Church of England cathedral launches woke QR code campaign to explain slavery links

The aim of the project is to allow visitors to research the history of those buried there and explain their links to slavery.

The cathedral said the scheme was launched in a bid to bolster its “principles of social justice”.

QR codes, which can be scanned and accessed via phone camera have been placed around the 69m structure which first opened in 1482.

Leaflets will also be provided to visitors that provide information about slave profiteering and were made with information and guidance from the “city’s diverse communities”.

Including the QR codes in the cathedral comes amid a broader commitment by the Church of England to “provide safe spaces for all”.

Canon Rebecca Lloyd said that the project “aims to shed light on the cathedral’s past through the research of the stories of those who are memorialised within the fabric of the cathedral”.

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Lloyd added the cathedral was “committed to learning more about our building’s history and those who have formed it”.

QR codes have previously been used as a way to keep statues in place when contentious issues surrounding the person depicted or the artist come to light.

The story comes after a Church of England archdeacon sparked fury after calling for “anti-whiteness”.

The Ven Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Archdeacon of Liverpool, said on social media: “Let's have anti-whiteness, and let's smash the patriarchy.”

But her comments prompted a litany of outraged reactions, with some online commentators describing them as “racist”, “divisive” and “nonsensical”.

When one social media user said: “Slightly confused by this, so being born white is wrong?”, Dr Threlfall-Holmes replied: “No, that was my exact point! Seek out the training.”

However, the archdeacon hit back, telling the Telegraph: “I was contributing to a debate about world views, in which 'whiteness' does not refer to skin colour per se, but to a way of viewing the world where being white is seen as 'normal' and everything else is considered different or lesser.

“I do however understand that this is not a definition that is widely shared as yet outside of academic circles, and regret that Twitter was perhaps not the best place for a nuanced argument.”