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Lambeth Palace and safeguarding issues in Chichester diocese

by
21 September 2012

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From the Revd Alan Fraser

Sir, - I'm sorry, but did Lambeth Palace really respond to the urgent and serious concerns raised by two of the most senior child-protection officials in East Sussex with the words: "Any process of suspension involves jumping through several hoops and we are by no means certain that the evidence for such a step will be sufficient. I would add that the Church is not like other organisations in terms of its employment arrangements" (News, 14 September)?

If so, this is very possibly the most mealy-mouthed defence of church inaction which I have ever read.

As a Christian for whom child protection is a fundamental part of my working life - and who has been through church training that emphasises the importance of removing any opportunity for even the impression of impropriety to take hold - I find it depressing and alarming in equal measure to see church officials answer "long-standing concerns and frustrations about the way in which Lambeth Palace [is] investigating the handling of safeguarding matters within the Chichester diocese" with an effective shrug of the shoulders.

I have no idea whether the Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Revd Wallace Benn, is guilty of any failures or not, and I have no wish to impugn his reputation or integrity. But I do know that in any organisation where child protection is taken seriously, people against whom serious and credible allegations are made are suspended while these are investigated. In this instance, the Church has commissioned a report, and a thorough investigation has been conducted - with the Bishop still in situ.

Yet, even after the report publicly acknowledges failings, and the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisory Group advises Lambeth Palace of its intention to take action against the Bishop under the Clergy Discipline Measure, Lambeth Palace is still arguing that there is insufficient evidence to warrant even suspension.

It is important to note that suspension is a neutral act that does not imply or presume guilt. It is undertaken as much for the protection of the adult concerned as for the protection of any children. But, equally, it is also invoked for the protection of the organisation on whose behalf the person concerned is acting. The Church of England's reputation, and therefore its ministry, across the whole of Sussex and beyond is being damaged by our apparent refusal or inability to take appropriate action promptly.

Failure to follow correct child-protection procedures in Chichester diocese was alleged in 2007 - and openly acknowledged in 2011 in Baroness Butler-Sloss's damning Historic Cases Review. As recently as this month, the Archbishop's commissaries' interim report has acknowledged that child protection in the diocese continues to be inadequate (News, 7 September).

It is, therefore, insulting to the intelligence, let alone the professional integrity, of Mr Dunkley and Ms Pattison to suggest that there might still be insufficient evidence to warrant a neutral suspension. In any other organisation that works with children (including my own), suspension may well have been invoked at the time it first became apparent that convicted paedophiles were being allowed to work in the diocese unchecked (i.e. in 2007/08). But even in an organisation as tardy about child protection as the Church appears to be, it is surely indefensible that suspension was not invoked after the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisory Group wrote to Lambeth Palace in November 2011 advising of its intentions in respect of the Bishop. And yet here we are, years after the story first broke and months after failings were uncovered and reported on, and the best Lambeth Palace can manage is a resigned "There's nothing we can do."

Until we can live up to our promise "to bring the Church's safeguarding procedures into line with all other organisations that work with children", I very much regret to say that the best advice we can give to children, their carers, and vulnerable adults may well be to stay away from the Church of England for their own protection.

ALAN FRASER
Chief Executive, Birmingham YMCA
Will Steel House, 109 Grosvenor Road, Aston, Birmingham B6 7LZ

 

From Mrs Sue Jackson-Fraser

Sir, - Those of us who live and worship in Lewes share many of the Revd Bernard Coote's frustrations (Letters, 14 September) about the way the whole child-protection issue is reflecting on the Church's standing in wider society. It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to justify in good conscience the Church's approach to those outside who are looking on, incredulous, as the Bishop of Lewes continues in post, five years after concerns were first raised.

The response to Matt Dunkley and Cathie Pattison's desperate call for Bishop Benn's immediate suspension typifies the problem. Apparently, they are powerless to act, because the Church is "not like other organisations". How sadly true that statement is.

Would we have had to wait five years for the Church to act if it had been discovered that women were being licensed to Resolution A parishes in the Lewes episcopal area? I suspect not; and that is the context in which Lambeth Palace's comments will be viewed.

Given the endless time and effort we are expending on the women bishops issue, it seems to everyone outside the Church that we are attaching greater importance to the exclusion of women from public ministry than we are to the exclusion of convicted paedophiles. That cannot surely be right.

SUE JACKSON-FRASER
Cherith, Prince Edwards Road, Lewes, East Sussex

 

From Canon Judith Maltby

Sir, - The recent disturbing interim report on safeguarding in the diocese of Chichester makes a telling assessment about the erosion and dilution of the authority of the diocesan bishop, and concludes: "Although delegation is essential in practice for the exercise of episcopal ministry, this should never be allowed to undermine the overarching position of the diocesan."

The Archbishop's commissaries go on to comment: "Confidence can only be restored to the diocese in relation to its safeguarding work if its leadership can complete the transformation needed into a united and trusting group of people focused on their duty to ensure the Church is safe for children and vulnerable adults."

This timely and important report puts our debate over the admission of women to the episcopate into a wider context. The Archbishop's commissaries remind us that lines of episcopal authority exist in the Church to protect the vulnerable. It is not simply about "authority", but even more so about accountability.

Does the Measure we now have before us, as well as any Code of Practice that is to follow, weaken or strengthen our safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults within a diocese? To make anything but this question our foremost concern at the General Synod in November would be a failure at the profoundest level by the Church of England of its duty to ensure the safety and flourishing of the most vulnerable in our care.

JUDITH MALTBY
General Synod member, Corpus Christi College, Oxford OX1 4JF

 

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