General Synod voted to acknowledge and apologise for past safeguarding wrongs. It also voted to endorse work on legislative and non-legislative changes to tighten procedures which have been identified following the Chichester Commissaries interim and final safeguarding reports.
Opening the debate, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, Chair of the Churches National Safeguarding Committee, said: “We cannot do anything other than own up to our failures. We were wrong. Our failures were sin just as much as the perpetrators sinned. By failing to listen or act appropriately we condemned survivors to live with the harm when we should have been assisting them into whatever measure of healing might be possible.”
The motion – that Synod accordingly acknowledges and apologises for past wrongs and seeks endorsement from the Synod for legislative and non-legislative progress to be made during the period of this Quinquennium – was debated.
An amendment moved by the Revd Preb Stephen Lynas was carried.
Following a division of the Synod, the motion, as amended, was overwhelmingly carried (360 for, 0 against, 0 abstentions).
It had been brought to Synod following consideration by both the House of Bishops and Archbishops’ Council so it could approve the next steps. (The proposed changes – including a consultation on certain legislative areas are outlined in Notes below).
In a follow up to the Commissaries’ reports the Archbishops of Canterbury and York wrote: “It is right, therefore, that the General Synod should receive an account of the actions that the House and the Council have put in hand, have an opportunity to comment on the next steps, and be able to identify with the apology that we wish to offer unreservedly for the failure of the Church of England’s systems to protect children, young people and adults from physical and sexual abuse inflicted by its clergy and others and for the failure to listen properly to those so abused.
BBC News – – Apology for child abuse
The Church of England has formally apologised for past child abuse by Anglican priests and its own “serious failure” to prevent it.
The ruling General Synod, meeting in York, endorsed a report apologising for abuse in the Chichester diocese.
Members also unanimously backed an earlier apology issued by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said there needed to be “a complete change of culture and behaviour” in the Church.
The Most Reverend Justin Welby told the Synod: “And, in addition, there is a profound theological point.
“We are not doing all this, we are not seeking to say how devastatingly, appallingly, atrociously sorry we are for the great failure there has been, for our own sakes, for our own flourishings, for the protection of the Church.
“We are doing it because we are called to live in the justice of God and we will each answer to him for our failings in these areas.”
The cases of two priests – Roy Cotton and Colin Pritchard – who abused several children during the 1970s and 1980s, prompted an inquiry by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office into safeguarding procedures in the diocese.
The ensuing report described a “profoundly unhelpful and negative culture” there, producing an “appalling” and “dysfunctional” record in handling allegations of abuse.
Opening the debate, the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, the Right Reverend Paul Butler, said the Church had “failed to listen properly”.
“We did not acknowledge the wrong done and we protected the institution at the expense of the person abused,” he said.
By failing to listen or to act appropriately, we condemned survivors to live with the harm”
The Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, the Right Reverend Paul Butler
“We cannot do anything other than own up to our failures – we were wrong.”
He said the church’s “failures were sin just as much as the perpetrators sinned”.
The bishop read out a statement from victims of child abuse in the Church who called for a public inquiry to find out the number of victims, how the Church protected abusers and whether there was a cover-up.
In response to the report, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, offered their own apology for the “individual wickedness on the part of abusers” and serious failures by the Church to protect children or listen properly to victims.
They said the suffering inflicted on the victims would be a source of grief and shame for years to come.
The motion before the Synod endorsed the archbishops’ apology and the contents of the report.
After a debate lasting about 1 hour 45 minutes, it was approved by 360 votes to none.
The Synod also agreed plans to take further steps to improve policies and practices on safeguarding children, including by ditching the current one-year limit on making complaints of child abuse, and giving bishops the right to suspend clergy who are credibly accused of abuse.