A welcome from Stephen Parsons, blog editor. Revised October 2024

Surviving Church first appeared in the autumn of 2013.  It began originally as a public online conversation between me, the editor, and Chris Pitts, a survivor of spiritual abuse.  Chris had contacted me over some theological issues arising from his involvement with what he felt to be a destructive and negative forms of Christian teaching.  These had focussed on Hell and eternal punishment.  Chris had summed up this style of Christian teaching in three words – ‘Turn or Burn’.

Over the years of its existence Surviving Church has tried to offer a commentary on various episodes in the life of the Church of England connected with the exercise of its power.  This story has frequently not brought credit to church leaders. In 2015 I had been drawn to examine the affairs of a church outside the C/E, Peniel Brentwood, where the classic pattern of an abusive leadership was set out in a vivid report.   In the same year the National Safeguarding Team (NST) was set up for the C/E and it soon became clear that the C/E had to face up to a huge number of safeguarding episodes from its past.  The past nine years have seen a number of exposés and reports appear, each trying to set out these failures of the past, while attempting to provide healing for those caught up as victims or survivors of these scandals.                                                                                                                                                                                          This blog has made considerable demands on my time and energy over the eleven years of its existence.  For quite a long period I found myself writing two articles a week, especially when some safeguarding episode was in the headlines.  More recently my contributions have been less regular as my energy lessens and other people step forward with important things to say.  There is no intention to close the blog down as the older articles are still being discovered by those who are interested in this topic of church power and its abuse.  I regularly receive correspondence on this topic from unknown strangers from different parts of the world.   The value of the blog remaining up for the foreseeable future is to provide an archive of news and comment which covers a critical period in the safeguarding history of the C/E.  The second value of the blog is in the way that it allows individuals to tell their stories of bullying and abuse and for others to hear them.   The comments section also tries to provide a safe space for recounting some of these difficult and painful experiences. I am grateful to my many commenters especially when they give the discussions unexpected insights from their lived experience.  Surviving Church will continue to welcome you whatever the nature of your interest.  My email (parsvic2@gmail.com) continues to be open. Whether you are survivor or just interested in helping to make the church a better place for its wounded members, I would welcome hearing from you in confidence.

If you stumble upon this page, you are very welcome.  You are invited to read any of the material contained in the near one thousand posts produced over the past years.  The internet is vast but Surviving Church has existed long enough in Christian circles to achieve a measure of attention, even respectability, among those who believe that the understanding of this topic is of importance for the Church as it gropes its way towards finding its future.

The welcome that is offered today is linked to a hope that you will use this site to become informed on this important topic.  Perhaps this site will help to encourage you to play your part in making the Church safer, both for its existing members and those it seeks to draw into its life.

Stephen Parsons

parsvic2@gmail.com

Please note that comments are limited to 3000 characters. If anyone wishes to make a substantial contribution, they are welcome to submit it to Stephen as a possible Guest Post