The original plan was to bring a report of the work requested by the Methodist Conference in response to the memorial ‘M22 The Slave Trade’ to the 2021 Methodist Conference (pp916–918 in Report 61) to the 2026 Methodist Conference.
However, there is to be an update now in 2026 and a further, fuller report in 2027. This interim progress report will introduce the 2026 Methodist Conference to the historical context, map out proposed future processes with global and other Partners and propose the broad content for the subsequent report in 2027.
This timeline has been adjusted to ensure that our work pays full attention to work being undertaken now by global Partners: both the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA) and in the Methodist Churches in West Africa. Our Partners’ processes – especially MCCA – will continue beyond this date and it is important that the Methodist Church in Britain continues to listen and respond.
2026
A workshop will introduce the representatives to the Conference 2026 to examples of the historical complicity outlined in the update report, which is being presented to the Conference as part of the Connexional Council’s annual report.
The workshop will ask Conference to reflect on their response to the truth of the Church’s entanglement with enslavement and seek together to propose principles on which reparative action should be founded, co-created with our global Partners.
With the support of the Conference, proposals for concrete actions will be brought for consideration in 2027.