"It is our hope that, through this reparations project, there will be serious reckoning with the history of the relationship between The Codrington Trust and USPG, but also a process of renewal and reconciliation that will be healing of the pain of the past.”
The Most Rev'd. Howard Gregory, Primate of the Church in the Province of the West Indies
Renewal and Reconciliation: The Codrington Reparations Project was announced on September 8th, 2023, by The Codrington Trust and USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) in Barbados. The commitment to this 10-15-year project is the result of USPG’s continuous work to seek to engage critically with and take reparative action in response to USPG’s shameful links to slavery through its ownership of The Codrington Estates in Barbados.
In 1710, The Society of the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG - USPG’s former name) received a bequest from Sir Christopher Codrington for two estates in Barbados. The estates totalled 700 acres and included a population of enslaved African men, women, and children. From then until 1838 SPG owned and ran the estates through local managers.
Between the years 1712 – 1838, the Codrington Estate was managed as a plantation business. Although conditions improved towards the end of this period, the use of the whip ‘in the field’ was not abolished until September 1829. (U)SPG’s stewardship of the Codrington Estate ended in 1983.
“USPG is deeply ashamed of our past links to slavery. We recognise that it is not simply enough to repent in thought and word, but we must act, working in partnership with Codrington whose descendants are still deeply impacted by the generational trauma that came from the Codrington Plantations”.
Rev’d Duncan Dormor, General Secretary/CEO of USPG
Though USPG has long been engaging critically with its past including a substantial amount of research into Codrington, we are aware that it is not enough just to offer an unreserved apology. It must be more than mere thoughts and words. As an organisation that is committed to championing justice, we seek to honour the command in 1 John 1: 6-7 and move now towards honest reparative action.
"If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." 1 John 1:6-7
The project will include four areas of work in collaboration with the descendants of the enslaved; community development and engagement; historical research & education; burial places & memorialisation, and family research. USPG has pledged 18M Barbadian dollars - equivalent to approximately £7M - to be spent in Barbados to support this work. The Codrington Trust suggested the sum of money for the project and USPG accepted it, without dispute.
Renewal and Reconciliation: The Codrington Reparations Project will begin in the latter part of 2024 and regular updates will be available.
Get in touch: codringtonreparations@uspg.org.uk.