I am sure that most of my readers will have watched detective dramas on television where, during the investigation of a murder, a large chart is placed on the wall at the police station. On this chart will be affixed pictures of all the possible suspects. Without such a helpful visual aid, it is all too easy for the viewer to get the characters and their position within the fictional investigation hopelessly muddled up in the mind. Most of us find such charts helpful in making sense of all the information that the fictional police and detectives are busily amassing in the drama.
Another common convention, when drawing these fictional charts, is to create connecting lines between the suspects. These lines show the way the suspects are linked in some way to each other and, sometimes, to the same businesses or institutions. Every character has their own identifiable network. Each works and lives within a context and this can be visually expressed through the use of these lines. Quite often there is a moment in the drama where the chief detective is shown staring at the chart trying to see if there are any more connections that have been overlooked. The detective will also be looking for such things as anomalies or patterns on the chart to enable him or her to crack open the case so that the guilty one can be revealed.
This image of a chart, with pictures of suspects together with their connections, came to my mind as we heard the latest news about Jonathan Fletcher. His story is well known and most of what we know about his malfeasance has been set out in Andrew Graystone’s excellent second edition account of the Iwerne saga, Bleeding for Jesus. This blog assumes some knowledge of the story down to the very recent ‘examination of the facts’ hearing, at the Crown Court at Kingston upon Thames. At this hearing Fletcher (JF) was found to have committed the sexual abuse and assault offences of which he was accused, even though he was judged as ‘not fit to plead’. The judge was obliged to ‘impose an absolute discharge’.
The important part of this JF story, I believe, is not to be found in these somewhat squalid episodes revealed inside a Surrey court, but in the way he was a key figure in the entire conservative evangelical world in the Church of England. Although JF served most of his ministry at a single church, Emmanuel Wimbledon, he was probably more influential within this evangelical network than any other single individual. He was the one who, for at least three decades, seems to have occupied a quasi-episcopal role within this powerful church network. No one knew the individuals within that spider’s web better than him, and he appears also to have had enormous power within those circles to exercise a dominating patronage role. Thus, he was able to place his own favoured candidates in the top jobs of the uber-wealthy parishes within the network. Although that personal power, because of his old-age and pervading scandal, has now faded, most of the leading parishes within this wealthy network are still run by individuals who obtained their positions through knowing him and obtaining his approval. These are the parishes that are able, because their immense wealth, to employ, in some cases, 15 or more curates and their loyalty to the wider church structures is, at best, luke-warm. The whole conservative evangelical world in the Church of England was for decades substantially managed and controlled by JF. No one could further their career within that world without JF’s personal approval. In the light of all that has been revealed since 2019 when his past criminal behaviour was brought into the light of day, it is hard not to see him as a kind of mafia boss within this section of the Church. In the current court case, JF is deemed to be suffering from dementia and unfit to answer charges of assault and sexual abuse. Whatever further details of this story emerge, it is hard to see how the damage done by this individual will be allowed to dissipate for decades to come.
In reflecting on the life and influence of JF and the way that he seems to have acted like a spider at the heart of the large interconnecting web, we need to think further about the lines that hold this structure together. Going back to our imagined chart on the police station wall, it is these lines, these connections, that JF did so much to create and sustain, that help us to understand the dynamics of the con evo world. These lines operated like a circulatory system within the human body with the flow of blood being coordinated and controlled to a large extent by JF. The style of relationships that we observe in the con evo world, many reflecting unhealthy power and dependency dynamics, still exist. To understand these processes, we need to go back one further stage, to the influence of Iwerne and the English public-school. We need to look at the part played by this powerful institution in English society on the Church.
Much information about the influence of the Iwerne camps on the con evo section of the C of E has been brought to light. We now understand better how the culture and ethos of the English public-school find their expression in sectors of other institutions, not just the C of E. There is a lot of valuable material in Graystone’s book on this topic. Some of these values derived from this source were undoubtedly good. Boys were introduced to the idea of self-sacrifice and perseverance in the face of adversity, and this may have done much, in the past, to help build up the morale of a nation facing conflict, whether in the task of empire building or fighting world wars. A single word comes into my mind to describe this self-sacrificial aspect of public-school formation and that word is ‘chap’. In the vocabulary of 60+ years ago, and maybe now, a chap was someone who played hard and worked hard for the team. He was reliable and honest, especially in the context of supporting others who were like him in background. The word chap attracted to itself various adjectives. ‘Good chap’ was an important accolade, or the word decent was frequently used.
