Photo via jamaica-guide.com

Jamaica: British Baptists sorry for trans-Atlantic slave trade

A delegation of British Baptists is travelling to Jamaica on Thursday to apologise to Baptists there for the Transatlantic Slave Trade, reports CISA News.

The delegation will meet Jamaican Baptists and worship in their churches as well as see some of the locations which are inextricably bound up with their history.

Plans are in place for the team to take part in two church services on Sunday, at which the apology will be made and a plaque handed over.

The trip follows the commemoration of the bicentenary of the passing of the Act abolishing the Slave Trade in the British Parliament in 1807.

Some disappointment was expressed that British Baptists had not offered an apology for the Slave Trade during the Baptist World Alliance annual gathering in Ghana, Ekklesia reported. Later, the Baptist Union Council unanimously agreed on a resolution offering an ‘apology to God and to our brothers and sisters for all that has created and still perpetuates the hurt which originated from the horror of slavery.’

The Revd Jonathan Edwards, Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) General Secretary said: “The decision to offer an apology for the Transatlantic Slave Trade was a historic moment for the Baptist Union Council. In the statement that was agreed at that meeting it was clearly stated that this was just the start of a journey. Taking the apology to Jamaica in person seemed to many people a vital step on the journey and it is my privilege to participate in it.”

Baptist World Alliance General Secretary, Neville Callam, who is Jamaican, has also affirmed the trip by British Baptists and the apology that they are giving. “We thank God for the Apology issued by British Baptists in relation to the Slavery and the Slave Trade. As members of the body of Christ, we treasure the solidarity we have in Christ and we know how to respond when fellow Christians admit to wrongdoing, even if by their forebears. We know the joy and the blessing of forgiveness. With this, true healing is possible and liberation becomes the common gain of everyone involved.”

[05/22/2008]

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