by Martin Sewell

“ The sky is black with chickens coming home to roost”  _{Alan Bennett}

Rarely has Alan Bennett’s  witticism  seemed more appropriate than in the Church of England as a slew of reports have begun to emerge which should call the leadership to account for multiple sins of commission, non-commission and neglect.

Autumn 2022 was always going to be a busy time for those of us who take an interest in these matters and the task is especially onerous for members of the General Synod who have to try to engage and explain all this to a membership, 60% of whom are newly elected. Getting to grips with things is easy but as an “old hand “ I must do my best to offer some pointers.

The first thing to grasp is surely this; that the Church of England does not like to hold anybody to account. It may talk of Human Rights ( especially to others) but it secured for itself an opt out from the HRA: despite occasionally referencing its principles, salting the texts of its guidelines with the language of compliance, try suing the Church for a breach and you will find what it really thinks of being held to account for its failures in these areas.

Internal processes are often opaque and those responsible unaccountable for failure so the next Synod in February will be a key test of the Church’s commitment to cultural change. Those ill treated by the Church of England will be eagerly watching to see if there are any honourable resignations or disciplinary proceedings following the reading of the promised material that is due by that time. Whether the promised reports actually arrive in time is a matter we cannot take for granted.

Let us consider what may be available for debate.

General Synod has yet to debate the report into the untimely death of Fr Alan Griffin, driven to suicide by gossip.

Nobody has seen the independent SCIE reports into the responses of the Archbishops’ offices to survivor complaints. We know they were delivered months ago but that was the last anyone heard of them; whether they disappeared under floods at Bishopsthorpe or have been consigned to an oubliette in Lambeth Palace is currently unclear.

We have seen the PCR2 reports which disclosed 383 cases of abuse which were “missed” during the first attempt at identifying historical cases. That first effort was plainly an absurd failure and whether this was by accident or design we really do need to discuss. Whatever the reason should we not be holding individuals boards and structures to account to understand how such mistakes came to be made.

Survivors have met and produced a useful list of issues about PCR2 which can be read here I have circulated this throughout the House of Bishops and have had a few positive responses for which I am grateful so it is happily not all bad news.

Worryingly, different Diocese applied different tests so this may not represent the full extent of the problem

We were promised the long delayed Makin report into the scandal of John Smyth’s crimes in the early autumn: it has still not arrived but we surely must see it by February. Much of the material is already in the public domain thanks to the work of journalist Andrew Greystone whose book “ Bleeding for Jesus “ is a thoroughly readable account of what happened. Andrew has not been paid anything for his investigative work by the Church but the Makin Review will have cost us well over £1m. Surely a Canterbury Cross would not come amiss there? I doubt he is holding his breath.

The Makin Review will shine a light into various areas of the Church where there was indifference, neglect, naivety, PR calculation and determined-cover up., Will there be repentance,  stepping back, for penitent “reflection”, or more excuses, truculence and self pity in those quarters that finally come into the light of scrutiny? That report will be worth a Synod debate of its own.

But even such an A1 scandal will be fighting for debate time. One does not envy the Business Committee as it tries to manage a full Agenda for only three days of meeting.

We have not yet mentioned the IICSA report with its recommendations and controversies.

Mandatory Reporting, Redress and the Seal of the Confessional all deserve  consideration.

How will the proposed IICSA redress scheme fit in with that already approved by the General Synod Church of England? Will it become another excuse for delay and inaction? It is not as straightforward as it looks, and desperate survivors needing help, will be anxious whether current support will be maintained whilst the alignment of schemes is being pored over by the lawyers.

Speaking of lawyers there is the whole problem of “conflict of interests “ revealed in various cases but especially that of the Oxford Scandal where the same lawyers represented the College Malcontents, the College Governing body, the Bishop of Oxford, the Diocese of Oxford, the National Church, and the Archbishop of Canterbury – all at the same time in the same matter!

Does anyone seriously think this is not problematic ? ( except for the Church lawyers  – obviously). The Solicitors Regulation Authority is looking into this and may report by February which might make matters clearer, but surely some questions might  arise as to how this was allowed happen.

