NEW YORK — The Episcopal Diocese of New York, at a moving service inside the Cathedral of St. John’s the Divine, issued a public apology Saturday for its role in the slave trade and acknowledged the need for reparations.
Bishop Andrew ML Dietsche delivered the message at an emotional two-plus hour gathering where he declared a simple apology was insufficient after the church conducted a lengthy look back at its mistreatment of those blacks brought to New York as slaves.
“This is a tipping point, this is a moment,” he told the Manhattan crowd assembled in the cathedral. “A new chapter. We see the opportunity to undo some and repair some of the harm which we have done to people of African descent.”