Some of the metaphorical blood that flowed into the character of Iwerne campers and protegees of JF could be seen to possess positive and commendable qualities. But the public-school system bred other darker values which have been now recognised as toxic and harmful. My observations here come from my own stint at a similar school, but it was not one to attract the attention of Nash’s Iwerne project. We were however imbibing some of the same arguably toxic values that were found alongside the positive qualities in the public school system. The first thing I should mention was a constant undercurrent of violence that existed. I am not describing physical bullying, though this existed. I am describing an environment which sometimes allowed for an unexpected crisis of violence or cruelty to erupt, so that one could never be totally relaxed in front of senior boys or masters. Christian teaching did exist in the school, but it was not a type that encouraged individual spiritual flourishing or exploration. Words like duty, loyalty and obedience seemed to typify what was taught about morality. These were all corporate values and the loyalty that was demanded in the school was always to further corporate well-being, whether it was the values of the sports team, the house or the school itself.
Corporate morality is not of itself a bad thing. What was unattractive and more serious was the effect of a fiercely hierarchical pattern of authority that existed within my school. Boys fought tooth and nail to obtain the status of prefect or get chosen for the school (or house) teams. Because there was so much in the way of competitive behaviour, there was also a lot of energy expended in striving to obtain status in some sphere. The hierarchical environment also bred a particular kind of corrosive snobbery. One did not associate with younger or less successful boys. Friendships were often political. Who you were seen speaking to might enhance or undermine your status in the school. It need hardly be said that values that might help build up the support of real community were not valued. Any admission of vulnerability or indeed wanting to help the weak or disadvantaged also had little place within the system.
I realise as I write these words that they may only be the memories of a previous generation of public-school pupils and that things may today be quite different. But I recognise that many of the current generation of clergy and bishops who have imbibed some of the values of public-schools and Iwerne may be unwittingly mediating these same values into the blood stream of parts of the church. JW is a product of this value system and a promoter. He would have known well the competitiveness, ruthlessness and cruelty inherent in the public-school regime. As one of the socially well-connected alumni who negotiated the system successfully, he would not have had any cause to criticise it. So, in his long career of intense mentoring and influencing of younger clergy, he would been sharing these public-school values that seem to invert the values of the Magnificat. Iwerne never seemed to be about exalting ’the humble and meek’ and there was never any talk of putting down ‘the mighty from their seat.’
Public schools in England traditionally stood for a distinctive elitist culture rooted in such things as fierce loyalties, entitlement and the worship of power as embodied in the successful sports hero. The same values that emerge from these practices would spill over into the later lives of those who experienced them. The professional networks they joined, including the CofE, continued to embody these values. JF seems to have been a key player in creating and sustaining a group with the CofE strongly practising the toxic values of privilege and entitlement. I am pleased to be able to say that not every conservative churchman aspired to these values and theology. A group of churchmen of this theological persuasion represented by the late Melvin Tinker, seem to have stood apart from these elitist values that flow along the veins of what we might describe as the public-school mafia found among the heirs and successors of Jonathan Fletcher. If the majority group among these conservatives is to have a future in the wider church, it may need to start by questioning and purging itself of the toxic legacy and poisonous contamination of some aspects of the public-school influence in the CofE.
An excellent article. Thanks! It may suit the CoE to present Fletcher as a ‘cherry on the icing’. But was he potentially just another raisin in a toxic CoE evangelical ‘Iwerne’ fruit cake mix?
Might detail, on Fletcher’s abnormal brain scan allegedly showing dementia, be relatively lacking in Church statements? Might detail on the stage of the dementia, or the approximate degree of cognitive impairment, also be relatively lacking?
How were these matters handled by the court? Was there legal debate between defence and prosecution, outside of court or within court? Or did all parties, and any relevant expert assessors, agree conclusively on absence of fitness to plead etc?
Is it true what Stephen is saying about JF being the spider at the centre of the web of the conservative evangelical world? Personally, I think he is substantially correct, but if you observe both the fallout at Emanuel Church Wimbledon, and other conevo churches, there has been little more than a ripple or two.
