Andrew Brown The slow deep hover
Gavin Drake Church Abuse Church of England safeguarding: Children’s Society is wrong to refuse Justin Welby’s donation
Observer editorial The Observer view on the Church of England: how does it recover after its annus horribilis?
Ian Gomersall A Retired Rector’s Reflections Christians awake!
Andrew Brown might be right that Justin Welby did not know about John Smyth. The only person who really knows is Welby himself, and few who think him guilty will take his denials seriously.
But Justin Welby’s speech to the House of Lords was appalling: smug, sneering and self-regarding. He should be shunned for that alone.
Churlish. Yes – his speech was ill advised, but he has apologized. Is TA now going to become a hate chamber or a support place for victims with some reasoned responses. Andrew Brown is challenging and graceful in equal measure.
[I had a previous reply, can that be deleted and this one shown instead?] Mark Ruston and David Fletcher and a few others (5 others?) definitely knew, back in 1982. mark Rushton wrote the report in 1982. It seems to me likely that Jonathan Fletcher (David’s brother) knew, Jonathan was close to Rushton. Justin Welby attended Iwerne camps, and I think stayed with Mark Rushton at some point, but there is no reason to think he knew anything. I have a feeling that Welby’s contacts with Iwerne and Rushton would have been before 1982. He would have known the name… Read more »
If Welby hadn’t broadcast that he was going to make a donation to the Children’s Society perhaps this wouldn’t have happened. Isn’t there something written somewhere about going about doing good quietly?
For me, there is information missing from the public record (as I am aware of it) which would allow me to form a full, personal opinion on the Welby / Children’s Society situation. If anyone knows the answers, I would be interested.
1. Has +Justin been a regular benefactor to the Children’s Society or was this his first, recent gift?
2. Did +Justin publicise his donation?
Very interested to read Andrew Brown’s hypothetical comment on a diocese where safeguarding leads have left under NDAs.
It reminds me of another hypothetical diocese where the archdeacons have been the safeguarding leads. That would be very poor practice when relating to survivors of clerical abuse.
Did anyone else notice the “job of the week” in the most recent Church Times? Someone looking for a safeguarding director.
When will people start asking the right questions?
The call for ABY’s resignation is part of a larger movement of exercising power/agency within the CofE (the pressure put on the former +Winchester, the Rochester Diocesan Synod motion, the petition to remove ABC, the use of social media to speak openly and garner support). Bishops need to learn new ways to lead, based away from the House/College (any minutes yet?) and towards building diocesan trust and consensus. Any leader needs to recognise that the last resort ‘vote of no confidence’ or its equivalent is unlikely to be solely a result of the presenting issue, but the last straw. In this… Read more »
In defence of Stephen Cottrell, Andrew Brown says: “When someone like Gavin Drake says that the Church of England is not a safe place, they do not mean — at least I hope they do not mean — that children or vulnerable adults are at risk right now, but that survivors of historic abuse, some of it really terrible, do not feel safe in the Church of England today.” Andrew is totally wrong. I do not feel safe in the Church of England today, for a variety of reasons. I am not a child or a vulnerable adult. Other categories… Read more »
Andrew Brown’s article proves one thing. The Church of England urgently needs to listen and engage directly with victims of abuse. Andrew Brown means to be compassionate and helpful but he writes as an outsider, someone who has not been a victim and I’m afraid he doesn’t get it at all. It is simply not true that the Church cannot help in the healing process but it can do a great deal in small ways if it is motivated by kindness and Christian love and it should stop treating victims as insurance claims. If you want to know what will… Read more »