Hundreds of people packed into the Cathedral for a service to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade yesterday.

They heard a series of moving speeches and presentations, said prayers and sang a number of hymns, including Amazing Grace, the song which symbolised the anti-slavery movement 200 years ago.

Speeches came from Bishop of Bermuda Ewen Ratteray, Imagine Bermuda 2009 co-chairman Glenn Fubler and Rev. Nick Dill, pastor at St. John’s Church, Pembroke, who organised the service.

Members of the congregation praised the organisers of the service and said it had been a fitting way to celebrate the date which represented the beginning of the end of slavery.

Theresa Callabras, 69, from St. George’s, is the great great great granddaughter of Stephen Benjamin Richardson, a slave born in the 1800s who bought his own freedom.

Mr. Richardson also bought freedom for his wife, and later trained to become a qualified pilot. Mrs. Callabras said: “I feel very proud thinking that he rose above being a slave and went on to become a pilot. He didn’t hold any remorse.

“I have always been interested to know about slavery in Bermuda because of my family ties. It was a very good service, I enjoyed it.”

Edward Warner, 55, from St. George’s, said: “We all needed to hear about slavery and it’s good to get the opportunity to talk about it with other people.”

Elizabeth Phillips, 72, from Hamilton Parish, said: “Some of our ancestors were slaves and I wanted to come along to find out what I could about them.”

Bishop Ratteray said: “I was very pleased with the turn-out — the service has gone very well.”

Making his speech about the history of slavery in Bermuda and the world, Rev. Dill said: “This is a story which affects many of us as part of our personal and societal history here in Bermuda.

“There are many today who say: ‘I wasn’t there, so why bring these things up again?’.

“But there are also many who feel these things very powerfully — with anger and pain which has been left un-addressed or acknowledged.

“Today in Bermuda we are not free from the legacy of the past, whether it be the slave past or the segregation that followed.”

Rev. Dill condemned the Anglican Church’s involvement in the slave trade.

“As I stand in this Cathedral today,” he said, “the worst part of the whole story is the failure, collusion and at times even support of the Christian Church and the Anglican Church in particular when it came to this evil.

“The Christian Church had been the main force for the eradication of slavery from the Roman Empire... so the revival of the trade in the 16th Century was a terrible reverse.

“Slavery has been a part of human history since records began, but that the Church should be at best silent or at worst a participant in the suffering of others for economic gain is a sad indictment on it and demonstrates a failure to live in accordance with the example and words of scripture.

“There are arguably many reasons why this is so, but these are indefensible in the light of scripture, history and reason.”