“Nothing to do with us” is the predominant non-response as it appears to be communicated unconsciously from the group. There is also the covert nature of power, and how it operates at the very highest level in the Church.
People on the ground, in the pews or padded chairs, may be forgiven for not even knowing about Jonathan Fletcher, or what he got up to. Often it’s only as you rise in the ranks that it begins to dawn on you who is actually calling the shots. Particularly for young people, their education may have completely omitted the understanding of power dynamics in management and leadership. Mine certainly did. Although I only attended a “Headmasters’ Conference” day school with a similar ethos to Stephen’s boarding one, there was a dark side many years later I now recognise as grooming us to attempt to rise up the ranks in the world.
I mentioned before the horrific sadistic violence dressed up as discipline; also the softer voyeuristic insistence upon male (boys’) nudity and a supposedly “light-hearted system of forfeits”, to quote JF.
On the one hand we had great academic achievement, and on the other we had the acquisition of skills in bullying, domination and sexual abuse, should we choose to ignore or overlook them, or take them on board. Overlooking can become a habit of a lifetime.
There’s certainly an intersection between my background and the Fletcher-Smyth-Iwerne axis. Fortunately for me, when I met Jonathan, I unknowingly (at the time) escaped his abusive administrations.
JF was guest speaker at our University Christian Union house party down near Battle, Hastings. He came into our male dorm and was very friendly. Later I suggested he speak at our diminutive Christian Medical Fellowship. I thought it brave and right to give notice of his coming, before one of our lectures on biochemistry.
So I was complicit, albeit in a small way, in introducing him to others: “such a good chap”.
Fortunately I completely failed to increase attendance and he lost interest in me and those I knew. I hope.
Complicity is the elephant in the room for those who did work closely with him. Only a couple of brave souls have ‘fessed up and repented of their actions. For me, this increases their integrity substantially, but diminishes those who knew, but stay silent.
I like the term ‘quasi episcopal role’. This is covert and unofficial. But as you reach the higher echelons you begin to realise that there is a group of men who decide everything: policy, theology, staffing, what’s “sound”, what isn’t. People on the ground would be staggered how much influence a man like JF had. He may still influence, or in some way call the shots. Or otherwise, who instructed his skilful KC, and who paid for his trial-changing mental state examinations?
If you read “Dear Friends, the selected Writings of Jonathan Fletcher” (2013) a book which along with many other sermons and articles were removed from publication and the internet, there are some disturbing things. But largely it’s standard conevo teaching. But surely if we now know what sort of man he is, how can anyone carry on with essentially THE SAME TEACHING? For me repentance means change: not just deleting one perpetrator, but changing the whole character of our teaching and lives together?
“End justifies the means” can crop up a lot in some church sub-sects. But it can easily become a sickening inversion of New Testament values. Brand, business and accountancy values can see an emphasis on the numbers and the takings. The- ‘Bishop Clay-foot and Rev Know-all’-syndrome has emptied lots of Anglican Churches.
I too spent my formative years in the same environment as Steve Lewis. -“Headmasters’ Conference” minor public all boys day school (also Direct Grant).
School and University CUs and CMF…..and a church in my University City what was avowedly Evangelical which subsequently became “Wimberised” after I had moved away.
I now know that “Bash” tried to recruit me to be an Officer in the Iwerne network. Being a Grammar School chappie, I doubt that I would have been invited into the inner sanctum even as young doctor!
I look back on those years and see a very naïve young man, validated by being seen as a good chap.
For most of my adult life due to work location, family events and tragedies I have been outside the “Church Visible”
In my retirement a lot of time has been spent looking back on my life and trying to make sense of it. Thank you Surviving Church in helping me.
Now each Sunday I walk past an HTB-lite church with electoral roll of 600+ to worship with others in what might be described as a traditional CofE church (hymns, robed choir and organ where Communion is central (Common Worship) and listen to a homily rather than expository preaching. The electoral roll is 160. Some might even call the Priest a Liberal Catholic (God forbid, I hear my evangelical friends say!)
I don’t regret my early life as an Evangelical but now realise that there can be other fuller (and deeper?) ways of understanding both The Scriptures and The Faith.
I was fortunate at not having been abused spiritually, psychologically, physically or sexually but now understand that such was the experience of many, including my wife. My heart is pained by learning of such events.
