The Church of England is confronting legal opposition to Project Spire, a £100m undertaking designed to pursue reparative justice regarding the institution’s historical connections to enslavement. The initiative was announced following 2023 research that revealed Queen Anne’s Bounty, an endowment fund established in 1704, had invested in the South Sea Company, which transported more than 34,000 enslaved people across the Atlantic. The fund also received contributions from figures such as Edward Colston, a prominent participant in the Royal African Company’s enslaving operations.
At recent General Synod sessions, church leadership defended the project’s merits. Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, characterized Project Spire as a “work of healing, justice and repair.” Daniel Matovu, a barrister representing the diocese of Oxford, stated that historical church involvement extended beyond profiting from the slave trade to actively supporting, defending, and participating in it. Matovu noted that research suggests the church generated approximately £5m annually in current monetary value from directly operating sugar plantations in Barbados between 1710 and 1838, totaling around £640m across the period.
Graham Usher, the bishop of Norwich, acknowledged both the legal challenge and the substantial abuse directed at Church Commissioners staff. He emphasized that the church bore responsibility for its historical investments in transatlantic slavery due to the trade’s abhorrent nature and its continuing effects on disadvantaged communities today. The planned initiative is expected to establish an impact investment fund supporting ventures in descendant communities with social and environmental objectives alongside financial returns.
The project has drawn criticism from various quarters, including the Policy Exchange think tank, certain Conservative politicians, and some Church of England members who characterize it as historically uninformed or believe resources should be allocated differently. Separately, USPG, an Anglican missionary organization, initiated its own £7m reparative justice project in 2024 following an apology for having owned two plantations in Barbados where thousands were enslaved.
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