Data breach and its consequences
Madam, — I am a clergyperson in Oxford diocese, one of the ten dioceses affected by the very serious data breach of the outsourced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) (News, 29 August).
According to the ICO, notification to affected individuals should be rapid. From what I have gathered, the company was cyber attacked at the end of July. Oxford diocese seems to have learned about it around 22 August. They let affected individuals know on 28 August.
I have now become the victim of fraud. My question is this: Why would anyone give personal data to the Church when it cannot guarantee its safety?
My personal data is now “out there” forever. It will be sold on and on for all my life. I can’t change my birthday, driving licence, or National Insurance details.
Thousands of us now remain at risk. The scammers won’t all act immediately, but this will be a long story that never ends.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
From Matthew Clements
Madam, — APCS seem to have missed the point about their data breach: it is their contractor, selected by APCS, who has lost control of data belonging to hundreds of parishes. Surely once we have entrusted APCS with our data, does that not make them the relevant data controller? Yet, we find the dioceses telling parishes that it is the parishes who are the data controller, who must each make a report to the ICO.
If APCS are not going to accept full responsibility, then I do not intend to trust them with my data ever again. Simples.
MATTHEW CLEMENTS
4 Church Street
Bicester OX26 6AZ
More work needed on the research behind the Quiet Revival
From Dr Chris Wild
Madam, — The article “Revival: myth or reality?” by Madeleine Davies (Features, 15 August) provides helpful context to the Bible Society’s Quiet Revival report, notably by discussing the underlying data and highlighting other related sources of information. However, as a scientist who has worked on survey data, I was left feeling uneasy.
The Bible Society report is based on two social surveys conducted in 2018 and 2024 by YouGov. The respondents are a sub-set of individuals registered with the company to complete surveys on a wide variety of topics. YouGov collected and collated the results, while the Bible Society was responsible for the analysis and interpretation. The latter steps are not trivial. There are well-recognised pitfalls with such surveys, notably the risk of different forms of bias and confounding. Any research on survey data must explore these factors in depth.
The design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of population survey data are what epidemiologists, statisticians, and social scientists do on a daily basis. There are Christians with expertise in these disciplines, many affiliated with organisations at the interface of science and faith, for example Christians in Science, the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, the American Scientific Affiliation, and the International Society for Science and Religion.
As a follow-up, it would be valuable if the Bible Society could assemble an interdisciplinary team of scientists to look in detail at the original data and to respond to any criticisms of the published analysis. The team could complement that exercise by evaluating some of the other data sources mentioned in the article. Caveats and uncertainties should accompany the conclusions. This second phase of research would help ensure that the overall conclusions about religious belief and churchgoing are as informative as possible. Furthermore, the process would provide a firmer basis for the design and analysis of future surveys and other forms of related research.
Undoubtedly, the Quiet Revival report is having a positive impact. For example, at the recent Big Church Festival, the report was frequently highlighted to the 35,000 Christians present. There was a sense of encouragement, excitement, optimism, and renewed confidence in sharing the gospel. This is good news. Nevertheless, if dioceses and individual churches begin to act in response to the report, it becomes ever more important to build such actions on a solid foundation; scientists can help with that.
CHRIS WILD
Emeritus Director, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization
Address supplied
Cardinal Newman and the one true Church
From Canon Andrew Lenox-Conyngham
Madam, — It may seem presumptuous to be criticising Cardinal Newman, but I believe his interpretation of Augustine’s resonant phase securus judicat orbis terrarum is mistaken. In his excellent article on Newman (Comment, 29 August), Jonathan Luxmoore cites these words “as a prompt [for Newman] to his secession to Roman Catholicism”.
The full version of Augustine runs: “The unshaken circle of the world [the whole world, as represented by the Catholic Church] judges that they cannot be the true Church who, in only one corner of the world, think that they are the true Church.” The “they” here refers to the Donatist Church, who said that they were the only true Church, and that the “one corner of the world” was North Africa, where the Donatists were prominent.
Newman’s mistake, as I see it, was to refer this to the situation of the Church of England. However, the Church of England has, obviously, never claimed to be the “only true Church”, but asserts itself to be part of Christ’s “one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church” — a very different claim, which, it seems to me, Newman overlooked.
ANDREW LENOX-CONYNGHAM
9 Hitches Lane
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2LS
Marriage vows and the place of the pastor’s wife
From Anthony Stansfield
Madam, — Canon Brian Stevenson (Letters, 22 August) seems to be missing the point behind Cally Hammond’s review of Becoming the Pastor’s Wife (Books, 15 August).
Neither the reviewer nor the author has a problem with a woman being a pastor’s (or vicar’s) wife: the issue is that there are parts of the Church in which such a role is the only one available to them, and where women are actively discouraged from exercising any form of ministry separately from their husbands.