Three concluding notes:-
1. Usually I chose to avoid the term Evangelical as it is of little use as a descriptor, meaning different things to different people in different countries. It would appear to be more a tribal badge than having any theological meaning.
2. JF’s brother was also accused of sexual abuse https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/7-february/news/uk/iwerne-camp-leader-the-late-revd-david-fletcher-accused-of-sexual-abuse
One can only speculate as to what sort of childhood these two boys experienced in the paternal home, in boarding schools and their formative years.
3.That JF has so called “escaped justice” I see as of small importance. Bald publicly attested facts are sufficient, if we believe in eternal justice. No doubt Trump will follow in the footsteps of Pinochet when his time comes (as it inevitably will).
Interesting! You come across a warmth, an enthusiasm and a clarity in evangelical groups. Lots of us fondly remember those things, and probably still sign up to each of Bebbington’s four core evangelical characteristics. But as you get older the term ‘evangelical’ can mean less. Does anyone who believes the Apostles’ Creed also sign up to the four points, even though they would never describe themselves as an evangelical.
Tutors at a bible college promoted this idea, of how being Christian fundamentally is what matters, rather than any denomination or strand of church identified with. As another retired medic, this article has resonances for me, similar to what you describe. The grammar school, university and early NHS years, where there is an all consuming quest for exams and self promotion, comes at a cost. Also, for ex-NHS medics the Harold Shipman exorcism and its consequences cannot be missed.
The bullying and maltreatment of people within Anglicanism points to an organisation where oligarchies have avoided much needed reform for a very long time. Membership of an open evangelical congregation, or even a liberal leaning one, brings elements of safety. Getting burnt, by New Wine and charismatic congregations or dioceses, makes these protections especially welcome and important.
The Chesterton-Lewis works assume an increasing importance as I get older. But to end on a positive note, a 2025 book by Archbishop Rowan Williams is a gem: ‘Discovering Christianity A guide for the curious’. His name on the cover would have made me reject it in an earlier phase of zealous evangelical fervour! Just 90 pages but a fascinating read.
‘Harold Shipman exorcism’? Do you mean Shipman carried out exorcisms (possibly as well as murders?), or that an exorcism was carried out on him?
Stephen, in his penultimate paragraph speaks in some detail of the knowledge and influence of Justin Welby, clearly a product of the then public school system . When he resigned JW said he was taking a “personal and institutional responsibility” for the Church of England’s failure to act against Smyth. After that JW saw a psychotherapist and a psychiatrist in order to learn how to “live with such a failure”.
He seems to have solved this problem by setting up his own company called JPW Mediation Services Limited in order to “help people in society” and continue his reconciliation mission. The Sunday Telegraph, 26 April 2026, who reported this says it is to be a global service for which there will be a charge and JW will be reimbursed for travel costs.
Graham a victim of Smyth told The Telegraph: “Justin Welby is trying to relaunch himself as a force for good, when there is unfinished business. He first has to make his peace with victims of his friend John Smyth.” Graham has constantly been trying for this peace from Justin Welby since 2013 when he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
Rosie Gillum an employee of JPW Mediation Services Limited said on Linkedin that, “the company would facilitate some beautiful work of peace and reconciliation globally.’
If this ‘beautiful work of peace and reconciliation’ is not offered to Graham and all the other Smyth victims for free, would it be an idea to bombard JW with requests for such? I know after all these years the victims and even supporters must be weary and disillusioned. However, it seems to me an opportunity not to be missed especially if the media are made aware and JW’s response noted. My prayers are with you.
Please be aware that the documents filed with Companies House lists JW as the sole officer in the role of director.
This time he has no-one to hide behind.
Thanks Susan, this is the first I’ve heard of this new venture. It’s shocking – the man seems to have no shame and no self-knowledge.
Yes indeed Janet.
My concern though is how it could be used to find justice for the Smyth victims. Any ideas? If you had not heard about it perhaps it should be made more widely known.
Do any of the victims reading this have any ideas as to the way it might be used to find justice at long last?
Let’s talk about ways and means rather than ifs and buts.
The limited company is probably simply a tax advisor’s recommendation to run his speaker circuit fees through. It also confers limited liability to the extent of his unpaid share capital, which could be as little as £1. Then if he’s sued, as an officer of this company, only the company is liable. Technically. However, there are ways a director can be held liable.
