In Thursday’s blog we said we would in our next blog describe the systemically abusive culture in the Church of England that has arisen from the work of Eric ‘Bash’ Nash, John Smyth, Jonathan Fletcher and others, an abusive culture that is infecting the work of LLF and the Next Steps Group today. Andrew Graystone’s book Bleeding for Jesus: John Smyth and the cult of Iwerne camps gives an account of Eric Nash and the Iwerne Camps, of John Smyth’s abuse, the effect of penal substitutionary atonement theology, the multiple failures to deal with Smyth. and the impact of Iwerne in today’s Church. The Iwerne Trust produced many of the most prominent Evangelical Christian leaders, people associated with Reformed theology in the Church of England over the past 40 years. The Iwerne culture inhabited by these people has helped create the prejudices that inhibit equality in the Church of England today, blocking the possibility of the radical new Christian inclusion spoken of by Archbishops Justin Welby and John Sentamu.
Eric Nash (Bash)
Eric Nash, known as Bash, founded the Iwerne movement in the 1930s. Nash preached the doctrine of penal substitution, a theory of atonement that had taken root at the Reformation and was central to Reformed evangelicalism in the Victorian era. Christ was God incarnate and when he died on the cross he was acting as a substitute victim, taking on himself the punishment that each individual deserves and thus placating the wrath of God.
John Smyth
John Smyth was one of the youngest and most brilliant QCs working in London in the 1970s. He led the prosecution of Gay News for Mary Whitehouse and was a leading light in the Lawyer’s Christian Fellowship. He met Eric Nash in 1964 and was recruited by him as a Iwerne officer. He became a trustee of the Iwerne Trust in 1970 and was licensed as a local preacher by the Bishop of Winchester in 1971. In 1975 Nash made him the chair of the Trust. Through his involvement with the Iwerne Trust Smyth had access to boys and young men from the best public schools. Underpinned by Bash’s theology of bodily atonement for sin and protected by a culture that was entirely dependent on distorted notions of God, of spiritual ambition, and what it meant to be saved, Smyth physically and emotionally abused scores of boys and young men. It wasn’t until Channel 4 News broadcast a half hour report on Smyth’s abuse on 2 February 2017 that knowledge of his abuse reached the wider public. But before then, it is clear that many senior leaders and bishops in the Church of England knew some or all of what he had done.
The Iwerne Culture and the doctrine of penal substitution
At the heart of the Iwerne philosophy was a brand of wholehearted, sacrificial, masculine Christianity maintained by a detailed programme of supervision. The evangelical theology of bodily atonement for sin slips easily into emotional and sometimes physical abuse. The idea that violence wrought on the Son of God was somehow redemptive invites the vulnerable to believe that the pain itself can deal with sin. Coupled with the Anglican deference to human leaders as those who stand in the place of Christ, either because of their ordination, their outstanding gifts or their masculinity, the circumstances are created in which the risk of abuse is possible. A refusal in this culture to acknowledge diversity in human sexuality adds a context of shame in which secrecy about abuse can be maintained. The result is that some men act out in inappropriate and abusive ways. We have discovered that the Church of England’s recognition of and response to abuse is so poor that it often ends up re-victimising victims.
Smyth’s activities emerged in a context that was underpinned by a theology and protected by a culture that was entirely dependent on distorted notions of God, of spiritual ambition, and what it meant to be saved. It is almost impossible to imagine, coming from a ‘healthy’ Christian background, how an organisation of individuals prepared to commit their entire lives unconditionally to Jesus created a culture that became so toxic, and I don’t mean toxic only in the abuse perpetrated by Smyth and others. The culture continues to have a toxic effect in the Church of England today. The toxicity is created by a rich mix of power and human weakness nurtured by a distinctive theology of shame and redemption and continues to run like a deep fault line through the Church of England. Its origins lie in the toxic culture created by the founder of the Iwerne network, Eric Nash. John Smyth’s regime of abuse continues to affect the culture of today’s Church of England. The powerful theology and culture of the movement is being leveraged in contemporary debates on gender and sexuality. It is abusive.
Graystone says the response by the Church of England to the revelations of abuse by John Smyth and others has been shamefully inadequate. Despite many pledges that ‘victims come first’ the reality demonstrates that this is not the case. In all cases the interests of the church, its reputation and its power were put above the care of those who it had damaged. Nobody even knows how many complaints the Church of England is dealing with, says Graystone.
