Open Letter to Mr. Orlando Fraser KC, Chair, Charity Commission: 12^th December 2022

Editor’s Comment  This is a letter to the Charity Commission expressing something of the sense of deep frustration felt by many concerned for the work of safeguarding in the Church of England.  As a way of helping the circulation of this important document, Surviving Church is pleased to carry this letter for the information of readers of this blog.  The letter is forthright in its tone, and this reflects the sense of powerlessness and a keen sense of the lack of progress that has been made in this area over several years.  Many of the readers of this blog will share the sentiments and expression of strong feeling on the subject.  We await developments and trust that both the Charity Commission and those criticised will listen carefully to the criticisms and what is being addressed in this important letter.

Dear Sir, 

We write to the Charity Commission as a group of concerned General Synod members (past and present), clergy, laity, survivors and victims of church abuse, their advocates, as well as complainants and respondents who have been maltreated and harmed by Church of England’s safeguarding processes (including IICSA core participants). We are placing on record our common experience of the National Safeguarding Team, Independent Safeguarding Board, National Safeguarding Panel, Dioceses, Lead Bishops for Safeguarding, and those trustees presiding over this (i.e., the Archbishops’ Council). 

We are all witnesses to a highly dysfunctional church culture – one lacking in care, wisdom and responsibility – uniformly poor in responses to allegations of abuse, and subsequent complaints about corrupted, cruel and inhumane processes. These have led to despair, suicides, travesties of justice, all perpetrating much longer term pastoral and personal damage on a colossal scale. Yet nobody in the Church of England takes any responsibility for this. We have no functional leadership in safeguarding. 

We can have no further trust or confidence in these bodies, nor the individuals working within them. Nor do we harbour any hope that this will ever change. Current safeguarding processes, bodies, panels, and their personnel are incompetent, ineffective and unfit for purpose. The leadership is insincere and inaccurate in its claims that progress is being made. Conflicts of interest run rife throughout the handling of complaints.  Victims of abuse and poor process have no advocacy, and no redress. Mismanagement and misconduct are not addressed. ‘Core Groups’ lack clarity, consistency and basic competency. There are negligible signs of genuine concern for any victims. 

We judge that a General Synod vote of no confidence in the work of safeguarding in the Church of England is already long overdue. However, the Church of England as whole has demonstrated that it does not possess the will, wisdom, capability and resources to improve this work. This culpable failure and neglect stems from the persistent failure of the trustees for the Archbishops’ Council to exercise leadership and oversight. 

We believe the Church of England’s safeguarding practices must now be subjected to a formal Charity Commission investigation (i.e., a fully independent review under your auspices). This is because most recent IICSA recommendations have been treated with scant regard by the trustees, or simply evaded.  The only way forward in church safeguarding is fully independent regulation, oversight and quality control – without which there will never be transparency, fairness, accountability or proper process.

We must regrettably accept that trustees of the Archbishops’ Council have led us nowhere. We can have no more failures, fudging or fawning self-flattery. If there is to be any hope it is time to face reality. The Church of England must become subject to public standards of truth and justice. We therefore urge the Charity

Commission, using statutory powers, to order a fully independent review into these concerns. 

Yours sincerely, MARTIN SEWELL, General Synod (Lay Member, Rochester

For complete list of signatories, please consult the Thinking Anglicans website. https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Open-Letter-to-Charity-Commission-FINAL.pdf

PRESS RELEASE ABOUT CC LETTER

News Release
Wednesday 14 December 2022
Church of England leaders and others ask the Charity Commission to intervene in the
church’s safeguarding
Signatories to an open letter say they have no confidence in current structures

51 senior leaders in the Church of England have written to the Charity Commission asking it
to investigate the church’s safeguarding practices. The signatories come from all parts of the
Church of England, including both lay and ordained members, and some who are elected
members of the church’s General Synod. They include some who have been victims of
church-based abuse, some who have been accused or complained of such abuse. They cover
the spectrum of members including evangelical, catholic, and broad church members.
Lawyers who represented church victims at the IICSA inquiry have also signed the letter.
In the letter, the signatories express serious concerns about the safeguarding policies and
practices being operated by the Church of England. The letter complains of “a highly
dysfunctional church culture – one lacking in care, wisdom and responsibility – uniformly
poor in responses to allegations of abuse”. The writers say that they have “no functional
leadership in safeguarding.”

In January 2019 Archbishop Justin Welby appeared to endorse these grievances, when he
told The Spectator “We have not yet found the proper way of dealing properly with
complainants and taking them seriously, listening to them, not telling them to shut up and
go away, which is what we did for decades. Which was evil. It’s more than just a wrong
thing: it’s a deeply evil act.” Four years later, the signatories complain that there has been
no change. They say that claims by the bishops that the church’s safeguarding is on a path of
improvement are “insincere and inaccurate.”

In November 2021, in advance of the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual
Abuse (IICSA) the Church of England established an Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB).
But questions have been asked about the Board’s independence, resources, capacity and
expertise. The three part-time members of the ISB, were appointed and employed by the
church, raising questions about its independence. Its chair, the former Children’s
Commissioner Maggie Atkinson, has been “stood aside” from duties since the Summer
whilst multiple allegations of data breaches are investigated by the Office of the Information
Commissioner. A recent meeting called by the ISB to listen to the concerns of survivors was
so poorly advertised that it attracted no registrations or attendees, and was duly cancelled.
Mr Martin Sewell, a retired solicitor and senior member of the Church of England General
Synod, said “Trying to find where the buck stops in the Church of England has proved
impossible, so this powerful group of informed individuals have joined together to call for
the Charity Commission to hold the members of Archbishops’ Council to account for the
discharge of their trustee duties in this essential matter.”

The signatories to the letter encourage the General Synod to pass a motion of no confidence
in the church’s safeguarding arrangements at its February session. They also ask the Charity
Commission to conduct its own independent review into the Archbishop’s Council, which is
responsible for the church’s National Safeguarding Team. The Archbishop’s Council, in
common with every parish church and diocese in England, is a registered charity.
ENDS
For further information please contact
Andrew Graystone
andrew.graystone1@btinternet.com
07772 71009