I’d be very surprised if he was actually planning any meaningful reconciliation work.
As Susan points out, he hasn’t yet done any meaningful reconciliation work with the Smyth survivors.
Susan, I’m not sure there’s anything we can do to help. The requests would have to come from the Smyth survivors themselves. However, if you can give us a link to the company, or an article about it, we can publicise the hypocrisy.
Yes, the article, lack of reconciliation he’d done, and related discussions were subject to some debate on social media. Not much seems to influence him, but we can inform others of course, if they hadn’t already noticed.
Thank you Steve and Janet for your help.
I do not seem to be able to find a link although there may well be one. The best I can find is the information below.
I had thought of the survivors making the requests themselves, if they are not worn out. I feel so very sorry that the survivors have suffered for so many years. It was just an idea to possibly find justice.
All I could find was the information below from Companies House. I realise this might not be any use but the best case best I can do.
Thank you very much for your reply.
JPW MEDIATION SERVICES LIMITED (16632374)
Company status
Active
Correspondence address
144 Kent House Road, Beckenham, Kent, England, BR3 1JY
Role Active
Director
Appointed on
6 August 2025
Nationality
British
Country of residence
England
Identity verification due
19 August 2026
The company’s “sic code” is 96090 which gives the following Google result:
‘SIC Code 96090 represents ” Other service activities not elsewhere classified in the UK. It is a catch-all category used by Companies House for personal or community services that do not fit into a more specific, dedicated classification.
Common businesses and activities that fall under this code include:
• Pet Services: Pet sitting, dog walking, pet grooming, and animal boarding/shelters.
• Lifestyle & Personal Services: Astrology, palmistry, dating agencies, body piercing, tattoo studios, and escort agencies.
• Specific Trade Services: Shoe shining, key cutting (while you wait), and valet parking.
• Administration & General Support: Generic or catch-all activities for new businesses that require a placeholder until a more specific code is applicable.’
He has 50 shares as does Caroline Welby. He is the “controller”.
The address looks like it is presumably their own. Google (should you believe it) reckons the house to be worth £1.2million.
The company was incorporated 6 August 25. Don’t expect accounts to be filed until around 21 months after this date. Eg April 27.
The 50:50 split is for tax planning presumably. Thus, should the company have income it could be distributed either as dividends equally, or she or both could be paid salaries adjusted to make use of unused personal allowances for example. Their tax adviser would recommend the levels of dividends or salaries to minimise (legitimately) their respective personal and company tax liabilities.
Thank you Steve for those added and significant details.
Within medicine, or nursing, do we see many older practitioners marvel at the power of an honest apology to a client (or family) who have been hurt?
It seems archaic, and really bizarre , how Church seniors in the likes of the ‘Graham’ case cannot just come clean.
I struggle to understand how Sarah Mullally was elevated without more fuss, even after the Fr Allan Griffin tragedy and the London Diocese embezzlement by Martin Sargeant.
Systems within Anglicanism are poor. ‘Conflicted’ bishops are not good ‘judges’ in their own dioceses. Clergy and intern freedom is limited by the episcopal leadership pattern, at least as it stands presently.
But there really is something else, and it does matter. Are far too many lay Anglicans compliant with plain evidence of nonsense, until their own whiskers get singed by some bullying-abuse-harassment saga?
There is an awful lot of abuse or bullying cover up done in plain sight………
Getting back to Jonathan Fletcher, in Lucy Sixmith’s book When the Music Fades she tells the story of Charles Simeon and his disciple Henry Martyn. I grew up knowing this story, and used to have the book which described it, My Love Must Wait. However, I’d forgotten it until reading of it yesterday. Simeon, a very influential evangelical vicar in Cambridge, discipled a whole generation of keen young men. They were encouraged to prove their single-minded devotion to God by remaining celibate and, in Martyn’s case at least, by going abroad as missionaries. What Sixsmith does not mention is that Simeon set up a trust which acquired the patronage of a number of parishes, so Simeon could control those appointments. The Simeon Trust still exists to ensure those parishes have evangelical clergy in perpetuity. I was a curate in one of them. They wouldn’t have me now.
Perhaps Bash and JF were following that 19th C model, but without the formality (or financial investment) of acquiring the patronages.
