by Anonymous

A further instalment from Anonymous who wrote the last critique of CofE Safeguarding practice.

So the saying goes, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.  Except that if you follow the British Religion in Numbers postings [LINK], you’ll notice how parlous the state of the Church of England is, and why numbers might matter.  For example, 70% of the population never go to church, and never pray. This will not be news to clergy, but it does explain the difficulties they have believing the latest missional growth targets set for their them by their bishops.

A recent survey into the trustworthiness of clergy and priests found that public perceptions in Britain Doctors (66%), scientists (62%), and teachers (59%) are considered the most trustworthy professions in Britain, according to the IPSOS Global Trustworthiness Index.  The global survey (an online sample of the adult populations drawn from 28 countries between May and June) found that clergy and priests were ranked ninth of eighteen professions in Britain. One third (33%) of the British population deemed them trustworthy, with almost the same again (29% )untrustworthy, with 38% neutral or undecided. The net positive score of 4% saw clergy and priests in Britain drop to eleventh in this presentation of the rankings. Globally, the average trustworthiness rating for clergy and priests was only 26% (40% saying untrustworthy).

We are not surprised at these numbers. Not because clergy are like the proverbial curate’s egg (i.e., good in parts), but because the church they represent is, frankly, not trusted.  Nor should it be. It will consistently put PR ‘optics’ above truth and justice. It will consistently bury bad news, the most egregious example of this being the report on the suicide of Fr. Alan Griffin’s tragic suicide being released the same afternoon that the last Prime Minister resigned. The Diocese and Bishop of London had been sitting on the report for weeks.  How extraordinary that the church should pick that afternoon to release a report on its culpability and incompetence.  But fear not, all of those who are implicated in this tragedy have either resigned, been suspended, or disciplined.  (That previous sentence is a made up one, and belongs to a parallel universe to which the Church of England will not “boldly go”).

Recently on another related website, a new Church Warden wrote in to ask if anyone could explain what NSP, NSSG, ISB, NST or the ISS meant, and why were there so many acronyms in Church of England safeguarding, yet nobody actually in charge or responsible for anything?  It is baffling.  If you write to Meg Munn – Chair of the NSG – about policy and practice on risk assessments, she claims that fraudulent risk assessments intended to harm a person in the process of the “weaponization of safeguarding” is not her brief. She writes about risk assessments generally apparently, and cannot comment on individual cases. Is any reader aware of any risk assessment, ever, that was general in character, and not personal or specific to an individual? We are not, but Ms. Munn believes this to be normal.

Just imagine a “general report on torture victims” that doesn’t delve into individual cases. Or a report on victims of abuse that mentions no individual cases.  If you can imagine these publications, there is currently a vacancy on the NSP for you. Although we are bound to say, being vacant is a prerequisite for applicants.

Surely safeguarding is always granular, specific and personal, and absolutely cannot be general? But in the Church of England, we do not speak of such things, for fear of being weighed and found wanting. Could the Independent Safeguarding Board perhaps have looked at deliberately fraudulent risk assessments? It declined to do so. How about the NST, or a Dioceses, or  a DSA? No, not them either. And this assumes they were not party to the production of bogus documentation, cover-ups and the like.

Reform will take a long time to arrive.  It takes moral courage and compassion to do the right thing, and this seems to be absent among our church leaders. Victims of abuse will only secure justice when the Church of England accepts that it will always have an inherent conflict of interest in trying to self-correct its failings, corruptions and abuses whilst simultaneously preserving its reputation. It needs to hand over all responsibility for safeguarding cases to a proper professional regulator with the teeth, clout, resources and fearless courage to speak truth to power, and bring the Church of England to heel. There is no other way.

When transparency, honesty and integrity are absent, all that is left to victims is legal action.  Repentance and redress must precede any attempt at reconciliation. At present, we have victims of abuse waiting many, many years for investigations to start or conclude. These investigations are often half-baked, and lack the resources, expertise and regulatory framework to compel subjects to engage with them.

Where does this leave the Church of England today? On this first birthday of the ISB, we are also at the tenth anniversary of George Entwistle’s departure from the BBC as its new Director-General. He lasted 54 days in post – a record in short tenure. Within weeks of starting his tenure as Director-General, the BBC became embroiled in the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. Entwistle faced questions from the government at the time over why the BBC had failed to broadcast a Newsnight investigation into sexual abuse allegations against Savile after the presenter’s death in 2011.

Entwistle was accused by Lisa O’Carroll of The Guardian of giving a “less than authoritative performance, showing a lack of curiosity about Newsnight’s investigation”. What had gone wrong?  With hindsight, the BBC had put reputational management above all else.  It had given Savile the run of prime-time for years, and also TV and radio studios for decades. During these times, he had reputedly and repeatedly abused minors. 

Yet when the Newsnight journalists were ready to go public with the broadcast, the BBC lost its nerve, and gave Savile more benefit of the doubt than might have been granted to Fred West or Myra Hindley. In the event, ITV took the story, and it was left to BBC Panorama to eventually upend its sibling-rival Newsnight, and expose the BBC’s complicity in the Savile abuses. 

But worse was to come.  Entwistle resigned as BBC Director-General only a matter of weeks later, following controversy over a Newsnight report indirectly and incorrectly implicated Lord McAlpine in the North Wales child abuse scandal. 

The parable hardly needs explaining.  The BBC covered for an abuser, and then falsely accused an innocent. It protected one abuser; yet abused an innocent person who needed protecting.  In the case of the BBC ten years ago, this led to the resignation of the Director-General, George Entwistle. We look forward to the day when Archbishops and Bishops, backed by the NST, ISB, NSP, NSSG, ISS or whatever the latest flavour-of-the-month safeguarding acronym is, will also have the basic decency to resign when they get things so badly wrong.  At present they don’t, because they have no accountability to anyone, and are unregulated.  Indeed, their incompetency’s often lead to higher preferment.

Until then, the Church of England of England won’t be trusted by the people. The clergy cannot trust the church or the bishops. And that will reap a bitter harvest of bitter decline. If only we had bishops with courage to put PR optics to one side, and act with integrity, and champion truth and justice. But we have none of such. We are no longer hoodwinked by episcopal spin with their motivational talks, hubris and defensiveness.  The Church of England is in decline because we can no longer believe or trust our own leaders.  For our sake, the people’s sake, and for God’s sake, please will they go?