There was a moment today at the IICSA hearing when my sagging sense of morale about the state of the Church of England was raised. There was a shaft of honesty and light which came through in the report of a phone call between Dr Rosalind Hunt and Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Wales. The background situation was as follows. Rosalind was in touch with two Peter Ball survivors. One of them was lodging with her in Cambridge where she was chaplain to Jesus College. Over a period of months, this individual gradually disclosed some of the abusive goings on at Peter Ball’s home during the ‘give a year to God’ scheme. This ‘schemer’ was in touch with another fellow survivor and so the two accounts were shared with Rosalind in the months before the original arrest of Bishop Peter in December 1992. The stories were of a sufficiently serious nature for Rosalind to recommend each of them making a disclosure to the police.

After the arrest of Bishop Peter and in the months leading up to the police caution in March 1993, Rosalind found herself in a very difficult position. Her links with the two Ball survivors became known to the cabal anxious to protect him, and she began to receive phone calls. Three of them were from bishops. One of these was Ball’s twin brother Michael, Bishop of Truro. The message from all of them was, in short, ‘keep your mouth and their (the survivors) mouths firmly shut so no harm comes to Peter or the wider Church of England’. The situation was complicated by the fact that one of the victims was still in thrall to Peter and would often speak to him on the phone. Her first instinct as a deacon in the church was to submit to these episcopal commands. But she also knew that there was a moral dimension to the situation which needed to be worked through. She decided to consult an independent friend who was then the Archbishop of Wales, Rowan Williams. Having listened to her story, Rowan reminded her of the ordination vows taken by all priests and deacons. The command to obey the bishop went only so far; the command to obey was in all things ‘lawful and honest’. In this case the demands being made of her were neither of those things. With Rowan’s support she shared her story with the Gloucestershire police and her testimony formed part of the case against Ball.

This anecdote from Rosalind Hunt brings us back into touch with the atmosphere of confusion, seediness and dishonesty that filled the air when the Church of England was trying to protect its reputation in the wake of the Bishop Peter scandal. Most of those who made decisions at Lambeth Palace seem, as we have said in earlier IICSA posts, to have been mesmerised by the giftedness and charisma of Bishop Peter. It was just too difficult to accept that something criminal could be done by a bishop and then afterwards be concealed through a conspiracy of lies and cover-up. Today we also heard from Bishop Frank Sargeant who became the Bishop at Lambeth soon after the time of the police caution in 1993. He added little to the account of Lord Carey. He did not appear to have given any advice to the Archbishop which might have challenged the strongly held idea that Peter was fundamentally innocent. When the history of the Church of England is written it will be said of George Carey that he was good man but he did not have the degree of sophistication to be a good judge of character. His naivety, even innocence, in the face of what we now see as calculated evil was a danger to him and would cause damage to the wider church that he had responsibility for. My motto for anyone going into a job of massive responsibility like the Primate of the Anglican Communion is to say: ‘if in doubt, consult.’ Carey seems to have allowed himself to make decisions without having all the facts in front of him. He also relied on advisers, as someone pointed out, from a generation older than himself. Thus, on keeping up with the trends of shifting public opinion, he would always seem to be behind the curve.

The Church of England has not been well served by the disclosures of this week. Several areas of bad behaviour have been revealed and there have been hints of further levels of wickedness in high places, yet to be uncovered. Sitting at my desk as the author of a blog on abusive power, I attract to myself many fragments of information which cannot be shared in the public domain. Suffice to say I sometimes feel that the Church of England is like the Augean Stables. It needs a thorough cleaning out of its vested interests and power networks. These protect each other and are serious obstacles to growth and future health.

Today a hero of mine and a pioneer in the world of sexual abuse was mentioned by Rosalind Hunt, Margaret Kennedy. I was in touch with Margaret in the 90s when doing my own research on Christian abuse. Margaret herself was a victim of clerical abuse and she had the strength not only to survive this ordeal but to set up an organisation which has now become MACSAS. This stands for Ministers and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors. Over nearly thirty years this group has been offering support to survivors as well as trying to educate the churches to take the whole matter of abuse seriously. It receives no official support but relies on voluntary donations. The role it has played, almost alone over the years, has been hinted at by the Inquiry. We must hope that the Church will provide some serious support to this organisation. Jo Kind from MACSAS spoke at the General Synod in York at the beginning of this month. We must hope that the standing ovation she received there will translate into serious support for the work that she and others are trying to do.