A tiny UK party of academics is set to shortly take roadside peat samples from outside Yellow Knife in Canada’s North West Territories. They are fixing to have ‘pepper spray’ to deal with any hostile bears. ‘If it’s brown lie down, if it’s black fight back, if it’s white good night’ is one snippet of bear advice. The polar bear sounds like the most dangerous of the three bears. But brown or black bears can be a threat as well. We see many cases of intern or church member bullying and abuse, involving Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical or Liberal bishops. But my impression is of senior evangelical Anglican clergy most resembling the polar bear threat described. It was-‘good night’-for me after years of study and thousands of pounds spent, with the bullies seeming to enjoy inflicting pain on innocent people who faced false charges delivered with sadistic venom. Are you maybe lucky to be deemed ineligible for evangelical Anglican parishes?
I have only just got round to have the energy to reply, but I am the Graham cited. Much of the background was covered in this article from a year ago. I urge you to read this first:
https://survivingchurch.org/2025/07/08/justin-welby-the-truth-and-forgiveness/
I have, on multiple occasion, directly, via Lambeth, via his Chief of Staff David Porter, asked Justin for an account of what he did or did not know, and did or did not do in particular in 2013. He has refused.
What he fails to appreciate is that Smyth victims have good relations with the media (CofE employees have leaked my name on multiple occasion, the media have never done so) and they share our indignation about Welby’s failure to share honesty and integrity. His account has shifted on every telling, and new facts emerged in the one meeting he has deigned to give me in 14 years since I came forward in 2012.
Has no one said to him: that Graham bloke is stubborn, persistent, and is just not going to go away ? I am afraid I am going to “have a go” at Justin as long as he refuses to tell the truth. The firm he has set up is a bit of a red herring, but gave me/us a hook upon which to hang another go at him. And I will keep going.
One unanswered question, tying this back to Jonathan Fletcher ( I have skin in that game, having played tennis against Jonathan at Iwerne), is the contact between Welby and Fletcher. Welby was asked in 2021 when he had last seen Fletcher and he replied (I have the recording of this Zoom meeting I think) that “he dropped in the other day”. First, this shows a remarkable level of access and friendship ( or deference, and by that I mean Welby to JF) as few others could just “drop in”. But secondly, while Welby did not say exactly when, the context of the reply suggested it had been in the last year or so. Which would be well after Jonathan lost his PTO. Really ? Really ?
Anyhow, enough for now. I have not made my peace with Justin ( and I could name a score more….). Or should he be trying to make his peace with me ? Because I am not going to let this go.
Ireland shortly hosts the ACC-19 global Anglican conference. The host is Archbishop John McDowell. His Armagh cathedral seat graveyard holds the mortal remains of a notorious vicar who abused boys. A prime grave spot near the cathedral is unfortunate. But, even worse, the tombstone ends PRIEST SHEPHERD FRIEND. An internet image is at: ‘https://share.google/yYRbZN3xCtqJMo51m’. Every blessing on your good work of exposing abusers. God is not mocked. Your mission is worthwhile, and success is assured, whether in time or eternity, this generation or the next. Good luck and God’s speed………….
Greetings, Graham. I think of you often and wonder how you’re doing.
A Diocese of London post (19.12.22) has online comment from Sarah Mullally on Martin Sargeant:- “I want to echo my gratitude to the Police, and to the London Diocesan Fund’s financial team, for their significant work over the past year, as they investigated the extent of this complex, historic fraud.”
The wider Anglican community, across various branches, bears responsibility for not holding our senior leaders to proper account. The words of Mullally feel evasive, and exceptionally minimalist to me. An innocent vicar died according to a coroner, other innocent clerics were harmed, and an estimated £5.2M went AWOL. That’s a lot of £5 or £10 notes on collection plates from London pensioners. Mullally needs to get real.
The Justin Welby and John Smyth QC situation surely bears resemblance, where there is once again a walking away from proper accountability; and offering a much needed contrite, unreserved apology to victims. What is so hard for Justin Welby about offering sessions to victims(s) and coming clean? It could be a welcome retirement activity.
