St Bride’s
St Bride’s is now the third church to participate in the Diocese of Liverpool’s Slavery Truth Project, an initiative that unveils the horrors of Liverpool’s slaving past as well as the hope for repentance and repair.
Working with the Diocese Racial Justice Team, the group have delved deeper than ever before into their historical connections to African Enslavement, conducting research and mapping the stories of those involved.
The group unearthed that one of their trustees was Ambrose Lace II, one of the most prolific slave traders in Liverpool during the 18th Century. The group found that the legacy of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans is woven into the fabric of the church building.
On one of the walls is displayed a memorial plaque to Henry Moore, co-founder of Henry Moore & Co who owned 7 slave plantations in Barbados and Tobago.
Through reckoning with their past, the group have begun to consider how performance, poetry, lament, and song may help them to create an artistic response that catalyses a commitment to racial justice and non-repetition.
As the group moved into the second portion of the project, they worked with Mooncup Theatre, a local theatre collective. Together with Mooncup, the group considered their creative response to St Bride’s connection to the Enslavement of Africans.
Together with Mooncup Theatre, St Bride’s created ‘Ceremonies of Truth’, a unique creative response to the church’s historical links with the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Through performance and storytelling, they confronted difficult truths about their past while exploring how they can shape a more just and hopeful future together.
A participant in the project said:
“It’s been deeply moving to undertake the Slavery Truth Project. The sharing, research and conversations have been so rich and I’m very glad we are undertaking this project.”