London, England - The Church of England has apologised for profiting from the "dehumanising and shameful" slave trade, two centuries after its members helped bring about its abolition in Britain.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the world's 77 million Anglicans, said the church had a duty to share the "shame and sinfulness of our predecessors".
"It is not about political correctness ... wanting to wipe the record clean," he told a meeting of the church's governing body, the General Synod, in London on Wednesday. "It is part of what we are as a Christian community: A corporate acknowledgement of repentance."
More than 10 million people were exported as slaves from Africa during 350 years of the trade, the meeting heard. Each year, about 80,000 people were sold to work on sugar and cotton plantations.
One speaker, the Reverend Simon Bessant, from northern England, said the church must accept it was "part of the problem as well as part of the solution".
"We were at the heart of it, we were directly responsible for what happened," he said. "We must recognize our history and offer an apology."
He said members of the Anglican church owned slaves and plantations. In 1833, the then Bishop of Exeter and his three colleagues received 12,729 pounds in compensation after they were forced to free their 665 slaves.
The synod voted unanimously to apologize as the church prepares to commemorate next year's 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Britain.
The church hopes to use the anniversary to promote Christian values and to focus attention on the plight of people caught in the modern slave trade.
It wants to encourage people to examine the stance of Anglican reformer William Wilberforce, who led the campaign in parliament to abolish slavery in the early 19th century.