The Church of England is obsessed with racial self-flagellation

The Church of England has been displaying distinctly masochistic tendencies of late. The Church has previously tried to return its tainted Benin bronzes, even though their specimens were crafted 80 years after the Kingdom of Benin succumbed to British forces and its palaces were looted in 1897.

This week the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice – chaired by the Blair-era Labour minister and subsequently High Commissioner to South Africa Lord (Paul) Boateng – issued its first report; there are five more to come over the next three years, so we can anticipate much more self-abasement. Needless to say, in the report’s opening message Boateng writes of a ‘sense of deep hurt and of pain’ with those ‘who have experienced and are still experiencing racial injustice within and at the hand of the Church of England’. The point of this Commission is to tell Anglicans how guilty they collectively are – and it dutifully does just that.