Updated
The transcript from Wednesday’s hearing is now available here.
The only witnesses today were former bishop John Hind and former archdeacon Philip Jones.
An index of the documents adduced today is available here. They include
Bishop John Hind’s witness statement
This document is not now available on the website – reason as yet unknown
Media reports:
Church Times Bishop Hind apologises to IICSA hearing over Chichester diocesan safeguarding practices
THE former Bishop of Chichester, Dr John Hind, has apologised for not giving the diocesan safeguarding officers full access to the “blue files” — containing safeguarding concerns about individual clerics in the diocese — at an earlier time in his tenure.
Dr Hind was giving evidence on Wednesday morning to the public hearing conducted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), in London, on the extent to which the Anglican Church has failed to protect children from sexual abuse.
Christian Today Is this the Achilles heel in the Church of England’s safeguarding approach?
Concerns about the possibility of abuse in the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe are being raised following analysis of an independent report into its safeguarding practices.
An anomaly in that it operates outside of England, the Diocese in Europe covers 42 countries across three continents. However it is still governed by the Church of England and an independent audit published last November laid out concerns about the possibility for abuse to go unreported…
From Ms Hosgood’s testimony as reported by the Church Times: ‘“When I spoke to Janet Hind during the handover,” Ms Hosgood said, “I expressed surprise that Colin Pritchard hadn’t been suspended, had his PtO [permission to officiate] suspended, given the seriousness of the allegations against him, bearing in mind that this wasn’t the first police investigation as well, it was the second police investigation.”’
Has IICSA made any comment about putting a family member of the diocesan bishop (or any clergy in the diocese) as a safeguarding officer? How can anyone ever have thought that was good practice?
Harry Farley’s piece in Christian today is utterly disingenuous and completely distorts the very positive tenor of the safeguarding audit of the Diocese in Europe. The Diocesan Bishop has published the audit in full on the front page of the Diocesan website. Of course the Diocese in Europe faces particular obstacles, precisely because all of our chaplaincies are completely outside English legal jurisdiction (with the exception of Gibraltar). The current Bishop has continued the work begun by his predecessor with determination and zeal, and the levels of safeguarding training and implementation are on an equal footing with all other C… Read more »
Wednesday’s transcription link not working. ‘Page not found’.
Sorry, now fixed I believe.
SS
Am I being dim? The +JH statement link doesn’t appear to work and it appears not to be on the website either.
SS replies:
You are quite right. It seems to have been removed from the website (which is why the link doesn’t work!)
I have asked some people who may know more about why this has happened. I’ll report back here.