I cannot remember the last time the BBC led their news with a story featuring the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Unfortunately….
As I followed the news, I realised I knew some of the victims, from 40 years ago when we were students together. I had no idea what they had been subject to, although I was never very close to any of them. I have been reflecting on how we currently so safeguarding; I write this before chairing a PCC meeting where I had already been planning to run a safeguarding exercise, one I used at another PCC meeting I chaired last week and which worked well. Both the current and previous Safeguarding Officers employed by the diocese are ex-police officers. I do not think they are technically “independent”, but when they tell me something, I take action; I would not wish to cross either. From what I have seen of senior clergy, they also appear to me to share that same respect. But perhaps I have already said too much, too much in self-justification of the church and myself. I wonder if the words that really count are those recently written by a current Bishop, Guli Francis-Dehqani, who I respect; that history shows that when the Church is large and powerful, it has rarely acted at its best.
Rev David Poyner