At least two years for new Church safeguarding process to be in place
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A new independent safeguarding approach for the Church of England would not be fully in place for at least another two years, proposals due to be presented next month confirm. The General Synod, otherwise known as the Church’s parliament, will debate and vote on a new model in February, with the lead bishop for safeguarding acknowledging the need for “radical change”.
Synod will sit for its first session since the resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last month following safeguarding failures. He quit after pressure following a review which found Christian camp leader and prolific serial abuser John Smyth might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported him to police five years before the barrister’s death.
In standing down, Mr Welby also noted his “long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England”. The safeguarding debate in the Church has been a long-running one, and calls have also been made in recent months for Mr Welby’s temporary stand-in, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell to stand down.
Mr Cottrell has refused to quit after revelations emerged that a priest at the centre of a sexual abuse case was twice re-appointed under him while he was serving as Bishop of Chelmsford. He has acknowledged things “could have been handled differently” but, previously appearing to reject calls to resign, has pledged to “do what I can” to bring about independent scrutiny of safeguarding in the Church.