We are not going to be assisted in this by the “ Independent Safeguarding Board “ – because it does not exist.

Yes, you did read that correctly.

After Court action was initiated against it by Dr Percy, the ISB raised the defence that it could not be sued as it has no legal personality in law and so cannot have litigation brought against it. It  functions as a sub-committee of the Archbishops’ Council investigating…err…th Archbishops’ Council…independently! Members of General Synod may recall that I personally asked about this during the July Question Time. I received no proper answer neither was it clear if the ISB had independent had insurance cover.  If you do not have legal personality you cannot contract for insurance or seek ICO registration to receive  store and process sensitive data . Some of us were willing to explain the conceptual chaos to the Synod but were not called in the debate.

We were assured by the ISB Chair that insurance is not such a problem because  “ We will not make mistakes”. One or two members thought this a tad hubristic and so it has proved.

The Chair had to stand back and remains non-functional because of serious data mismanagement; adverse decisions have been secured against the ISB by the Information Commissioners Office after confidential survivor data was shared by the ISB to the NST on more than one occasion; there is much to be said about the enmeshment of the ISB and the Church that it was supposed to be overseeing.  A full debate that must surely be timetabled about the ISB debacle.

We might need to ask the following. Given the constitutional expertise within Church House and access to expensive specialist  lawyers, did nobody recognise that there was a problem with the structuring of the ISB? When folk were sent out to laud its “ full independence” ( no doubt in good faith) did no insider think to correct the error? Or is it that notwithstanding all this expert opinion, none of them recognised what some of us desperately trying to warn them plainly did? I am not sure which is the more worrying answer here.

I have reported Archbishops’ Council to the Charity Commission over  important failures.

When Dr Martyn Percy complained of institutional bullying by clergy which precipitated a medically confirmed nervous breakdown, no “Serious Incident Report” was, filed with the Charity Commission, as required in accordance with Archbishop Council Trustee duties.

The complaint had not, has not, and currently will not, be properly investigated by the Church. Due process should not be discretionary.

It was not clear by what lawful means the responsibilities over Safeguarding had been passed over to an “Independent” body.The lack of a comprehensive debate was a failure of proper governance.

The investigation proposed by the ISB into the Oxford Scandal was woefully inadequate given the broad principles involved, well beyond that of the individual Percy case.

The ISB did not have the resource to properly undertake that work.

The broad thrust of this critique was tacitly accepted by the ISB which – to the credit of its two surviving part time members-  appears to “get” that they were oversold as the answers to prayers for a proper response to the Safeguarding mess the Church continues to find itself in.

I stress here that we do not need witch hunts or humiliations but the Church’s persistent failure to call error to account , coupled with miscreant lack of awareness of the harm they have done, is offensive to justice and a serious barrier to our credibility.

The public to whom our mission is directed may not understand our problems with sexuality; they may not understand the mystery of the Trinity or the theory of substitutionary atonement, but they sure can spot a wrong’un when they see one.

 If hypocritical leaders are engaging in naked showers and massages, or thrashing young men in a garden shed, with biblical texts on their lips, Jo/e Public expects a Church to do something significant about it – yesterday . If Bishops, Archdeacons etc  turn away from complaints, the public expect that they too be held meaningfully to account. If somebody is facing serious credible allegation the public don’t expected them to be quietly moved on.  If somebody is currently facing judicial process for conduct unbecoming a priest, ordinary folk don’t expect them to get a clean reference and promotion ( it happens ).

It is not hard to understand ordinary decent people are dismissive of a Church that cannot see this ; in short they expect any institution with pretentions of moral probity to act properly and certainly no worse than any secular authority.

When a Prime Minister was perceived to have not taken lock down regulations seriously enough, the public – including his erstwhile supporters, required his resignation. Such folk will plainly have zero tolerance for a Church where multiple cases of abuse, bullying and coverups are persistently met by obfuscation.

If General Synod Members arrive at Church House in February and nobody has tendered an honourable resignation, stepped back from ministry or been made subject to due process for these failures, notwithstanding all this accumulated evidence of malpractice, the public will never take us seriously again – and neither should they.