Synod

Synod Commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery (2007)

[The following was present by Revd Dr Michael N. Jagessar on behalf of Synod Church & Society at the October 2006 Synod Gathering]

Friends, I greet you in the name of Jesus – he who saves.  “For freedom Christ has set us free, therefore live as free people…and do not use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want [Galatians 5]

On August 1 1838 when enslaved men and women in British colonies received their “free paper” (5 years after the Act to Abolish Slavery & 31 years after the Act to Abolish the Slave Trade was declared law) slaves and descendents of slaves gathered largely in the non-conformist chapels (Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists) to give God thanks. It has been suggested that one of the texts they read from was taken from the Galatians passage I quoted from

2007 will be 200 years since 1807 the year the Slave Trade Abolition Bill was passed in the British Parliament. Greed and economics, however, meant that it was only in 1838 that enslaved Africans in the British Colonies became free. Commemorating the abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade in 2007

·        is an opportunity to remember and reflect on the consequences of this system on both the enslaved and enslaver.

·        It also offers an opportunity to respond to present forms and shapes that slavery takes: that is every time human beings [flesh and blood created in the image and likeness of God] are denied abundant life and full living.

I am proposing that as a Synod we commemorate this significant event as our theme for 2007, grounding that commemoration on past and present realities. Allow me to cite 3 reasons why it is imperative that we make this our focus for 2007:

• There is a significant Black presence in our Synod – not a large one, but a real one. The recognition of this presence, our commitment to a partnership of equals, and our recognition and vision of a multi-cultural church demand of us the need to make visible our commitment. What shall it profit us as a Synod, if we balance our budgets, think up creative and exciting projects, make trips to India, Africa and the Caribbean, ensure the good upkeep of manses and churches and become the envy of other Synods but lose the ability to be including, reconciling and loving of all – especially the least right here in midst? The call to commemorate is one way to make real what we profess on paper.

• It is a fact that this region and families in West Midlands benefited from the wealth of the Trade. The coffers of the region and wealth of families were fattened as a result. This needs to be recognized, named and confessed. At the same time there were also significant voices from the West Midlands that stood out as the moral conscience of the region and country that benefited from Slavery, by arguing against the evil and tragedy of the trade [i].
  
• For instance, Joseph Sturge was a Birmingham Businessman; The Quakers in Birmingham were significant voices; The Lunar Society (Thomas Day of Lichfield; Joseph Priestly Unitarian Philosopher, theologian & Scientist (sermon: On the Subject of the Slave Trade) provided space for anti-slavery rhetoric and thinking; Matthew Boulton and Priestly supported Equinao’s book that attacked the Slave Trade; Josiah Wedgewood (Unitarian) produced his famous Cameo as a public symbol of the Campaign Am I not a brother and human too?; In Shropshire there were strong nonconformist and evangelical communities that advocated against the trade; Erasmus Darwin wrote poems (The Botanic Garden, Love of Plants, The Economy of Vegetation) critiquing slavery; Mary Ann Galton was a female anti-slavery voice from Birmingham; Elizabeth Heyrick’s pamphlet (1824) Immediate not Gradual Abolition of Slavery was a timely piece; and likewise the efforts of the Female Society for the Relief of British Negro  of Birmingham.

We need to recognise, re-claim, scrutinise and be encouraged by the motivations of these voices alongside the voices of slaves themselves who stood up against the system. Such a partnership of reconciliation can jump-start Christian engagement and action in the face of modern forms of slavery in the Midlands, UK and beyond.

In the colonies, the Church’s role with regard to the abolition varied from compliance, to that of indifference and some protest. What is significant though, which is why we need to recognize and draw on this, is the fact that the voices that protested came from largely non-conformist quarters. For example, in 1823, Revd John Smith – a congregational missionary (LMS) campaigned against slavery and was convicted by a Planter dominated Legislature in British Guiana for inciting a slave rebellion. Sentenced to hang he died in prison. There is the story of the two Moravian missionaries who sold themselves into slavery in St. Thomas in order to bring the gospel to slaves (as the planters did not allow the enslaved to hear the Gospel), to be in solidarity with the enslaved and help the system to implode from within, though their agenda was converting the heathens.

The commemoration in 2007 offers us as a church an opportunity to scrutinise the myopic take on the history of the traditions that constitute the United Reformed Church, it also provides us with the possibility of re-discovering and renewing that non-conformist heritage, but not without a thorough examination.

Let us, therefore, make Galatians 5:1 our orienting texts and our theme for 2007: It is God in Christ who makes us free. The indicative (that freedom we already have in Christ) pushes us to the imperative (making the freedom manifest -visible). Freedom is for Freeing. Now, this is a theme, worth dying for; this is putting that dissenting tradition to the test! Won’t you agree?

Michael N. Jagessar
October 2006