The Canon W G Neely case in Ireland exemplifies how Anglicanism’s senior leadership elites so often treat Church members as idiots. A national Primate’s Cathedral, a grave beside it, a document association between the Primate and the deceased child abuser in the grave, yet no attempt to publicly address the anomaly of an abuser’s grave ending PRIEST SHEPHERD FRIEND.
And acid in victim wounds! Did the Irish Primate’s 2020 ‘elevation’ see a complimentary reference to the abuser in a Church of Ireland Press statement? It appears to infer how the abuser was an influence on the spiritual formation of the ‘New Primate’. But a spirit of satanic secrecy stalks Anglicanism. A Church informant, who will remain anonymous, confirmed this glaring anomaly.
We need to take much greater personal responsibility as Anglicans, and call errant leaders to account………….
The Mushroom farmer’s mantra: “Keep them in the dark and feed them manure” needs to end. Anglican senior leaders need to address BAH and maltreatment of VWW’s.
Graham, it is good to see you still in action as persistent as ever. You continue with a strong supportive background of your friends and supporters.
At the end of your comment you say, ‘I have not made my peace with Justin….’ Or should he be trying to make his peace with me ?’ Most definitely he trying to make his peace with you Graham.
After all the bible readings, prayers and sermons throughout his life he still seems to have no shame or contrition. You have said many times that if he sincerely apologised you would forgive. Stephen in his article goes a long way to explaining JW’s attitude when he says,
“JW seems to have been a key player in creating and sustaining a group with the CofE strongly practising the toxic values of privilege and entitlement.”
JW now has a lifetime opportunity to make amends using the new firm he has founded. His JPW Mediation Services LTD which Rosie Gillum (employee) said, ‘would facilitate some beautiful work of peace and reconciliation globally’ we can but hope it will. It was interesting though that no spokesperson for JW would comment to the Telegraph when asked.
Steve Lewis says he would be very surprised if JW was actually planning any ‘meaningful reconciliation work’ and he is very probably right. However, if free access to the company is not offered to all the Smyth survivors by JW then he, as the sole director, will be publicly upheld to be wholly hypercritical, a sham and a disgrace.
Graham hang in there, we are not done yet!
Apologies!! Should be ‘Hypocritical’ not ‘hypercritical’ (I thought it looked wrong ).
I agree with this Stephen and would think that all systems that are ruled by a hierarchy must involve discipline and strength from the top. This might not be a bad thing in such areas as schools and parliament. Of course the weakness is that bullying is often present.
In church our faith is built on such teachings as the Beatitudes and there’s no escaping this. The meek inherit the earth…this has to be the pathway to God.
There may be a limited number of situations where the conscience of some Anglicans (or others) is in conflict with widely accepted UK national practice. But UK law surely makes specific space for conscience on matters like abortion.
Also, there has to be some old-fashioned common sense at work. A vegan should possibly not apply for a job at an abattoir. A radically committed pacifist might be unwise to consider working for an arms or defence company.
However, in a broader sense, we do normally expect churches and charities to comply with UK laws. Why should we ever not? Anglicans also expect their Bishops and Archbishops to follow accepted Church principles.
Furthermore, we expect archbishops and bishops not to blasphemously disregard biblical principles of justice. In my estimation this latter point is of central importance to understanding episcopal cover ups, and why victims get so enraged.
Foul ups with BAH (bullying-abuse-harassment), and associated maltreatment of VWW(victims, witnesses, whistleblowers), may bear a resemblance to Anglican embezzlement disasters.
In both we can see a disregard for proper record keeping, and an inability of senior Anglican leaders to transparently describe what has happened with reasonable detail.
£5.2M went missing from London Diocese. Did Sarah Mullally ever pinpoint how the losses came about? £700,000 -£800,000 went ‘AWOL’ from Lurgan’s Shankill parish. But did David McClay, the local bishop, ever come clean on this one?
Fr Allan Griffin dies and a coroner connects this to Martin Sargeant’s notorious parting ‘brain dump’. So why did Sarah Mullally not make a detailed public comment on this one? Are inability to manage money+people an illegitimate twin set?
Likewise, the Shankill parish fraud happened in a diocese plagued by bullying-abuse-harassment. Inability to manage people and money crops up once again, in a diocese where a number of New Wine trainees have mysteriously vanished.
We cannot rely on bishops, or on professional investigators, to fix these problems. Until Anglicans en masse act, then these problem will inevitably continue.