The Lessons Learned Review
After a lot of pressure the media office in Church House issued a press release in August 2019 saying it was ready to commence a ‘lessons learned’ review examining ‘both good practice and failings in the Church’s handling of the allegations relating to John Smyth’. The review was to be led by Keith Makin and to last nine months meaning that it would be completed by May 2020. The reviewer eventually started work in October 2019. The completion date was passed and the church said that more time would be needed. In July 2021 Graystone writes that the review is still in progress. It may be published in the summer of 2022.
When Christians and Christian institutions refuse to examine themselves in the face of gross failure by their members, they continue to foster and facilitate abuse, sometimes on the grand scale exemplified by Smyth, but far more often in the day-to-day life of the Christian community. We repeat what we said yesterday - Changing Attitude England believes a moment of crisis has been reached in the sixty year period in which the Church of England has been addressing homosexuality, lesbian and gay sexuality, trans issues and LGBTIQ+ issues. Either the Church of England engages fully with the presence of LGBTIQ+ people and creates a healthy environment in which we are treated as adults and equals or it continues to abuse us.
LGBTIQ+ people are suffering abuse today at the hands of individual clergy, leaders and bishops in ways that go unrecognised either because we have become habituated to abuse or because we are afraid of calling out abuse for what it is. Abuse in the Church has become both normalised and is carefully hidden by the hierarchy using Non-disclosure agreements, the Clergy Discipline Measure or by labelling everything confidential. Beneath the radar, prominent conservative and charismatic Evangelical churches and their associated networks practice conversion therapy and have policies that abuse LGBTIQ+ people. The Church of England, as I have been saying repeatedly, is systemically abusive, prejudiced, homophobic and transphobic – and afraid of confronting truth.
Appendix
Read on if you wish to know how the record of Smyth’s abuse eventually found its way into the public domain and the names of those many people, some still in senior positions, who have been influenced by the Iwerne culture.
On 31 January 1982, in distress, Alasdair Paine, a Iwerne stalwart who had been beaten once by Smyth went to the Round Church Vicarage and poured out his heart to Mark Ruston, asking whether being beaten was a normal part of Christian discipline. Ruston phoned David Fletcher who had received an anonymous letter saying something was going on with John Smyth. Fletcher began to put together what had been happening. Ruston met Paine again and said it would be best if things didn’t come out. Over the next week he interviewed thirteen of the twenty-two young men who had been involved. Ruston typed out a report of his findings and sent it to five trustees of the Iwerne Trust and two Iwerne staff, detailing Smyth’s abuse, making it clear that it was criminal and un-Christian. The trustees met on 16 March 1982 at the Carlton Club, Pall Mall. Smyth didn’t turn up. He wrote resigning as a trustee. The others decided to keep what they knew secret.
Twenty years later, in 2012, Graham, who had been beaten twice by Smyth and knew Winchester chaplain Mark Ashton, was shown an article about Smyth by ‘David’. Graham wrote to Alasdair Paine (now by now was vicar of the Round Church congregation, which moved to St Andrew the Great in Cambridge in 1994) asking him to find out what the Church of England was doing about Smyth. Paine invited Graham to call him but he didn’t. Prompted by the Jimmy Savile revelations Graham wrote to Paine again. Eventually Paine reported the matter to Ely Diocesan Safeguarding Officer Yvonne Quirk. She replied, reported what Graham had told her to Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely and in 2013 contacted Cambridge and Chichester police.
Five years later in November 2017 Peter Hancock, Bishop of Bath and Wells and the church’s lead bishop on Safeguarding was visited by Graham. Graham discovered that the Church of England had not considered holding any investigation into Smyth’s activities, and Hancock had no idea whether anyone at the National Safeguarding Team was taking charge of the Smyth case. On 11 August 2018 John Smyth died at home in Cape Town. The following morning Hancock announced that the Church of England would now commission a review into how the church had handled the disclosures of abuse by John Smyth.
