In February, General Synod members were denied the opportunity to debate the ISB (News, 2 February; 6 February). Patently, such a debate must take place at York in July, when those responsible for the current débâcle can be held to account.” ES: Are you saying that you can’t have confidence in the independence of the Board unless she withdraws or in some way goes? It has taken a lot of persistent questioning by interested parties to winkle out the truth about the constitutional position of the ISB. It is now conceded that the ISB is not an independent body in law. – indeed , when sued in Court by Dr Martyn Percy, a defence to this effect was filed in these plain terms! This is a copy of a newsletter written by Martin Sewell which helps a reader to understand at depth the issues on safeguarding that are coming before General Synod this week. Previous newsletters have been shared with synod members. ED.

I hope Martyn gets somewhere but from my experience unless there is a provable mishandling of charity funds or beneficiaries that are in immediate danger the CC is too stretched to properly respond. I should like to respond to those who have suggested involving ” a few well chosen M.P.s” From personal experience this would be an excellent idea but definitely ‘well chosen’, involving people who understand the situation.The same church lawyers setting up the Kate Wood investigation, and the refusal of those driving the campaign against the Dean to admit that these lawyers had set Wood’s Terms of Reference. (October 2020). At present there seems to be a stand-off, with both the Archbishops’ Council and Ms Munn seemingly having ‘doubled-down’ on the issue. Readers of this blog will recognise the signs and symptoms of narcissism. Individuals with severe narcissistic personalities in leadership have had plenty of exposure on this and the other side of the Pond. I need not name examples, except to note that despite continuing uncovering of significant moral and other failures, they still believe wholeheartedly in their own narrative and are not dissuaded in carrying on their crusades to regaining power whatsoever.

The Jay Report should be with us in January. There is no excuse for it not being on the agenda in February 2024, though control or prevention of any debate is likely to be attempted. We must resist that at all costs. The credibility of Synod itself is at stake. On Friday I discovered that Jasvinder Sanghera and Steve Reeves have been obliged to decline engagement with the ISB Review which is being conducted by barrister Sarah Wilkinson. The key issue is depressingly familiar. When Malcolm Brown was asked by the Church to respond to the IICSA recommendations (not the NST), survivors were given about two days to review his final draft report. I suggested that it shouldn’t take years to work out what would be required for independent oversight of safeguarding. All that was required was to set up a properly-resourced independent charitable foundation with a board of trustees to employ and supervise people with expertise in CofE safeguarding. And to give them authority to investigate allegations and to act against those abusing their positions within the Church. The initiative spearheaded by Newcastle Diocese, is a response to recent guidance issued by the Church of England to church officers and church bodies on how to respond well to victims and survivors of all kinds of abuse. It has been part funded by the charity Safe Spaces, a free and independent support service, providing a confidential, personal and safe space for anyone who has been abused by someone in the Church.

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That being so, what I feel survivor’s groups need to do is to develop their own draft legislation and present it to some interested MPs. It might be worth engaging with a parliamentary agent (usually a Westminster law firm) to draft legislation. For these reasons we have engaged in creative projects designed and delivered by those with lived experience of abuse, those who minister to them, and others in our communities who support this vital work.” Given the funding arrangements of the ISB, some might wonder if it was always the case that ‘independence’ was difficult or impossible to realise, and that the ‘I’ was included in the title chiefly for PR purposes? Martin Shipton was, though, able to publish in February a report highlighting the concerns of a worshipper at Llandaff Cathedral at the appointment of Richard Peers as Dean when, shortly before his installation in November 2022, the Charity Commission had issued an ‘Official Warning’ to the trustees of Christ Church, Oxford (of whom Peers was one, following his appointment there as sub dean in September 2020), which concluded that: ES Let me sort of just cut through that. Do you think people can have confidence in the independence of the Board if she remains as its chair?

Barrister Edward Morgan KC wasappointed by Church House without consultation to investigate a separate Percy complaint against William Nye. That too has run aground on the issue of transparency and conflict of interest policy.Prof Percy has just formally withdrawn his complaint until a comprehensive, clean and transparent process is established for all who have complaints against the Secretary General. This isn’t usually a particularly attractive commercial proposition, and is why this “new” venture hasn’t already taken off. People want to be paid. And they don’t want to risk losing everything if they make a tactical error or even fill in the dreaded form incorrectly.What we can do of course is explain in different ways, to others who actually have functioning hearts and souls. It’s important not to overwhelm them, but to continue to provide simple reasoned cross referenced arguments to set out the basis of our experience. In fact that is what I believe is being done here and in other places too. Let’s keep it up. The Church recognises the devastating impact on survivors who suffer harm within a church context. It remains a deep source of grief and shame that as a Christian Church, such abuse represents a clear failure to live in ways that glorify God and honour Christ. The choice of the word apostasy in the title is deliberate and it forces us to consider how we (and the ten story tellers in the book) cope with access to new challenging information that is not catered for in an existing faith paradigm from the past. The typical story told by several of the contributor authors is the way that access to books and education had affected them profoundly. It opened their minds to the possibility of change and a way out of the narrow sectarian views which had dominated their thinking, sometimes over decades. Several of our authors discovered a new breadth in their spiritual outlook through access to post-graduate university studies. Accessing a privileged academic route is, of course, one path out of narrow perspectives, but sadly, such study is available to only a tiny minority. It is, in fact, hard to imagine any research student in theology (or any subject) not being decisively changed by seminars, exchange of academic papers and attendance at learned specialised conferences. This academic way of doing theology, one which constantly asks questions and lives with uncertainty, is, sadly becoming vanishingly uncommon in today’s Church. If ever the culture of free inquiry, which is embedded into the university research process, is outlawed from the wider Church, journeys of the kind and recorded in some of the stories in this book will be impossible. Some of the journeys of creative discovery as recorded in this volume would never have been able to start, let alone arrive successfully at a new destination. They join a long list of refuseniks – those no longer willing to play the game of pretending that the Church is fit to direct its own inquiries. Who is in the right, Church House or victims the of the CofE? You decide