uninformed" and possibly lacking in legal justification.
Two years ago, the Church Commissioners announced Project Spire, an impact investment fund to be used for causes that deal with the "after-effects of slavery". The plan was announced after historic connections between Church funds and slavery were allegedly discovered.
As well as providing funds to black leaders, communities and organisations, the project is committed to additional research into potential historic links between the Church and slavery.
The scheme has been challenged in a report by Policy Exchange, which questions the research that claimed to find historical connections between the Church and slavery.
The report says that "links" to slavery were assumed or considered to be likely rather than actually proven. For example, a historic church benefactor who merely had "naval connections" was considered a potential financial beneficiary of slavery.
The report claims that the Church's initial research essentially declared the Church guilty before any investigation had been conducted.
One of the stated assumptions of the research that led to the fund states, "The immense wealth accrued by the Church Commissioners has always been interwoven with the history of African chattel enslavement ... Many donors to the Church made their wealth through enslavement-based industries."
Policy Exchange noted in their report that, even if a historic link between the Church and slavery were to be established, the Church Commissioners would be departing from their core duty if they channelled funds intended for the development of local parishes towards reparations.
Lord Sewell, a former Chair of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, in his foreword to Policy Exchange's report spoke of some of the difficulties of growing up as a black boy in 1960s' England.
However, Lord Sewell also said of the Church and its reparation plans, "The Church of England that raised me gave me my moral compass, agency, and some great biblical adventure stories.
"Rather than addressing the genuine challenges in our society today, the Church allows itself to be dragged into the quagmire of a narrative about the legacy of slavery and systemic racism."
The Chief Executive of the Church Commissioners, Gareth Mostyn, has defended the reparations plan and cast doubt on the Policy Exchange report.
"This report features factual errors and fundamentally mischaracterises our project — including the research carried out by independent, professional historians and forensic accountants, which established the fact that our predecessor fund was invested in a slave-trading entity," he said.
"The Board of the Church Commissioners determined that, as a responsible investor, it is entirely right that we learn from our history and respond appropriately to these shameful findings, and we are now in discussion with the Charity Commission about the establishment of a new fund for healing, repair, and justice, and are exploring such authorisations as may be required."
