Yesterday I watched snippets of Bishop Wallace Benn’s testimony at the IICSA hearing. Subsequently I was able to consult the summaries so helpfully published at the end of the day by the Inquiry itself. Others who have commented on the day’s proceedings have said, with some justification, that Bishop Benn showed a notable dependence on the ‘rule-book’. He appeared to want to fend off all accusations about his conduct by telling the Inquiry that it was someone else’s responsibility. He simply shrugged off the attempts to show him that his leadership and behaviour in this area were indicative, at best, of indifference and, at worst, abject incompetence.

Since yesterday I have tried to come up with a word or expression to signify the minimum that we might expect of church leaders, like Bishop Benn, in dealing with individuals suffering as the result of sexual abuse. I have failed to come up with a single word but meanwhile I have settled on the expression ‘harm awareness’. This term might describe the ability to respond to any realisation that people around you are being hurt. It suggests that any Christian, or indeed any citizen, who suspects harm is being caused to another person will do everything in their power to stop that harm. It is the impulse that draws in a total stranger to help when an old lady falls in the street. It is the natural response of any human being to help another who is facing abuse or harm. It is quite clear that in the Chichester diocese there was a cluster of sexually abusive clergy. It would be the most natural thing in the world for those in positions of power to work together to root out this infection. What do we find out from Bishop Benn’s testimony? We find that the application of rules and procedures seemed to be more important than seeking out and supporting actual suffering victims as well as responding to perpetrators. It is unclear from the evidence of Bishop Benn whether these rules were even followed in the best way possible. Did the church leaders in Chichester have ‘harm awareness’ to any degree?

The evidence that there were power ‘struggles’ between the wings of the church in Chichester Diocese had clearly complicated its smooth functioning. As we noted in last week’s post, the High Church and the conservative evangelical parishes were not communicating well. The same lack of mutual trust was evident in the difficult working relationship between the Diocesan bishop and his suffragans. The appointment of Bishop Benn in 1995 was not merely an appointment to represent the conservative wing within the Diocese. Rather he was there to represent the ultra-conservative wing of the entire Church of England. It has been suggested that Bishop Benn was not really up to the challenge of ministering to any clergy or parishes who did not follow his conservative theology. Some would claim that he was appointed simply to pacify and keep his conservative faction within the church. It is hard to see how the diocese could ever be united when it carried the legacy of ‘political’ appointments of this kind.

It is well-known that sexual abuse by adults of young people and children can have catastrophic lifelong consequences. My own limited exposure to this group leads me to suppose that it is far more serious than almost any physical damage. Because the result of the abuse is carried by the brain and the nervous system, it can be crippling in ways that are far worse that the loss of a limb. It may involve such difficulties as making relationships, holding down employment and sometimes resulting in physical illness. If clergy and other Christian leaders were ever to remove the limbs of young people, there would be uproar in society. Instant imprisonment would be meted out to the perpetrators and the everyone would be outraged. The fact that the effects of sexual abuse are not visible does in no way makes it less damaging. And yet it seems that large numbers of church leaders and others do not recognise the full extent of such damage. If they did so they would be overwhelmed with the same horror that they would feel on behalf of the physically maimed.

Today (Tuesday) has seen some powerful and informative material given to the Inquiry. In the morning I listened to Dr Rupert Bursell. He has been Chancellor (chief legal officer) of Chichester as well as other Dioceses. He had a clear and cogent understanding of some of the legal processes and, in contrast with the vague witness of Bishop Benn, this was a breath of fresh air. I was particularly delighted that he was able for a short period to speak about the wider issues of ‘spiritual abuse’. He appeared to refer to my letter to the Church Times as part of his testimony. (Perhaps it was the one written by Janet Fife?) The issue of abuse through exorcism was given a brief airing.

In the afternoon we listened to Professor Julie Mcfarlane who had endured abuse at the hands of a clergyman over 40 years ago. She, in conjunction with the lawyer, David Greenwood, had some trenchant criticisms of the way that the system has treated survivors. The response to survivors has involved an adversarial tone. The victim has to endure questions by lawyers who apparently are not above suggesting that a victim may have provoked or initiated the abuse. Also, the survivor has in the past had to undergo a two-hour examination by a psychiatrist. Such treatment is, according to Professor Mcfarlane, as abusive as the original crime. It is hard to see how insurers and lawyers will continue to define the treatment of survivors in the future after this telling critique. As an academic lawyer she also questioned the way the church has limply hid behind the excuse that the solicitors set conditions for possible action. In law, according to her argument, the client instructs the lawyer, not the other way round. She spoke very powerfully of the way that the abuse she had suffered had affected her personal life.

I end this report with a repeat of my expression ‘harm awareness’, the quality that many church leaders seem to lack. The way that individuals have been robbed of their wholeness through sexual abuse is shocking. When church people, from leaders downwards, ‘get it’, i.e. understand the harm that abuse causes, the incidence surely must go down. When, on the other hand, it is seen as a nuisance which disturbs the equanimity of the institution, it will continue. It is evil and must be banished with speed and thoroughness.