William Wilberforce and his fellow abolitionists, including the group known as “the Clapham Sect”, achieved something that seemed almost impossible: they ended Britain’s pernicious and lucrative transatlantic slave trade. With the energetic, valiant and self-sacrificial help of the Royal Navy, they enforced that abolition on the high seas. The economic cost alone was enormous. The courage required was substantial.
The present Archbishop of Canterbury, however, has gone on a tour of Africa during which she is undermining the reputation of the only people to do anything effective to end slavery. The Most Rev & Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally is weeping for guilt on behalf of people who bear none and promising money that she has no moral right to disburse – money that should be used to help shore up the collapsing ecclesial community for which she is responsible.
