December 2024
The Church of England has recently published two press releases on this topic.
This describes progress to date by the Wilkinson and Jay Reports Response Group which will report to the General Synod in February 2025.
This describes work being done by the National Safeguarding Team in conjunction with dioceses and others, to follow up the recommendations of the Makin report. A four stage process is outlined.
The following reaction to the latter has already appeared at Church Abuse: Church of England announces response to Makin review: kick it into the long grass.
We will add any further items relating to these two releases as they appear.
Hard to argue with the response to the CofE’s response to Makin at Church Abuse. Mr Nye delivering his finest civil servant’s response to the damning report reviews upon reviews upon reviews – bury it in red tape. There have been numerous reports all detailing the failings of the church and making crystal clear recommendations. Having another review followed by a more in depth review which is then reviewed twice more before further recommendations are made can only be seen as an utter failure of leadership and a deliberate rejection of any accountability for clear action on this matter. My… Read more »
I believe the entire Archbishops’ Council should have been called to account for its collective action in the summer of 2023 when it shut down the ISB in such haste (so it was a fait accomplis before Synod could be consulted a couple of weeks later, and to avoid the contractual necessity of Independent Mediation with the ISB members which was approaching an imminent deadline). The disgraceful failure to forewarn survivors/victims whose cases were being (professionally) handled by the ISB… the failure to set up protective support in the lead up… the way these already once-abused individuals were left in… Read more »
All too predictably the CofE employs its standard response to any expensive & hard hitting review, avoiding doing anything while pretending to be taking it all very seriously & thus needing endless time to consider.
This ‘plan’ reminds me of my own plan of how to deal with unruly parishioners: stay in the parish long enough that I will be able to bury them when they die and commend them to almighty God, rather than deal with the issue in the meantime. Another review smacks me of someone in charge (Nye?) who thinks he has all the time in the world and one year, one decade or more will make no difference to them but will make the problem go away as people die, move on or get dispirited.
I’ll add what I posted on Twitter. This really is unacceptable. Survivors have been waiting for years for a proper response and some action. So what do the Archbishops’ Council do? Devise a process to kick the can down the road. Is there anyone in the National Church willing to say enough! I’d like to see Bishops who are not compromised on this break ranks & agree to meet with representatives of survivors (and an independent – truly independent – mediator), go through the recommendations of Jay, Makin & all the rest & quickly come up with an implementation plan.… Read more »
I think a call from the Lord to Repentance should be heard Loud and clear, any alternative to Repentance is the quickest and the easiest way to Hell. I am no doubts that right across the various denominations including my own the Roman Catholic Church, the Lord is cleansing his Temple and St Peter reminds us that the Judgement begins in the Household of Faith. I think we need to pray hard that people in all the churches will head the Lord’s call to Repentance and Conversion. Jonathan
Thank you, Jonathan – my sentiments EXACTLY!
Bishop Pete thank you – very grateful for your calling out here of what is needed, and for a pragmatic way forward: let’s just act on the huge amount of evidence already in front of us. Praying for God’s guidance and provocation in this time.
The brazen corruption of the Archbishops’ Council is now fully surfaced. Mr. Nye’s scheming has lost all its gloss, and the shambles he drives now running on the rims. What I find extraordinary is Cottrell and others still trotting out glib Advent piety as though it is business as usual. The bishops do not seem to understand that trust and confidence in what they stand for, and certainly what they say, has fully gone. It is no longer there, and it is not coming back. Anything they say or write just smacks of hypocrisy and coverups. When they go silent,… Read more »
I admire your optimism that synod will do anything other than nod approvingly at anything ++York says next February. I fear it will be business as usual because synod is so gutless.
Completely agree with your suggestion that GS is utterly gutless (with very small number of exceptions who get swamped by the massive majority of sheep who shamelessly nodded through the Church Hierarchy’s proposals on safeguarding through every GS for the last 6+ years). Back in Feb 2018 every GS member was given a copy of: https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Stones-not-Bread.compressed.pdf GS (with very few exceptions), including some Bishops, former Bishops & others who now finally appear to be seeking change, were quite happy to ignore victims & survivors in 2018 & ever since, but now rather belatedly appear to be having second thoughts post… Read more »
David I think in the past Preachers during Advent did not entertain people with Glib Piety but invited their listeners to reflect on the 4 last things, Heaven ,Hell, Death and Judgement. Jonathan
I agree with “some” But.. in fairness every parish church last Sunday will have (or should have) lit their first advent candle… And for similar reasons it is entirely appropriate for someone in central church to be making Christmas messages at this time of year. Being silent about jesus until we are sufficiently good, sounds like a recipe to only be silent. That being said he should not delay doing the right thing on safeguarding because he has Christmas services to prepare for, or advent podcasts to produce or whatever else (and I imagine +Justin would have produced some and… Read more »
Bp Pete you are so right. Apart from a truly independent Safeguarding process there needs to be an independent Ecclesiastical Ombudsman
‘Current Bishops who are not compromised’ you suggest & ‘Bishops who took no action in the past should recuse themselves’ I reckon that would leave one, two being generous, out of 108? Current Bishops based on their GS voting record & (lack of) public responses etc. That would certainly have the benefit of forming a very small group, who then might actually make some decisions in Real Time, as opposed to the glacial Do Nothing approach of the (non) Response Group, most of whose members are actively compromised. Survivors of Historic abuse were campaigning for an ‘Implementation Group’ back in… Read more »
So Welby has gone like a lamb to the slaughter ( well he did struggle a bit) and XX Cottrell decides that it’s procrastination as usual. Were it not the C of E it would beggar belief.
