The Church of England is confronting legal opposition to Project Spire, a £100m effort aimed at addressing the church’s historical connections to the transatlantic slave trade. The initiative was established in 2023 following research into Queen Anne’s Bounty, an endowment fund dating to 1704 that invested in the South Sea Company, which transported more than 34,000 enslaved people across the Atlantic. The fund also received contributions from figures involved in the enslavement enterprise, prompting the Church Commissioners to commit £100m in funding.
At the General Synod in York, church officials defended the project as meaningful work toward justice and repair. Daniel Matovu, representing the diocese of Oxford, stated that the church not only profited from the slave trade but actively supported and participated in it. He noted that the church generated approximately £5m annually in today’s money from operating sugar plantations in Barbados between 1710 and 1838, totaling roughly £640m over that period.
The project has drawn criticism from some political figures and conservative think tanks who question its historical foundation or argue funds should be allocated differently. Church staff have reportedly faced hostile communications from opponents of the initiative. The bishop of Norwich confirmed that Project Spire is subject to legal proceedings and that Church Commissioners are seeking full legal advice on the matter.
Meanwhile, USPG, an Anglican missionary organization formerly known as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, established its own £7m reparative justice project in 2024 after apologizing for owning two plantations in Barbados where thousands were enslaved. Church leadership expressed that while no financial compensation could adequately address historical enslavement, the initiative represents a necessary starting point toward acknowledging the ongoing legacies of that history.
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