The Rt. Rev’d Sarah Mullally is the Bishop of London in the Church of England. Her comments, reprinted below concerning accountability, proper process, appropriate management, and timeliness, apply equally to the Episcopal Church. Ed.
IN THE story of Christ’s presentation in the Temple, the words that always catch my breath are Simeon’s to Mary: “And a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”
At Candlemas this year, a preacher described a stained glass window depicting Mary cradling the church, her eyes turned to Christ’s face. He asked what this might be saying to our present context. And my soul was pierced.
The last six months has seen the publication of the Makin and Scolding reports, laying bare a string of shocking safeguarding failures, fostered in unhealthy cultures in the Church of England. Lives have been devastated — and hurt and damage continues to be done.
A sword pierces my soul when I reflect on my part in that: what I have failed to do to prevent this hurt?
I am deeply grateful for the work of parish safeguarding officers, diocesan safeguarding advisers, and the National Safeguarding Team. They have all undoubtedly contributed to improvements in our policies and practices, and are shaping the culture which a safer Church requires.
In addition to their work, and in order to create the right climate for all safeguarding to be as consistent, effective, and as trusted as possible, we need also to implement independent safeguarding and mandatory reporting.
But we cannot see this as a safeguarding crisis in isolation. There are wider, structural problems within the Church of England which have brought us to this point, concerning accountability, proper process, and appropriate management, and, without addressing those fundamental issues, change will be slow — or it may not come at all.
FIRST, accountability. We cannot hide behind the easy line that we are accountable to God alone. This is an abdication of responsibility. In the NHS, I was clear to whom and for what I was accountable, and I was supported, challenged, and appraised by them. This was essential for my good and the good of those in my care.
I have tried to find this same accountability in the Church, but it does not seem to exist. I have sworn an oath of canonical obedience, but common tenure is an insufficient framework to ensure the well-being of the Church as a whole or the individuals in it, lay and ordained.
In recent times, we have seen the de facto distancing of churches from dioceses and the appointment of overseers through opaque means and without clarity of whom they are overseeing. Following on from the Scolding report, how do we address the attendant risks?
Second, proper process. The issues here lie particularly around appointments and in the handling of concerns and complaints. Robust and transparent appointments processes are vital to the health of any institution. Proposals regarding the appointment of diocesan bishops will be brought to this week’s session of the General Synod. They arise from concerns that what was designed as a confidential process has become perceived as covert and secret, leading to a lack of transparency. The General Synod has an opportunity to address this vital issue.
Proposals are also being brought to the Synod relating to the handling of complaints against clergy. They are an improvement — but are they enough? Do they take account of individuals who struggle, for a multiplicity of reasons, to engage with process? Do they recognise the reality of the imbalance of power between clergy colleagues, or laity and clergy? How do we ensure that these better processes are genuinely and consistently accompanied by good pastoral care for everybody involved?
Improvements in handling safeguarding complaints have revealed other shortcomings. When the complaint does not meet the safeguarding threshold, do we have processes which nevertheless address the misconduct which may have occurred? I am not confident that we do.
FINALLY, to management. I hear and understand the reasons for criticism of over-management in a top-down church. I worked at every level, from nurse to Chief Nursing Officer, in the complex organisations that are the NHS and the Civil Service. I have gazed into the heart of the Church of England and found, at its core, incoherent governance structures, in which a number of bodies which need desperately to be joined up are free-floating.
While there are governance proposals coming to the General Synod this week, they fail to resolve how the functions of the Archbishops’ Council, the Church Commissioners, the national church institutions, and the House of Bishops relate to one another. This is not primarily about individuals, but about how they operate. In all of these places, good people are caught up in institutional impotence, resulting from a sheer lack of clarity when the individual parts are unable to relate effectively as a whole.
Without clarity of accountability, process, and management, the people who are Christ’s body on earth do not fall through the cracks in the system: they free-fall into voids. The longer we take to address all of this, the more people we will continue to fail, hurt, and damage the people who serve the Church and the people the Church is here to serve.
Over the past ten years as a bishop, I have sought to roll up my clerical sleeves and put myself to the work of making the Church safer. I know that, at times, I have failed, and for that I am profoundly sorry. I know that here I have raised many more questions than I have provided answers. Change always starts with us, but it requires the whole Church to participate. It requires a reset, not just in safeguarding but in the way we do all these things.
The revelations of the past two months have made me lament the Church in which I am called to serve the world. It is the Church which was won by the shedding of the blood of Christ, whose pain pierced the heart of Mary.
For that pain, and the pain caused by the Church, we must do better, and do it much faster. If not now, then how much more pain can be borne?
The Rt Revd Sarah Mullally is the Bishop of London.
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