Surviving Church Conflict

Product Information

What the Church doesn’t have complete control over however, is the messages delivered outside its jurisdiction by survivor activists and concerned responsible journalists. As the outcry grows across all media, even some church leaders are beginning to show concern. I have also asked that in the light of the Soul Survivor Festival scandal, that every Church of England festival in the United Kingdom, every Christian retreat, church away day, have a major safeguarding review to ensure that no other scandals come out of the Church of England.

On Friday I discovered that Jasvinder Sanghera and Steve Reeves have been obliged to decline engagement with the ISB Review which is being conducted by barrister Sarah Wilkinson. The key issue is depressingly familiar. The Jay Report should be with us in January. There is no excuse for it not being on the agenda in February 2024, though control or prevention of any debate is likely to be attempted. We must resist that at all costs. The credibility of Synod itself is at stake. I had been struggling to understand this ingrained and consistent behaviour for some time. It was Fiona Gardner’s book ‘Sex, Power, Control: Responding to Abuse in the Institutional Church’ that analysed the situation and explained what was going on. Given the funding arrangements of the ISB, some might wonder if it was always the case that ‘independence’ was difficult or impossible to realise, and that the ‘I’ was included in the title chiefly for PR purposes?It has to be asked why there needs to be a lead bishop of safeguarding or, indeed, anything else. All this allocation of spurious pseudo-cabinet portfolios is a largely useless distraction from what ought to be the pastoral day-job. It should not be for any bishop to dictate policy; rather it should be for the ISB and NST to formulate policy (or, perhaps for the ISB to dictate it, and the NST to implement it). The bishops should instead get out of the way and take directions (i.e., commands) from the national safeguarding professionals who actually know (or ought to know) what they are doing.

What we can do of course is explain in different ways, to others who actually have functioning hearts and souls. It’s important not to overwhelm them, but to continue to provide simple reasoned cross referenced arguments to set out the basis of our experience. In fact that is what I believe is being done here and in other places too. Let’s keep it up. One can only take this at its face value, but as it emanates from Christ Church it appears to state a clear intention for change. All should become clearer when Dominic Grieve’s report is published – some time this year was the indication. ES: Are you saying that you can’t have confidence in the independence of the Board unless she withdraws or in some way goes? As Area Bishop of Stepney, Joanne is a suffragan bishop and was not one of those elected to Synod to represent the southern suffragans in the ‘general’ election in October 2021. Indeed, she did not stand for election at that time. The Cathedral should conform to the requirements of the Cathedrals Measure except where its future relationship with Christ Church renders this unrealistic.”But at least we now know that ISB was and is wholly and closely controlled in terms of ambit and resource by Archbishops Council. Two very serious questions flow from this? Following the translation of Bishop John Perumbalath to the See of Liverpool from the See of Bradwell, there is now a vacancy for a southern suffragan in the House of Bishops.

That being so, what I feel survivor’s groups need to do is to develop their own draft legislation and present it to some interested MPs. It might be worth engaging with a parliamentary agent (usually a Westminster law firm) to draft legislation.

Our blogs

What little hope there was for the ISB has effectively been extinguished and emphatically stamped on by this appointment. What a tragic waste of time and effort, to say nothing of the huge sums of charitable money poured into this – and all to create the illusion of independent oversight that IICSA had demanded of the CofE, but which Mr. Nye had absolutely no intention of allowing. The ISB has become an ignominious initiative to be associated with: something pretending to be independent, but is not and was never going to be. The sooner all such appointments in the safeguarding circus of the Church are removed from the hands of Nye the better. This latter day Richelieu of the Church of England whose unaccountable court supercedes that of the gelded king in Lambeth Palace, continues to deepen the disrepute in which the Church finds itself. Every Diocese Safeguarding Advisor should also report to a member of the National Safeguarding Team as well as a Diocese Bishop. The new processes will, for example afford to others what was not given to Martyn Percy, a proper triaging process to determine at the outset whether there was sufficient evidence to uphold the complaint as either grievance/misconduct/ serious misconduct. Appropriate speedy diversion to mediation is also being considered. These C/E blunders are in a completely different category, it’s embarrassing. It’s almost as if they still have no idea that they have to be aware anyone is looking at them. As if they have no need to think about scrutiny of any sort. in the context of a long-running dispute with the former Dean [Martyn Percy]” there had been “mismanagement and/or misconduct in the management and administration of the charity. This is because the trustees have not (a) managed the charity’s resources responsibly;(b) ensured that the charity is accountable.”

We believe that one of the best ways we can help individuals and communities to respond well to abuse is through creative projects. This creates space for a conversation between those with lived experience and others in their communities. Imagination is one of the most powerful resources God gives us to foster a more empathetic understanding of the needs of survivors and what helpful responses might look and sound like as we journey forwards together. We recognise the continuing need to reflect, learn and develop understanding in all corners of the Church about safeguarding and what is needed to protect, respond and support those who may be vulnerable. All who have engaged with the Jay Review report a uniformly good impression of the competence, professionalism and kindness toward them in addition to a grasp of the issues partly born out of Professor Jay’s experience at IICSA.The only comment possible at this stage is that any future laicisation of the Head of the College cannot affect the Dean of the Cathedral being an ordained priest. Currently Christ Church is expressly outside the terms of the Cathedrals Measure 2011. The Crown is the Visitor and surprisingly (?) the Dean is the Ordinary. Clearly the Diocese wishes to change these seeming anomalies. The initiative spearheaded by Newcastle Diocese, is a response to recent guidance issued by the Church of England to church officers and church bodies on how to respond well to victims and survivors of all kinds of abuse. It has been part funded by the charity Safe Spaces, a free and independent support service, providing a confidential, personal and safe space for anyone who has been abused by someone in the Church.