Andrew Harrison as William Wilberforce in The
Walk [photo: Derek Prescott WR412/11 ENG07DJ-5]
ENGLAND & WALES — In recent months Britain’s media have been full of an important anniversary. With television programmes, radio programmes, the cinema film Amazing Grace, newspaper articles, museum exhibitions and public events – it has seemed that almost everywhere you look there have been contributions to the celebration of the abolition of Britain’s transatlantic slave trade in 1807.
Although by no means the first abolitionist and certainly not the only one, Member of Parliament William Wilberforce gained prominence as the voice of the abolition movement in the House of Commons. The British and Foreign Bible Society, proud to have had Wilberforce as one its founder members, has been in the thick of the celebrations of his achievement.
Marathon effort
The Society has commissioned and distributed a half-hour film which tells the story of Wilberforce’s marathon effort to get his Abolition Bill through both Houses of Parliament and enacted as law. As depicted in The Walk, it was Wilberforce’s meeting with John Newton which was crucial to his decision to devote himself to God by service in politics. When the two met, Newton, now best known as the writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, was a reformed slave ship captain. He was one – and the British Prime Minister William Pitt, was another – who urged the young Wilberforce to stay in politics to set about reforming the vast and wicked trade in human flesh. The film implies that it is Newton’s sorrow and regret for his own life of slave trading that makes him urge action on Wilberforce: the young man had the opportunity to do what he himself had left it too late to attempt.
Liberty and justice
The task took the best part of 20 years (1788 –1807) and meanwhile Wilberforce’s London home became the heart of an evangelical social movement – as the film puts it, “a passionate engagement with the world where ‘religion’ meant food, clothing, liberty and justice.” That engagement led to the founding of many missionary societies and societies devoted to the spreading of the Gospel – including, in 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society.
One-man play
The Bible Society film, which features actor Andrew Harrison, is an adaptation of a one-man play which he has taken on tour and is continuing to perform in venues great and small throughout Britain. It was written by the well-known playwright Murray Watts, a founding member of the Christian theatre company Riding Lights and whose previous screenplay credits include Miracle Maker etc. Luke Walton, the Bible Society’s Arts Development Officer, said that funding The Walk was the perfect opportunity for the Bible Society to draw attention to the role the Bible played in the lives of Wilberforce and many other abolitionists. The Society continues to resource people in politics today through the work of its Parliamentary Officer. The DVD of The Walk also includes a documentary on the making of the film, a timeline of the struggle to end the transatlantic slave trade and related resources for study in schools.
More details can be found at www.biblesociety.org.uk/thewalk (WR 412/11 - 06.07)[1 photo]