The Episcopal Diocese of New York apologized March 25 at a special service for its role in the Transatlantic slave trade and the denomination’s exploitation of enslaved Black people,CBS New York reports. Church leaders plan to make amends.

Andrew Dietsche, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of New York who presided over the ceremony, said the denomination’s sins include benefiting from the free labor of African American slaves to build churches in the diocese and discriminating against them even after emancipation.

The service marked a milestone for the diocese, which has been guided through the recompense process by its Reparations Commission, the Episcopal News Service reports.

“I think what I’m hoping is that the members of our diocese really understand that this is an institutional and collective apology,” Cynthia Copeland, Reparations Commission co-chair, told the Episcopal News Service. “The apology builds on research by the diocese and its congregations into the legacy of racism in their histories, and the work of discovery, acceptance and transformation doesn’t end with this service.”

The diocese created a Reparations Committee in 2006, later renamed the Reparations Commission. In November 2019, the diocesan convention committed $1.1 million from its endowment to fund the committee’s future recommendations.

Dietsche said discussions are ongoing about specific forms of reparations, New York local news website Gothamist reported. So far, the plan has centered on funding college scholarships, health care and housing for African Americans, as well as removing the institutional obstacles that have blocked Black church members from working at “high-profile” parishes.

New York once had the second largest slave market in the nations and was involved in financing the slave trade, according to the Rev. Richard Witt, Reparations Commission co-chair, told the Episcopal News Service.

“The benefits of that trade have come down to us,” Witt said, adding that the apology is for “our involvement in the legacy of enslavement and how that has played out through systemic racism in our education, real estate, criminal justice – owning our role in that ongoing legacy.”

Some members say an apology is only a first step.

"It's going to be a long time moving forward because you have to get a lot of people on board and it's about cleaning up our hearts, I believe, and just to stand as one," praise dancer Tonika Custalow-Stuart told CBS New York.