Those who were associated in some way with the Iwerne Trust:
David Watson, an evangelist of international repute; John Stott, elder statesman of the evangelical church in the twentieth century, Eric Nash’s adjutant and camp secretary; Nicky Gumbel, driving force behind the Alpha Course, owes his faith to the Iwerne camps and recollects intense mentoring by Jonathan Fletcher who met with him for 3 hours every week for a year; Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, who knew about Smyth’s abuse in 2013. Jonathan Fletcher, curate of the Round Church, Cambridge, attended Iwerne camps for more than 40 years, and played a part in the spiritual formation of Rev Nicky Gumbel, Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, and Archbishop Justin Welby. Fletcher was at Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon from 1982, where he stayed acting as a sort of High Priest to the Iwerne network. Unmarried and childless, he drew on the younger men for intimacy and affirmation. David Fletcher, Jonathan’s older brother, was in 1962 employed by the Scripture Union to run Iwerne camps as Eric Nash’s successor, until 1986 when he became Rector of St Ebbe’s, Oxford. A Iwerne trustee to whom Mark Ruston sent his report in 1982. Mark Ruston, Vicar of the Round Church Cambridge, mentored Jonathan Fletcher; Richard Bewes, a Iwerne alumnus, became Rector of All Souls, Langham Place; the Bishops of Dorchester and Carlisle were ex-Iwerne.
Those who met Smyth at Iwerne:
William Taylor, 25 years at St Helen’s Bishopsgate; Johnny Juckes, curate at St Helen’s Bishopsgate and currently Principal of Oak Hill College; Nick McKinnel, Iwerne officer who became Bishop of Plymouth; Julian Henderson, Iwerne officer, who became Bishop of Blackburn; Andrew Watson, Iwerne officer, who became Bishop of Guildford; Steve Wookey; Christopher Ash; David Banting; Mike Keep; Rod Pellereau; Hugh Balfour, who had a long ministry in Camberwell.
Others with Iwerne connections via Smyth or Fletcher
George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, then principal of Trinity Theological College, Bristol, was warned in 1984 that Smyth was problematic; Vaughan Roberts was a curate of David Fletcher at St Ebbe’s, Oxford, and eventually took over from him; Hugh Palmer was a contemporary of William Taylor at St Helen’s, Bishopsgate and became Rector of All Souls, Langham Place; Andy Lines, Missionary Bishop to Europe of the Anglican Church in North America, was an intimate disciple of Jonathan Fletcher; Rod Thomas, Bishop of Maidstone, first leader of Reform, who had been mentored by Jonathan Fletcher since he was a teenager. Rod Thomas had direct oversight of Jonathan Fletcher but in 2016 claimed he was unaware that Fletcher’s PTO had been quietly removed by the Bishop of Southwark; Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Southwark knew about Jonathan Fletcher reporting himself to the Southwark Diocese Safeguarding Officer in 2016. Chessun decided to take no further action beyond removing his PTO. Several evangelicals who were gay but were encouraged to identify themselves as ‘same-sex attracted’ gathered around the Southwark Diocese, where rumours abound of covert homo-erotic relationships.
Iwerne graduates are prominent among those who have fought and campaigned against the place of women in the leadership of the church, and against the inclusion of LGBT people. How much has the repressed homosexuality of John Smyth and others in the Iwerne movement impacted the church’s struggles to come to terms with human sexuality?
For many the path through this painful wilderness of sexuality was to remain celibate, like John Stott, Eric Nash, and Mark Ruston.
The Proclamation Trust, founded to train conservative preachers by Dick Lucas and Jonathan Fletcher, and, from 1992, Reform founded to achieve separation over the ordination of women and opposed to homosexual expression in relationships. The 22 founding clergy included Lucas, both Fletcher brothers, Hugh Palmer, Mark Ashton, and Donald Alister (+Peterborough), led by Rod Thomas who had been mentored by Jonathan Fletcher since he was a teenager. All are allied to GAFCON and AMiE, the Anglican Mission in England.
Significant places named by Andrew Graystone
Emmanuel Church Wimbledon, a proprietary chapel, was Jonathan Fletcher’s powerbase, and would be the Iwerne network’s cathedral if it had one; it has been led exclusively by Iwerne alumni.
The Round Church, Cambridge (meeting from 1994 at St Andrew the Great), led exclusively by Iwerne alumni.
Wycliffe Hall Oxford.
St Helen’s Bishopsgate, led exclusively by Iwerne alumni where Dick Lucas, a disciple of Nash, had a 20 year ministry to city workers and Willliam Taylor had a lengthy ministry.
Christ Church, Cockfosters.
St Mary’s Islington.
St Ebbe’s, Oxford, centre of the Iwerne network there, led exclusively by Iwerne alumni.
All Soul’s, Langham Place, led exclusively by Iwerne alumni.
Graystone, A. 2021 Bleeding for Jesus: John Smyth and the cult of the Iwerne camps. London, Darton, Longman and Todd