The idea that Christians should respond to, and sometimes learn from, secular movements was a feature of the modernising wave that swept through the Catholic church in the 1960s. In his 1963 encyclical letter, Pacem in Terris, Pope John XXIII identified the growing role of women in public life and the end of colonialism as two progressive developments carrying a religious, eschatological significance. Sixty or so years later, as it seeks to deal with contemporary “signs of the times”, certain sections of the Church of England are struggling to show a similar openness and humility.
Last month, an ecclesiastical court refused to grant a request by Jesus College, Cambridge, to remove a memorial plaque from its chapel to Tobias Rustat – a 17th-century slave trader and notable benefactor to the college. The petition was led by Sonita Alleyne, the first black master of an Oxbridge college, who said that the memorial’s presence was having a negative impact on worship in the chapel and alienating a diverse student body. As the Anglican communion seeks to atone for historic links to the transatlantic slave trade, here was an opportunity to demonstrate that penitence and reflection could lead to concrete action.
To the very public dismay and anger of Archbishop Justin Welby – who on Wednesday reiterated his support for Ms Alleyne’s request – this test case was flunked on the most spurious and disingenuous grounds. Justifying his verdict, a judge at the consistory court of the diocese of Ely said that Rustat’s energetic involvement in two slave-trading companies was not a major source of his great wealth. This irrelevant consideration was supplemented by a suggestion that images of Christ on the cross indicated that a church was not intended as a “comfortable” space. As a trolling aside, the Worshipful David Hodge QC added that the Rustat memorial could help members of the congregation to reflect on the flawed nature of humanity and their own sinfulness.
Given the likely cost, which it can ill afford, Jesus College has announced that it will not appeal this wrongheaded decision. The powerful group of alumni and traditionalists who contested the memorial’s removal will celebrate a landmark victory against “cancel culture” (although the intention was to relocate it elsewhere in the college). But the reality is that this episode is a dismal setback for a church that knows it must better reflect and respect the experience and perspectives of its membership. Ms Alleyne has pointed out that the average Anglican in the worldwide communion is now a 30-year-old black woman. More than a third of Jesus College students now come from a minority ethnic background; that some should feel unhappy worshipping under a memorial to a slave trader is hardly surprising.
In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Church of England set up an anti-racism taskforce to examine issues of diversity, race and inclusion. Its scathing report, entitled From Lament to Action, highlighted the need for the church to confront historic connections with slavery. The continuing presence of the Rustat memorial in the Jesus College chapel grievously undermines this necessary work.