Four books about safeguarding and abuse in the Church of England have been published in the last two years, building on the work of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and other accounts of abuse following the revelations about Bishop Peter Ball and John Smyth, one an Anglo-Catholic, the other Evangelical. The books are:
Letters to a Broken Church; Ed. Janet Fife and Gilo
Bleeding for Jesus: John Smyth and the cult of Iwerne camps; Andrew Graystone
Sex, Power, Control; Fiona Gardner
To Heal and Not to Hurt; Rosie Harper and Alan Wilson
Each of the books describe the unhealthy, systemically abusive culture of the Church of England prevalent in 2021. They show the Church of England and possibly Christianity globally to be in a state of spiritual crisis. Abusive patterns of teaching and practice are systemic in the Church. Victims are distanced and further abused while those who abuse are repeatedly protected by the system.
Andrew Graystone says the response of the Church of England to the revelations of abuse has been a sacrilege. Despite many pledges that ‘victims come first’ experience demonstrates that this is not the case. In all cases the interests of the church, its reputation and its power, have been put above the care of those it has damaged. Janet Fife and Gilo say the Church of England is in crisis, and will only redeem the astonishing mess it has made to all this by full, honest and transparent ownership of the crisis.
The crisis confronting and engulfing Christianity is evolving in the context of an even greater existential crisis, the climate crisis that threatens the survival of our species. Christianity’s spiritual crisis, most visible in the systemic presence of abusive teachings and practice renders the institutional Church unable to confront the social, political and economic systems responsible for the climate crisis. The Church lacks the necessary integrity to speak truthfully with and integrity.
The Church of England continues to abuse whole classes of people by perpetuating discriminatory attitudes and Biblical teachings about the place of women, black and brown, LGBTIQ+, and disabled people. These teachings infect the culture and practice of the Church at every level, from local congregations to the House of Bishops.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has recently and perhaps unwittingly taken the side of the Bishops and hierarchy of the Church in Ghana against the LGBTIQ+ population in Ghana. In his second statement about the Bill following a meeting with the Archbishops, bishops and senior clergy of the Anglican Church of Ghana Archbishop Justin concludes “I encourage continued good conversation with the Anglican Church of Ghana, with the same courteous but clear and robust conversation as I experienced, ahead of any future public statements.” Were the Archbishop to have taken Jesus’s teaching and practice as his guide, he would have concluded by saying that support for the bill by the Anglican Church of Ghana is not simply opposed to Anglican teaching but is unchristian. They are doing the opposite of what Jesus taught, supporting a bill that persecutes a vulnerable minority and siding with the power of abusers. There is no direct condemnation of the Archbishops, bishops and senior leaders. Of course not. The Church of England is institutionally accustomed to siding with those who abuse others.
If I were a gay Ghanaian Anglican, living with my secret for fear of the authorities, would I not despair that my mother church, which I trusted stood alongside the persecuted, which I believed would out of justice defend LGBTQIA people in my county, had spoken so ambivalently?
In England, the Church is taking the side of the abusers of LGBTIQ+ people in the Living in Love and Faith process and in the activities of the Next Steps Group. LGBTIQ+ people are expected to participate in processes where those opposing us do so on the grounds that their teachings are “Biblical, traditional, orthodox, conservative” and are being justified and protected by the leadership. Those advocating the abuse of LGBTIQ+ people are defended and priority is given to their place at the table, the table thereby becoming unsafe, a place of abuse for us.
Nowhere in the recently published documents in the LLF process is there a narrative about the unconditional, infinite love of God, of radical new Christian inclusion, of justice, truth or wisdom because the Church does not have the compassionate justice teachings of Jesus at the heart of its understanding and message.
The Church of England is in a critical state, in decline numerically because it is in decline spiritually. The Church of England lacks a vision rooted in the teaching of Jesus. Jesus did not abuse people. He identified with victims, with those marginalised by institutions, with the poor and disenfranchised, those seeking truth. The Anglican leaders in Ghana prioritise support for those who are homophobic and transphobic over the Gospel of Jesus Christ and justice, protection and equality for LGBTIQ+ people.
In To Heal and Not to Hurt Rosie Harper describes the God formulated by contemporary teachings as “a tiny, religious, defensive God.” She thinks that’s where the Church of England is today, responding to survivors in a way that exposes two utterly crucial fault lines. The first is the paucity of their vision of God. The second is a behaviour that implies their faith is no faith at all. When the church responds without love, care, and reparation to the very people it has itself harmed, that is serious and potentially fatal. Basically it seems that the faith is not true. It doesn’t change lives when loving God does not result in loving your neighbour.