Bishops Must Repent for Inaction on Child Abuse, Says Survivor

By Tim Wyatt
Church Times
May 19, 2016

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2016/20-may/news/uk/bishops-must-repent-for-inaction-on-child-abuse-says-survivor

Sea change: Bishop Mullally with one of Joe’s calligraphed stones

A MAN who was abused by two senior Church of England clergyman has demanded that senior bishops make public statements of “repentance” because of what he says is their failure to act quickly on safeguarding reform.

The survivor, known only as “Joe”, was sexually assaulted by the Revd Garth Moore, a former Chancellor of the dioceses of Southwark, Durham, and Gloucester, who died in 1990 (News, 4 December); and later exploited by Michael Fisher, who was then a brother in the Society of St Francis, and later became Bishop of St Germans.

An independent report on failings in his case called for sweeping changes to the Church’s safeguarding procedures, condemning them as “fundamentally flawed” (News, 18 March). But in an open letter, published last week, Joe said that there had been total silence from bishops since the report came out in March.

“I call on the House of Bishops to repent at your meeting in York at the end of this week,” he wrote. “Others in the survivor community are saying the same. Repentance implies action and not just word — it is about turning around 180 degrees and starting again.

“The House of Bishops needs to show clearly that you are finally able beyond the eleventh hour to work rapidly for profound change in your culture and structure.”

If bishops decided to make changes at their next meeting, Joe wrote, they could go onto the Goddard Inquiry into institutional child abuse with “greater grace and much less pain”.

A spokesperson at Church House said: “The House of Bishops takes all safeguarding work very seriously and it is a standing item on the agenda. Bishop Sarah Mullally is working closely with the National Safeguarding Team to implement the recommendations of the Elliott Review and she will be presenting key messages on this to the House at its meeting this month.

“When Bishop Sarah received the Review on behalf of the Church of England, as requested by the survivor, she offered an unreserved apology for the failings of the Church towards him.”