The CEO of the Centre for Government Reform has denounced the Church of England’s “Project Spire” reparations plan as a “foolhardy” crusade that “risks politicising and disunifying the church”.
Ameer Kotecha, who previously served as a diplomat for the British government in Russia, said in an article for Spiked that he had an interest in the matter “as someone who spends ever more time in church and is probably on a slow and steady path to Christian worship”.
As a potential member of the Church of England, Kotecha said, “Nothing in Project Spire appeals to me or what I want from church.”
He said that calls for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade appeared to animate “self-flagellating white liberals in the developed world” far more than they did the average African.
Kotecha disputed the motivations behind the project, which will commit £100m to groups alleged to have been impacted by the slave trade.
On a recent visit to Ghana the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, reaffirmed her commitment to Project Spire. She prayed for God to “bring justice and reconciliation to all who are still impacted by its legacy,” and framed the Church’s plans as part of a “journey of repentance”.
Far from being a spiritual act of repentance, Kotecha said he suspected the real motivation to be a “mix of guilt, partial historical knowledge and weakness in the face of shouty activist groups”.
Project Spire has been criticised on multiple fronts. Opponents question the justice of spending limited church resources on such a project when many ordinary parishes are struggling and need support.
Theologically and ethically, some have pointed out that Project Spire implies the Church of England now believes in inherited sin and that the suffering of some groups is more important than that of others.
Historically, the claim that the Church of England benefited at all from the slave trade has also been questioned.
Legally, it has been suggested that Project Spire could fall foul of regulations which state that charitable funds must be used for the purpose for which they have been donated. It was revealed at last month's General Synod that legal challenge against Project Spire is underway.
