Durrant Pate/Contributor

The United Reform Church (URC) in the United Kingdom has joined Jamaica’s reparations movement in the pursuit of justice for the ancestors and accountability on the part of European enslavers. 

The URC, which is a Protestant Christian denomination operating across England, Scotland, and Wales, is part of the worldwide Reformed tradition. The URC has been on a long journey of examining the links of its antecedent bodies’ involvement in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved African people, and recognising its failure to address the continuing legacies of racism and racial injustice today. 

Mission to discuss reparation work

Following the unprecedented step taken by the Jamaican to formally lodge a petition to King Charles last week, the Racial Justice Advocacy Forum (RJAF) in collaboration with the URC convened an international meeting involving ministers, academics, lawyers and politicians, alongside British churches and mission agencies to discuss reparation work. 

The meetings discussed steps being taken by organisations to take accountability for their antecedent bodies’ involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, and proposals to address the ongoing impacts of the legacies of slavery — on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the meeting held London, Reverend Dr Gordon Cowans of the Churches’ Reparations Action Forum in Jamaica, reminded the group that: “As someone living on the site of these crimes, these apologies do matter, and will continue to matter.” However, he stressed the importance of “demonstrating the fruits of this repentance.”

Participants shared the steps their respective organisations are taking towards reparations or apologies. The gathering heard that Buckingham Palace has been working closely with the Governor General of Jamaica, the King’s representative on the island who is appointed on the advice of the Jamaican government to ensure the petition is “properly lodged.”

As to what the next steps for the country may now be, Laleta 

Davis-Mattis, Co-Chair of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations, said these will be determined once answers or a response to the petition is received. In 2022, the URC, which was created in October 1972 through the merger of the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales, formally confessed its involvement and publicly apologised. 

In 2024, representatives led by then General Assembly Moderator, the Reverend Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson, formally delivered the apology in Jamaica. Minister Grange accepted the apology on behalf of the Jamaican government.