PRESSURE from leaders in the Blackburn Diocese has forced the Anglican Church to apologise for profiting from slavery.

The General Synod has acknowledged complicity in the trade after hearing the Church ran a slave plantation in the West Indies and that individual bishops had owned hundreds of slaves.

The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Rev Tom Butler, had earlier put forward a motion urging the Church to mark the bicentenary next year of the Slave Trade Act 1807.

But The Rev Simon Bessant, director of mission for the Blackburn Diocese, amended the motion saying the Church needed to apologise for its role in slavery.

That led to Bishop Butler saying an apology could result in the Church becoming a "national scapegoat" for slavery.

But members of the Synod, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, backed overwhelm-ingly the amendment "recognising the damage done to those who are the heirs of those enslaved", and offering an apology.

Mr Bessant, of Pleckgate, Blackburn, today said: "The original motion was saying that we should celebrate the fact we abolished slavery 200 years ago.

"What my amendment said was that we had to admit that we were part of the problem as well as the solution.

"We had to face up to our past and offer an apology, which is part of the healing process."

The Church's missionary arm, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Foreign Parts, owned the Codrington plantation in Barbados and slaves had the word "Society" branded on their chests with red-hot irons.

The Synod was told that the society's governing body included archbishops of Canterbury and other bishops and archbishops were involved in its management.

The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, backed Mr Bessant's amendment, saying the Church should share the "shame and sinfulness of our predecessors".

And Mr Bessant said the apology had to be followed up by fighting racism and slavery today.

He added: "Slavery is still an issue all over the globe, even in this country where women are being treated as slaves within the sex trafficking industry.

"It is not just about history, we have to fight it today."