Church of England Needs to Review Statues Over Slavery, Archbishop [of Canterbury] Says

WHTC, MI ^ | 6/26/20 | Thomson Reuters

[marshmallow]

LONDON (Reuters) - The Church of England must review statues and monuments in its places of worship to ensure that any with links to slavery are removed or are given appropriate context, its spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, said on Friday.

The Anglican Church, a central part of English public life and governance for centuries, is the latest institution to reflect on its role following worldwide protests inspired by the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States.

Welby, the most senior cleric in the worldwide Anglican communion, which has some 85 million followers in 165 countries, said forgiveness was needed over issues of racial injustice, but that could only come after appropriate action had been taken.

"If you just go round Canterbury Cathedral there are monuments everywhere, or Westminster Abbey. We are looking at all that. Some will have to come down," Welby said in a BBC interview.

Asked to clarify if statues needed to be removed from Canterbury Cathedral, Welby said this was not his decision.

"We're going to be looking very carefully and putting them in context, and seeing if they all should be there," he said. "The question arises, of course it does."

Protesters in Bristol, western England, tore down a statue this month honouring Edward Colston, a 17th century merchant and slave trader who used his profits to endow schools and charities in the city that continue to carry his name.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The world has to stop knuckling under to this terrorism.

When the commies get control, they’ll tear down every statue, monument and memorial to those who fought communism and socialism.

[Long Jon No Silver]

Might as well get rid of everything. The churches will be mosques in 100 yrs anyway. Oh the irony. Modern day slavery flourishes in the muslim world.

[17th Miss Regt]

That is understandable since they seem to revere a certain St. Francis, who was gentle to animals but was an insanely cruel slavemaster to the slaves on his cotton plantation in Georgia. Some small town with a name like Assisi.

And then there was Thomas Aquinas who was allegedly a holy man but was really a slave trader in Louisiana! A hard day at slave trading and then he sat down at his computer and blogged about theology. How wonderful!

The above nonsense would be accepted at face value by most BLM supporters...

[aquila48]

The Anglican church - what a sorry excuse for a church.

But then considering how it got started it’s not surprising.

[Belteshazzar]

“The churches will be mosques in 100 yrs anyway.” Actually, that will not be so - Matthew 16:18 - despite the foolishness of the current bishop of Rome, for the cited promise is not of him, nor of any of his predecessors.

[robowombat]

You have it wrong. These elites, such as the ABC, despise the Western heritage and any idea of normal pride in belonging to a long and glorious national narrative. They hate their countries, they loath the average white, not woke, fellow countryman. They want the ‘West’ punished for its sins of pride and racism and violence towards ‘people of color’. They would not be unhappy seeing muzzards seize some cathedrals or burn churches because of our sins . Of course his bishopness expects armed guards for himself and around his palace (that is his residences official title) and an armored limousine. Westminster Abbey being gutted would make a good sermon topic for this squalid little man. How this came about is a much longer story but Paul Hollander’s books give a good narrative of the rise of the cult of wokeness cultural self hate.