A 2023 report had found that “the Church of Scotland benefited financially from the labour of enslaved persons” and notes that a number of ministers were directly engaged in the practise.
“We, the Church of Scotland, are sorry for the ways in which the Church of Scotland, collectively and individually, contributed to and benefitted from the enslavement of people of African descent,” the apology, which was presented on Saturday, states.
“We are grieved beyond telling by the extraordinary suffering we have inflicted – through our actions and our inaction – on our brothers and sisters.”
Scots owned 30% of plantations in Jamaica in 1800. (Image: British Library)
Reports received by the General Assembly in 2023 and 2026 tell how the Kirk did not publicly condemn chattel slavery until 1788, around three hundred years after the enslavement of Africans by British merchants began.
Additionally, they tell how the General Assembly voted against calls to petition Parliament for its removal in 1792, and how some ministers argued that emancipation should be a gradual practice aimed at protecting property rights.
“After slavery was outlawed in Scotland, some members of the Church of Scotland, including some of our office-holders, continued to own slaves overseas,” the 2026 report states.
“Office-holders and members of the Church of Scotland inherited wealth from relatives who owned slaves, and this money contributed to the building of the universities that trained our ministers and the churches in which we gathered to worship.
“We did not return the money that had been extracted from the labour of the enslaved. Nor did we build the infrastructure or provide the opportunities emancipated slaves would need to flourish.”
It is estimated that more than 1 million Africans were sold into slavery in Jamaica by English and Scottish merchants between the 1660s and 1807.
Scots owned up to 30% of plantations on the island, and were involved at all levels of the colonial administration.
The Kirk’s report acknowledges this grim reality, stating: “For years many of our office-holders and other members derived their income directly or indirectly from slave labour.
“Some of our members travelled to the British and American colonies to work as foremen who enforced enslavement, punished those who objected to their enslavement, and made possible the day-to-day extraction of uncompensated labour from unwilling hands.”
Rose Wedderburn speaks to delegates. (Image: Church of Scotland)
Rose Wedderburn, General Secretary of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, told delegates that the report had been an “eye-opener” for many in the Kirk.
“While the process has understandably evoked deep emotions,” she remarked, “the effort invested in truth-telling and honest engagement is worthwhile. And we pray it will continue to bear fruit in greater understanding, healing, justice and reconciliation.”
Rev Dr Victor Okoe, from Abbey Trinity Presbyterian Church in Ghana, also applauded the apology.
He said: “I pray the Church and its members will be bold and continue to be committed to walk the talk and implement the demands of its apology.”
His Eminence Dr Ekpenyong Akpanika, Prelate and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, added:
“Churches in the global north and the global south need to move past all patterns of control and build a partnership of respect, shared leadership, justice and equality.
“True reconciliation takes more than just words.”
Moving the motion at the General Assembly, the Very Rev Sally Foster-Fulton said:
“The history we consider today continues to shape our world in ways we cannot ignore. Its consequences touch communities near and far, influencing the structures, attitudes and inequalities that persist around us.”
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She added: “We hold to the truth that we are the body of Christ. When one part suffers, we all suffer. We belong to a communion of saints that stretches across centuries. We inherit its faith and its failings.
“Confession, therefore, is something we undertake not as isolated individuals but as one body seeking to be made whole.”
In adopting the apology, the Kirk follows the example of the Church of England, which apologised for its role in the slave trade in 2006.
Delegates also voted to create a new working group which will recommend “appropriate next steps”, in partnership with those who are affected by the legacy of slavery.