As to what the role of a vicar’s wife can be in a parish, I have two questions. First, if they have a ministerial role (“setting the tone in a parish and its hospitality and inclusion and in pastoral care”), then why does the Church of England not provide appropriate training? And second, how does this apply to those (like me) who are clergy husbands?
ANTHONY STANSFIELD
67 Beechcroft Road
Upper Stratton
Swindon SN2 7RE
From Canon Brian Davis
Madam, — I take it that Fergus Butler-Gallie (Notebook, 29 August) followed the 1662 BCP literally. So his dear wife had to promise to obey her husband, and, when she received her wedding ring from him, she had nothing to say. What could be more beautiful than the modern version for the giving of rings: “With my body I honour you, all that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you,’” said by both bridegroom and bride. That, I believe, is truly “the Church of England’s liturgy at its best”.
BRIAN DAVIS
62 Lubenham Hill
Market Harborough LE16 9DQ
Plea for recognition of the years before ordination
Madam, — What proportion of currently serving priests are projected by Church House to receive a full church pension? About ten per cent? Less than five per cent?
I am part of the cohort of priests who followed the instruction of C of E selectors 40 years ago to go away and get some experience of life after university as the initial part of our training path. After that period of (mostly unpaid) work, we spent two compulsory years at theological college, without the opportunity to earn, and for which we are given no credit on our pensions. With another probable nine years of ministry still to go, I have to say that I still resent the fact that my whole life serving the Church will not result in the full, if modest, pension that will result from the recent decision by the General Synod (News, 21 February).
I anticipate dying early from the chronic work-rate and the variety of stressors of modern ministry; so I may not cost the Church as much as projected anyway.
Please can the number of pension years and the refusal of credit for college training years be reviewed? Please can the 37 years as defined before the cutbacks now be reinstated as remediation?
Otherwise, more young potential priests of my children’s generation will continue to feel the multiple injustices of church treatment of its stipendiary workforce too keenly, and pass by on the other side.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
Music and the rise in cathedral attendance
From Mr Timothy Noon
Madam, — It is heartening indeed to read of the resurgence in cathedral worship and the encouraging rise in attendance at what the statistics term “midweek cathedral services”. May I, however, gently suggest that this is, in most cases, simply a euphemism for choral evensong?
For centuries, this jewel of our Anglican inheritance has been sustained and promoted by cathedral choirs up and down the country. The increase in midweek attendance is surely due, at least in no small part, to their faithful daily work: offering beauty, consolation, and a profound cultural gift to all who come through cathedral doors, whether regular worshippers or casual visitors.
My colleagues and I warmly welcome this renewed interest, and celebrate the tireless dedication of our choristers, lay clerks, and musicians, whose artistry continues to draw thousands to encounter the divine in word and music.
TIMOTHY NOON
President, Cathedral Organists’ Association
Director of Music, Exeter Cathedral
1 The Cloisters
Exeter EX1 1HS
Immigration and the cost to the public
From Andrew Mitchell
Madam, — Paul Vallely ends his article (Comment, 29 August) by pointing out that the drain on the public purse is one of the causes of public discontent.
May I suggest that this is extended by way of a scheme similar to that of student loans? Instead of the state paying for the accommodation, benefits, legal fees etc., could asylum claimants be given loans which they can spend on the accommodation, food, and lawyers of their choosing?
Such loans would be repaid out of future earnings, on the same basis as student loans. I suspect that, as well as saving the taxpayer much expense (in the long term), the claimants might well choose less opulent accommodation than has been provided hitherto, which could also alleviate community tension.
ANDREW MITCHELL
16 Polkirt Heights
Mevagissey
Cornwall PL26 6TT
The rapid advancement of Chris Brain in Sheffield
From Canon Adrian Alker
Madam, — Angela Tilby, writing in the context of the sexual abuse perpetrated by Chris Brain in Sheffield, refers to male entitlement in the Christian tradition and how the woman Director of Studies on the Northern Ordination Course was ignored in her concerns about Brain’s rapid advancement (Comment, 29 August). But not all men “loved what Brain was achieving”. When serving the Sheffield diocese as deputy director of in-service training, I, and the director, also raised concerns about Brain’s flouting of attendance and other requirements. Sadly, the then Bishop of Sheffield and his senior staff ignored our concerns. It is right that the present Bishop has apologised for these past failures. One hopes that the whole bench of bishops have learnt from the more recent episodes of abuse being shamefully mishandled or covered up.
ADRIAN ALKER
23 Meadowhead
Sheffield S8 7UA
From the Revd Andrew Hunt
Madam, — Surely it is time that those in authority in the C of E realised that all that glitters — Brain, Ball, Bailey, Pilavachi, Forey, etc. — is not gold.
ANDREW HUNT
58a Cowl Street
Shepton Mallet
BA4 5EP
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