Archbishop of Canterbury vows to support £100m pledge helping communities affected by enslavement

During a visit to Ghana, Sarah Mullally, the newly elected Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed regret over the Church of England's involvement in transatlantic chattel slavery. She made the comments while in Cape Coast castle, a former British fortress built by Swedish traders and later occupied by Danish, Dutch, and British forces before being seized by the British in 1664.

Mullally visited the castle during a 10-day tour of Ghana and Cameroon, organized by the head of the Anglican church's West Africa province, Archbishop Cyril Kobina Ben-Smith. She expressed her "lament" for the horrific conditions that thousands of enslaved Africans were kept in, before praying in a former Anglican chapel above the dungeons.

Mullally also visited the "Door of No Return," renamed the "Door of Return," where enslaved people were ferried across the Atlantic. Her visit began in Accra, where she met Ghanaian President John Mahama and laid the foundation stone for a hostel belonging to a local church culture resort initiative. Mullally reaffirmed her commitment to a £100 million fund aimed at supporting communities affected by slavery, despite a committee of Conservative MPs urging her to spend the money on clergy wages.

The archbishop's visit comes three years after her predecessor Justin Welby formally apologized for the church's role in the transatlantic slave trade.