Our very own Sir Humphrey – Billy Nye the Whitewash Guy – swings into action with ‘bury it 101’, aided and abetted by the omertà obsessed HoB. On this one I’m with +Pete. The iron grip Nye, ++York et al have over General Synod means we can’t expect action there. The Archbishops’ Council is a systemically corrupted instrument, whoever the people sitting on it are, and all the more so through the actions of some, if not all, of its current membership. Consequently, the only real hope for breaking the disgusting cycle short of every parish in the country revolting… Read more »
Does no-one remember the intense arguments AGAINST when the ABC was mooted? Arguments over ‘another layer of management’ etc! Could it be that it is the ABC and its burgeoning layer of staff has become the very agency destroying parish life?
Well I remember ( I was a curate) but I don’t think most clergy quite understood what it would mean in practice or how it would impact on the ground. For example, that it would have its own budget and the effect of this would result in a swing away from the parishes.
It is time for a moratorium on any future hirings to senior Church roles of civil servants, lawyers or others whose professional formation has been in large secular public or private sector organizations, where reputation management, problem containment, communications obfuscation and bureaucratic delay are the first instincts. We desperately need senior officials who bring with them tangible evidence of deep formation in Christian and ethical management practices marked by honesty, frankness, courage, transparency, prudence and justice.
You are so right. There are some eye – watering sums being wasted here if you follow on from Gavin Drake’s last articles… 1)original costs of the reports 2) undisclosed ( and allegedly unavailable) legal fees for defending bishops from complaints about their management of abuse cases 3 )ongoing projected legal costs for redoing all the bits of the reports you didn’t happen to fancy. 4) Bishops’ time in running around in small circles to stay in the same place All this is before as much as 2p is handed out in compensation to victims Also think how many parish… Read more »
I love the idea that it is those hired from the secular world who are entirely to blame for the culture of “reputational management, problem containment, communications obfuscation and bureaucratic delay” plaguing the CofE. Nothing to do with any of the Archbishops or Bishops, who have simply been led astray, poor lambs.
You make a good point, Francis, but I believe Jonathan does, too. In my view, there needs to be a comprehensive rethinking about what kinds of people with what kinds of experience we are appointing as senior lay officials and as senior clergy. I have long commented on the disastrous impact of the previous regime at the Wash House on the profile of senior clergy – how the gifted pastors and scholars were largely weeded out, and not even in favour of genuinely gifted and skilled leaders and managers. The kinds of episcopal and decanal managers we have been ‘gifted’… Read more »
I don’t agree that management experience in a large secular organisation need be a problem. Somebody who has worked at a senior level in, for example, a large NHS or education authority might have extensive relevant experience, including experience of safeguarding management, and of working within the Nolan principles. Unfortunately William Nye does not have such experience. His two most recent jobs before the church were as private secretary to the Prince of Wales and before that as a director in the security directorate in the cabinet office. Whether he brought the skills and attitudes developed in those two posts… Read more »
I agree. I recognise the Nye playbook from certain government and para government departments with which I have some familiarity, and it is not one shared across all departments of the contemporary civil service. To me, the problem is we have the kinds of managerial approaches that were prevalent in the NHS, civil service and education around 40-50 years ago – certainly pre-Nolan. I continue to have a foot in both camps – church and public sector secular – and the contemporary public service world is, for the most part, a million miles away from (and ahead of) the callous,… Read more »
I too have worked outside the church, in the Armed Forces and the National Health Service, and it is interesting to compare inside and outside, and how church culture is sadly lacking by comparison. That was my take on the Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley, whose actions were discussed extensively in an adjacent thread. I don’t regard what she did as exceptional. She simply behaved as a senior leader would be expected to behave in any modern ethical professional organisation. It is a sad reflection on the church that such behaviour is regarded as prophetic or courageous. I think it was Janet… Read more »
Realist. Your comment about the “Nye playbook from certain government and para government departments” struck a chord with me, but it has taken a bit of time to track down the text that resonated.
It is this article by Gilo written back in 2019, but worth revisiting to set alongside what we now know about the culture and assumptions within the senior echelons of the Church of England.
https://survivingchurch.org/2019/08/20/gilo-writes-safeguarding-the-secrets-part-1-nobodys-friends/
Yet if any ordinary parish priest fails to report allegations within 24 hours we’d be threatened with the full force of the CDM process.
Gavin Drake’s article describes the Church of England’s response to John Smyth’s abuse as being delay after delay after delay. The Church has poured time and money into devising a Safeguarding regime which cannot protect us from the repeated failures of the institution and the hierarchy. Everything is effectively kicked into the long grass: dealing with multiple instances of abuse in the Church; agreeing the vital, urgent changes necessary to create equality in ministry and relationship for LGBTQIA+ people; rectifying the failure to grant women equality at every level of the Church. There are plenty of voices around and people… Read more »
Reading this before I went to church this morning found me in tears after it. First of all I grieve for the victims, it’s hard to imagine this response is going to make them feel any more seen, heard or cared about. Secondly I grieve for the church of which I am an ordained member. When the institutional church acts like this I feel ashamed and despairing, especially when it follows such a long litany of previous failures to act with compassion and leadership and to change the culture of the church which is so damaging. We no longer deserve… Read more »