LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM)
Premier Christian News [Crowborough, England]
March 4, 2025
By Kelly Valencia
Home Office Minister Jess Phillips believes that victims of abuse within the Church deserve real change from institutions, not just “lamenting and repenting”.
This comes as the Church of England faces a safeguarding crisis, with the Archbishop of Canterbury recently resigning over mishandling abuse allegations against John Smyth, now known as one of the Church’s most prolific abusers.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Phillips declined to specify what changes the Church should make in response to recent safeguarding failures but stressed that victims of institutional abuse are owed a debt for coming forward.
She said: “Whilst I cannot tell the Synod what it has to do, I condemn the acts of psychological, emotional and physical abuse and sexual abuse against both adults and children, including where they occur in religious settings or contexts.
“What I know of the years of working on the frontline with victims of both historical and current abuses – usually sexual abuse that I am talking about in this particular instance – is that victims will tell me that what happened to them was horrendous. What continued to happen to them because of failures of institutions to act is worse.
“While some improvements have been made, there remain systemic underlying vulnerabilities arising from the Church’s structure of safeguarding…There should be no status that is protected from scrutiny and cultures of silence through wilful ignorance or, worse, malign intent to safeguard reputations above children must end. It must end wherever we see it.”
“Lamenting and repenting is all well and good, but what my mum used to say to me is ‘Sorry is just a word you say, changing your behaviour proves to me that you are sorry’. We owe a debt to the victims who come forward about any institutional abuse, we owe them more than lamenting and repenting, we owe them change.”
The debate was led by Labour MP Luke Myer for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who argued that the Church was “marking its own homework” and called for an independent body to provide consistent safeguarding practices across the country.
He said: “While some improvements have been made, there remain systemic underlying vulnerabilities arising from the Church’s structure of safeguarding. Survivors have told me that there are complex, hard-to-navigate structures and slow, institutionally defensive responses, and what emerged from around 2020 was a call for an independent structure to oversee safeguarding practices.”
Last month, victims urged the Church to adopt an independent safeguarding body, but the General Synod chose a less independent model for now, with plans to move towards full independence later
He concluded: “The reality is that, as things stand, this patchwork of procedures remains and the Church remains, effectively marking its own homework. This is clearly not acceptable.”
In response, Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, the Church of England’s representative in Parliament as the Second Church Estates Commissioner, said “there is still a long way to go”.
She added: “The Church must treat its work for independent safeguarding operations as a matter of urgency. We need no more blocking, we just need action, because action really will speak louder than any of the words than any of us have got to say here today.”
MPs have continued to call for fully independent safeguarding in the Church of England.