Dr Perumbalath’s resignation and C of E safeguarding

From the Rt Revd Dr David Atkinson and Dr Sue Atkinson

Madam, — A few years ago, we wrote a paper, which we called “Redemptive Justice”, published on the Survivors Voices website, which tried to explore aspects of how the Church could respond with justice to victims and survivors of church-related abuse.

We are writing now to comment on the media report that the National Safeguarding Team have said that because a recent alleged perpetrator of abuse is “no longer a safeguarding risk”, there is “nothing more to be done”. We ask whether that report is true, and if so, wish to argue that future safeguarding protection, which is, of course, important, is not the same as justice for victims of abuse whenever it happened. Of course there is “more to be done”, to provide adequate and just responses, care, and redress, and the support needed to rebuild damaged lives.

As a Church, we are apparently becoming better at safeguarding procedures, training, oversight, etc., but still have a long way to go in accountability and in pastoral care of victims and survivors.

DAVID ATKINSON
SUE ATKINSON
6 Bynes Road
South Croydon CR2 0PR

From Mr David White

Madam, — Who could not be distressed by the events that have led to the retirement of the Bishop of Liverpool? We long for our churches to be places of security, where behaviour is respectful of others; and we feel shamed by so many failures in the body of which we are members.

But we may also be troubled about justice: to accuse is not to convict. Biblical justice is concerned not only with the party who claims injury, but also with the party who may wrongfully be accused. Two separate accusations are not the same as two witnesses.

In this sensitive field of human relationships, where it is so easy to go astray, where actions and responses can so readily be misconstrued, and where damage can be so enduring, we know that many different agendas come into play.

It takes courage to speak up when things are wrong; it needs wisdom to know when to hold one’s tongue.

Those involved in the recent events are personally unknown to me. I have neither information nor prejudice to guide me on whether the complaints made may turn out to be justified. But it is surely apparent to anyone that, once accusations of this nature enter the public sphere, the reputation of the accused is quickly beyond recovery, and due process is destroyed.

To hear senior church figures making pronouncements that can only feed the public frenzy is to be reminded of the words of the late Jacques Chirac: “They missed a great opportunity to shut up.”

For those who feel abused, and for those who are accused, for the innocent and for the guilty, we pray for God’s justice, God’s mercy, and God’s healing.

DAVID WHITE
6 Covert Close
Berkhamsted HP4 3SR

From Mr Christopher Whitmey

Madam, — As a benefice safeguarding officer, and a former trustee of a diocesan board of finance, I particularly note the Charity Commission letter to each bishop states: “Trustees should ensure that processes, procedures and training are fit for purpose and enable them to effectively discharge their duties in relation to safeguarding.”

The General Synod is being recommended to vote for Option 4. GS 2378 Appendix 3 — Model 4 states: “The external delivery body operates independently from the Church and makes its own operational decisions as to the best ways to deliver safeguarding according to what is set out already in practice and code.”

Isn´t this incompatible with the Charity Commission´s statement? Can someone please explain to me how trustees can control such an independent external body to ensure that it is effective in carrying out the trustees’ duties?

CHRISTOPHER WHITMEY
Oldstone Furlong, Capler Lane
Fownhope, Hereford HR1 4PJ

Bath & Wells motion will not achieve its purpose

From Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent

Madam, — The Bishop of Bath & Wells is to be applauded for his motion at the General Synod next week tabling the urgent need to redress the fact that the Church Commissioners are not providing sufficient financial support to parish ministry (News, 31 January).

Nevertheless, his motion, supported by six other dioceses, seeking to transfer £2.6 billion from the Church Commissioners’ well-managed endowments into generally poorly managed diocesan stipends funds, would be a move towards less efficient investment and be too slow to come to the rescue of distressed parishes.

The Secretary General to the Archbishops’ Council, William Nye, points out in a General Synod paper responding to the Bath & Wells motion that, as well as legal obstacles, this would probably need primary legislation: a recipe for uncertainty and a delay of several years.

May I suggest that the fastest and most effective way to get more funds to parishes is to increase significantly Lowest Income Communities funding, and for the Church Commissioners to subsidise stipends in poorer areas, both of which would implement their endowment duty for “the making of additional provision for the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required”?

Both also have the advantage of being formulaic as opposed to grant-based, and could be implemented in direct support to parishes on 1 January 2026 by the Triennium Funding Working Group (which will report this spring), working through the Archbishops’ Council.

JAMES BURNELL-NUGENT
Sheepham Mill, Modbury
Devon PL21 0LX

Saddened by decision about Lampeter campus

From Anne Lloyd Pönisch

Madam, — It is with great sadness and not a little anger that we received the news last week that undergraduate humanities teaching at the Lampeter Campus of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), formerly St David’s University College, will cease as of September 2025. Current students will have to transfer to UWTSD Carmarthen to continue their studies, and many current college employees have been issued with redundancy notices.

