Slavery

The names of Mr Brown and Mr Miliband have been suggested as successors to Tony Blair. I would like to tell you who is going to succeed Tony Blair after the May local elections. I’d like to but I can’t – not because I’m sworn to secrecy but because, frankly, I don’t know. What I can guarantee is that within a year or two there will be a General Election. David Cameron’s think-tank is already working hard on getting a manifesto ready. Manifestos tell us what a party is about, what it hopes to achieve.

In that passage read from the Gospel of St Luke (Luke 4:16-21), Jesus announces his manifesto – what he had come to do. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, he says:

'The Spirit of the Lord…has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed…’.

That was our Lord’s mission – and like my introduction it’s got a bit of politics in it. It involves economic policy, health, penal reform and justice.

1. Celebrate

Some people take these social aspects of the Gospel on board. Others do not. What we celebrate today is those who did - and who strove for years to set at liberty those oppressed by slave owners.

Among the first to condemn slavery were the Quakers and their contribution is not to be forgotten. As far back as 1727 the Quakers had expressed their official disapproval of the slave trade. In 1783 they petitioned Parliament and set up a committee to consider the slave trade. A few weeks later, six Friends met, wrote and circulated anti-slavery literature - and lobbied Parliament. Theirs were the first lobbying activities in Britain for abolition. 

Then, in 1785, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce became interested in the anti-slavery movement. Two years later the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed. Wilberforce became its Parliamentary spokesperson. 9 of its 12 founder members were Quakers.  Clarkson started collecting every possible piece of evidence and the Society distributed anti-slavery literature, stirred public opinion against the slave trade and anti-slavery societies sprang up all over the country. John Wesley expressed his support. In his last letter to Wilberforce, written in 1791 - the year that he died aged 88. He wrote:
“……Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.’

On 25 March 1807, William Wilberforce delivered what is considered to be one of the most powerful speeches made in Parliament. It compares with the very best and Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act that it should have passed 30 years before.

It took another 26 years before Parliament passed the Abolition Act making slavery illegal in its colonies. There isn’t the time to mention others who fought against slavery, but there were people who had been slaves, like EQUIANO, CUGOANO and TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE.

So, today, we celebrate the achievement that all these people gave their life to. We thank God for them. And what we celebrate above all is that those wrongly and cruelly held in slavery were set free.

2. Bewail:

But we also lament - because the church, itself, was complicit in - and benefited - from this heinous business. There were those who were oblivious that slavery dehumanized people. Michael Buerk, a BBC presenter, asked the present Archbishop of Canterbury, what he thought about a predecessor who said in 1760 that as the slaves taken to the West Indies didn’t seem to survive long there was the need to replenish the supply. Rowan Williams said it was appalling. That there was an acceptance of this practice by the church is a blot on its history. But the church’s treatment of slaves was even worse.

The Rev Simon Bessant reminded the 2004 General Synod that the church was at the heart of slavery. He described the involvement of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The organisation owned the Codrington Plantation in Barbados, where slaves had the word "society" branded on their backs with a red-hot iron. When the emancipation of slaves took place in 1833, compensation was paid - not to the slaves but to their owners - £20 M, in fact. The Bishop of Exeter and three colleagues were paid nearly £13,000 in compensation for 665 slaves. Bessant said: "We were directly responsible for what happened. In the sense of inheriting our history, we can say we owned slaves, we branded slaves…"

There are those who say the descendants of the victims deserve an apology. I question the meaningfulness of such an apology. If you apologise to me for some wrong done by another, my response is: ‘There’s no cause for you to apologise. I want the perpetrator to apologise.’ What we can - and should and must - do, is bewail the church’s part in it and condemn those who collaborated with slavery; to learn from the mistakes of the past and not repeat them in any shape or form.

3. Pledge:

Through ignorance, apathy, an unwillingness to get involved, slavery continues in the world and in this country, as well. That is why we need to pledge ourselves to the campaign for the total abolition of slavery.

When I lived in Lancaster, I occasionally managed to go to Morecambe and enjoy a beautiful sunset. But now, I cannot think of Morecambe without remembering those poor Chinese cockleshell pickers who drowned on the sand beds where the tide comes in with notorious speed. The conditions in which those people were held and made to work are modern day slavery.

I recall; too, talking to a man outside a warehouse in the East End of London. Before I left, I asked him if I could use his toilet. Reluctantly, he let me in. The sight that greeted me was a large area filled with Asian women bent low over sewing machines. I had stumbled on a sweat shop.

And there is more and worse - and here. It’s estimated that 4000 young women are brought into this country, annually, by sex traders who force them to work as prostitutes. These women are sold among traders for about £3000 each. BBC News tells us that a virgin would fetch £8000. These are sex slaves. In the Philippines, girls, as young as 11, are bought from their families and sold to brothels. In various parts of the world children are snatched from their parents by terrorists and compelled to fight and kill.

We are told that, in some parts of the world, people get into debt by borrowing money to pay, for example, the treatment of a sick child. Their money lenders demand that, in payment, they work for them for long hours, for a year, until the debt is repaid. But what they are paid never catches up with what they owe, because exorbitant interest is constantly added to what they borrowed. They have sold themselves as slaves.

Modern forms of slavery persist, here - under our noses. And the best way we can make amends to past victims of slavery is to work to abolish this dehumanising and abominable practice for present victims.

Conclusion

Today is Passion Sunday. The good Lord will forgive us for using this day to dwell on the evils of the past, to celebrate the work of champions of good and to pledge ourselves to eradicating a great evil from our world. Our Gospel lesson reminded us why Jesus came, suffered and died. That is our justification for talking about the need to:
“...preach deliverance to the captives...and...to set at liberty those who are oppressed...”

Paul’s letter to Philemon teaches us a powerful lesson on how we should treat each other. He sends back a runaway slave to a friend and gives him this letter to take with him. Remember, Onesimus is a slave, and this is what Paul says about him to Philemon, his friend:
I am appealing for my child. ….You lost him, a slave, for a time; now you are having him back …not merely as a slave, but as a brother-Christian. He is already especially loved by me - how much more will you be able to love him, both as a man and as a fellow-Christian! ….. Welcome him as you would welcome me….’

I hope Philemon did as Paul asked. We, too, must all treat each other as brothers and sisters, for we are all God’s children.

By Reverend Graham Thomas

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