On 25th March 1807 parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.Ìý From that day, the Royal Navy were charged with ensuring that no ships carried out the forced transport of enslaved peoples from Africa to the West Indies.Ìý The service will be led by church leaders from Essex and East London from seven different denominations: Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, United Reformed, Baptist, Salvation Army, and Quaker.Ìý The Royal Navy will also be represented.Ìý The Lwo Cultural group from Stratford will perform two African dances – a lament and a celebration of freedom, with drums and African instruments, and Chelmsford Cathedral choir will sing spirituals.Ìý Music written by musicians who were freed slaves will also be performed.Ìý There will be readings from the writings of the first freed slaves, and children from local schools will act out scenes from the history of the slave trade. Those attending will be given "Set All Free" wristbands (grey to represent the chains with which slaves were bound), and there will be a symbolic ‘breaking of chains’ during the service.Ìý Among the hymns to be sung will be "Amazing Grace", written by John Newton, a slave ship captain who turned against the slave trade after his conversion to Christianity.Ìý The hymn "Cry Freedom!" by Michael Forster will also be sung, to a tune written especially for this service by the Chelmsford Cathedral Director of Music, Peter Nardone. Part of the collection taken after the service will be given to the work of CHASTE, a charity which campaigns against those forms of slavery which continue today. | 
