The Church of England has officially acknowledged its historical involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Recently, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally visited Ghana, where the abolitionist Ottobah Cugoano was enslaved as a child. During her trip, Mullally toured Cape Coast Castle, once operated by the Royal African Company (RAC), and reaffirmed the church's commitment to a "journey of repentance" for its role in the slave trade. Historians have uncovered evidence that Church of England clergy financially supported the RAC, which was responsible for trafficking more African men, women, and children than any other single organization in the history of the slave trade. A newly digitized Register of British Slave Traders reveals that 45 Church of England clergymen invested in the RAC, helping to fund hundreds of slaving voyages and a 1720 revival of the company. One of these individuals was Henry Brydges, who later became a canon at St Paul’s Cathedral, and who invested in the RAC on the same day he was appointed Archdeacon of Rochester. Prof William Pettigrew, who led the project, noted that the register shows how profits from enslavement permeated communities across England, from Cumbria to the Cotswolds, through bequests to local parishes. This has sparked debate over whether the church is doing enough to atone for its past. In 2023, the Church of England launched Project Spire, a £100 million investment fund aimed at supporting communities affected by the legacies of slavery. However, the fund is not a reparations program, and it has caused internal divisions within the church. Project Spire was initiated nearly two decades after former Archbishop Rowan Williams rejected the idea that the modern church bears no responsibility for the past. Nonetheless, critics argue that Spire primarily addresses the church's historical involvement with the South Sea Company, which trafficked nearly 45,000 enslaved Africans, a relatively small portion of the church’s complicity in the slave trade. The history of the United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG), the Church of England’s 325-year-old missionary organization, reveals how Anglicans both practiced and perpetuated transatlantic slavery. Today, members of USPG, of which Mullally is president, have pledged to "break every chain of injustice." The organization’s predecessor, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), supplied chaplains to the RAC at Cape Coast Castle. For over 120 years, with the involvement of Church of England leaders, SPG enslaved people on the Codrington estate in Barbados, which generated an estimated £5 million a year in today’s money. Enslaved Africans were branded with the word “Society,” subjected to brutal punishments, and many were worked to death. In just seven months in 1746, 19 enslaved people died, including Daniel, who was “shot by accident,” with three deaths occurring in a single day. After the abolition of slavery, SPG and at least 96 clergy who had enslaved people received millions in compensation for “loss of property.” In 2023, USPG launched its own £7 million reparative justice program. Some historians trace Christian complicity in slavery back to a 1452 papal bull authorizing the enslavement of non-Christians. Malik Al Nasir, one of these historians, has called for the Church of England to digitize its records in the UK and the Caribbean. He argues that understanding the full scope of the church's role in slavery is essential to addressing its legacy.