U.k.’s Methodist Church Apologizes for Sexual, Emotional Abuse over Decades

By Jenny Gross
Wall Street Journal
May 28, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-s-methodist-church-apologizes-for-sexual-emotional-abuse-over-decades-1432821739

LONDON—Britain’s Methodist Church has made a public apology after a report detailed nearly 2,000 cases of alleged sexual and emotional abuse within the institution over more than 60 years.

The church, which apologized for failing to protect the victims, is the latest religious establishment in

The independent report, commissioned by the church and based on written records and interviews with ministers and members of the church over three years, identified 1,885 cases of sexual, physical, emotional and domestic abuse, as well as cases of neglect between 1950 and 2014.

Martin Atkins, general secretary of the Methodist Church, said on Thursday that the abuse inflicted by some Methodists on children and adults is “a deep source of grief and shame to the church.”