Baptists have lamented slavery past and present in the opening celebration of the Baptist Assembly in Brighton

|PIC1|In a collective prayer of lament read out by BUGB General Secretary Jonathan Edwards and BMS World Mission General Director Alistair Brown, the Assembly "acknowledged with incredulity that Christians were amongst those who most strenuously defended the slave trade and profited from it".

"We are shocked and ashamed that millions were seized, shackled, imprisoned, abused, transported and made the slaves of others," the Assembly said.

The lament went on to feature the problem of modern day slavery today and asked forgiveness for Baptists for not being more outspoken: "We cry out now for those brutalised as prisoners of the sex industry, for those damaged by inhuman working conditions, for those sentenced to poverty by biased, unjust economic systems and for those suffering because of our exploitation of creation."

It continued: "Lord, as we thank you for those who courageously spoke out against slavery 200 years ago we confess that we have not always spoken out against the evils of slavery in our own day.

"Forgive us Lord for our inability and the inability of our society to embrace one another as those who have been made in your image."

The opening celebration also marked the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Act to Abolish the Slave Trade with a dramatised monologue of an African slave. Ronnie Barham, a former professional singer and now Baptist minister of Main Road Baptist Church in Sidcup, Kent, performed Labi Siffre's 1987 song Something Inside So Strong.

The evening ended with Les Isaac, Director of Ascension Trust and one of the founders of Street Pastors, giving the keynote address. In it he challenged churches to be "risk-takers" and bring freedom to people in this country.

"People are in slavery in the United Kingdom right here under our doorsteps, right where we go shopping today...the church must do something to release people from their bondage. We need to be risk-takers, we need to come out of the four walls of our church," he said.