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Good morning. On this day in 1834 the Slavery Abolition Act came into force, setting in motion the ending of slavery in Britain and many places around the world.

Yet complex legacies of those times remain.

My late first husband had slaves among his ancestors. My forebears, if family legends are to be believed, include both slave traders, and keen abolitionists.

It’s messy. But I can’t pick and choose which threads of this history to acknowledge.

For one thing, this would fail to convey the truth of the whole picture.

More seriously it doesn’t help to view the past as if some people and events are utterly beyond reproach, while all the rest are equally beyond redemption.

First, I believe humanity’s power to do wrong cannot be greater than God’s ability to overcome bad with good; however vast our capacity even for evil, God’s redeeming love can triumph.

But second, there’s a responsibility to forge a path through the moral maze of our time – and when we do get things wrong, to say sorry, and to work to repair any damage we’ve caused.

The good news is that all failings, past and present, can become the compost heap in which God plants seeds that can flourish and fruit with blessing.

This is what gives us hope that, fallible though we are, from the ashes of the past we can dare to work for a better future.

Lord Jesus Christ, in you all things are made new. When we feel trapped by the past, draw us into the better future you purpose for us all. Amen