Many readers will be aware of the fact that St David‘s College, Lampeter, was founded in 1822 by Bishop Thomas Burgess to offer a university education to Welsh men unable to afford that offered by Oxford or Cambridge. The College is the third oldest university in England and Wales and the oldest in Wales. The teaching of theology and the training of ordinands has formed an important part in the college‘s development, and many hundreds of Anglican priests will have been educated there in the past 200 years.

Since 1822, the college has seen many changes. After a long battle, it became a constituent college of the University of Wales, grew considerably in numbers, and was acknowledged world-wide as a seat of academic excellence for a number of academic disciplines, including geography, theology, archaeology, Welsh, modern languages, and classics. Since its amalgamation a decade ago with Trinity College, Carmarthen, and the creation of UWTSD, the college has experienced the decimation of these departments and now faces an uncertain future.

To date, petitions to the Welsh Senedd, active engagement by the Lampeter Society, made up of alumni and many other supporters, and two lively protests in both Lampeter and at the Welsh Senedd in Cardiff have been ignored by the university authorities and, sadly, by the Church in Wales.

The loss of the university in Lampeter is a form of cultural and national vandalism, the significance of which should bring shame and anger to all who care about higher education in Wales.

ANNE LLOYD PÖNISCH
4 Rock Terrace
Saint Julian Street
Tenby SA70 7BH

Beware Friday afternoon’s vacancy-in-see debate

From Dr Phillip Rice

Madam, — As a newly minted member of the club of those who won a General Synod (GS) election or diocesan election by just one vote or less, I view the GS February sessions’ Friday afternoon debate on changes to the vacancy-in-see regulation with some considerable concern. There is in place a satisfactory answer in the Church of England to the question how elections to the various synods and committees should be carried out: that is, by a Single Transferable Vote (STV).

Indeed, it may come as a surprise to learn that the history of STV is that it has been in place for more than 100 years for the Laity (less for other Houses). The magisterial article by the late Bishop Colin Buchanan is a classic, “The Transferable Vote A Hundred Years of Anglican Experience”, Ecclesiastical Law Society (2019). I simplify the article’s advice: keep it democratic, keep it simple. and avoid trying to add on guards in the STV system by seeking to favour some group with a reserved place.

But perhaps worse still is the application of this to the elections with a small number of electors, when margins for election will be very tight, that is, fractions of a vote. The mischief seen by Buchanan is for coalitions to alter preferences in the knowledge that a reserved place is assured with fewer votes. The proposed regulation plays havoc with the democratic principle of voting, and the detailed proposals are not stress-tested, and close to being counter-productive in small electorates. This proposed detailed tinkering with STV during a Friday-afternoon session looks deeply problematic.

PHILLIP RICE
General Synod member
23 Christchurch Square
London E9 7HU

Legal principles concerning defendants’ costs

From the Revd James Richards

Madam, — While not disagreeing with the Revd Neil Robbie (Letters, 31 January) in his plea that clergy who are cleared under the Clergy Discipline Measure process should not be out of pocket for the legal representation that they have needed, he is mistaken in saying that “there is an established principle that a defendant found not guilty in a court of law does not need to pay legal costs.”

There are some complexities, but, broadly speaking, a defendant who has applied for and been refused Legal Aid can apply for a Defendant’s Costs Order (DCO) to recover legal costs, but only at Legal Aid rates, from the time they were formally charged.

Privately funded defendants who have not applied for Legal Aid may not recover costs, and costs at Legal Aid rates may not cover costs at the rate they have paid; and if they sought legal advice before they were charged, that cost is not recoverable.

JAMES RICHARDS
The Rectory, Longlands Road
Bowness-on-Windermere
Windermere, Cumbria LA23 3AS

Trump and Budde

From Mr David Skidmore

Madam, — Tim Alberta’s study of American Evangelicalism — The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an age of extremism (2023) — shows conclusively that a Jesus-centred faith has been replaced by MAGA idolatry. Canon Alan Billings’s suggestion (Letter, 31 January) that Bishop Budde’s sermon showed a comparable “politicisation” of Christian faith is unsupported by any evidence.

The day after it was delivered, I listened to the Beatitudes read as the Gospel at a friend’s funeral. What I heard was Bishop Budde’s message in a nutshell.

DAVID SKIDMORE
35 Glenferrie Road
St Albans AL1 4JT

Bibles printed in China

From the Revd Stephen Collier

Madam, — Have you noticed that so many Bibles that used to be printed in this country are now being printed in China. I would never buy a Bible printed in a country where Christians are persecuted. What do your readers think?

STEPHEN COLLIER
9 Drew Gardens
Greenford UB6 7QF