Update There are reports in the Church Times: Monmouth review: Archbishop of Wales apologises and Review lists catalogue of errors in Monmouth and the Church in Wales.
The Church in Wales has published the Monmouth Enquiry and Review report today in a news item which is copied below.
The full (but redacted) report is here, and there is an overview here. There is also a statement from the current Bishop of Monmouth.
Monmouth Enquiry and Review Report
Provincial news Posted: 13 December 2021
In May 2020 the Bench of Bishops and the Representative Body of the Church in Wales established an Enquiry and Review into the events surrounding the retirement of the Rt Revd Richard Pain as Bishop of Monmouth in April 2019, and to review the procedures followed and decisions made by all those involved.
The Enquiry and Review Panel was chaired by the Rt Revd Graham James and the other members were Lucinda Herklots and Patricia Russell.
The Panel’s report has now been published, together with an overview of it written on behalf of the commissioners by the then Senior Bishop, now Archbishop, the Most Revd Andrew John, and the former chair of the Representative Body, James Turner. The overview explains that the report has been partially redacted in order to protect the anonymity of some of those involved.
The Commissioners commit to implementing the report’s recommendations quickly and comprehensibly. They also apologise profoundly for the Church’s failures highlighted in the report and, in particular, to those whose reputations, ministries and working life were damaged as these events unfolded.
In December 2018, the Church in Wales issued a statement which was included in an article in the Western Mail on 22 December and subsequently reused in a number of media reports. This statement had not been agreed with the members of the Diocese of Monmouth senior team and caused them considerable distress. It was misleading. The Church in Wales formally withdraws the statement and unreservedly apologizes for the hurt and distress it caused.
MONMOUTH ENQUIRY AND REVIEW REPORT AND COMMISSIONERS’ OVERVIEW
The Review Panel
Graham James was Bishop of Norwich from 1999 to 2019. He chaired the independent Paterson Inquiry which reported to Her Majesty’s Government in February this year.
Lucinda Herklots was Diocesan Secretary of the Diocese of Salisbury for nearly 15 years until November 2018. She is currently a Chapter member of Salisbury Cathedral and a governor of the local NHS hospital trust.
Patricia Russell is an ecclesiastical lawyer specialising in human resources and safeguarding matters. She was deputy registrar to the Dioceses of Winchester and Salisbury from 2014 to 2019.
The Report is so heavily redacted so it is impossible for outsiders to get to the bottom of the problem. The former Archbishop’s “mind your own business” approach to the laity isn’t very impressive.
For those of us who have been part of the Church in Wales for many years, the redaction does nothing to diminish the impact of this report. We may not know the name and gender of the principal complainant, nor the nature of the complaint. But that doesn’t hide the abysmal culture of ‘us’ and ‘them’ within the Church in Wales. In particular, what it tells us about the Bench of Bishops, and its sense of unaccountable entitlement, is astonishing. For many of us, there is no way forward because the newly elected Archbishop is a product of this culture… Read more »