Surviving Church Conflict

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Readers of this blog will recognise the signs and symptoms of narcissism. Individuals with severe narcissistic personalities in leadership have had plenty of exposure on this and the other side of the Pond. I need not name examples, except to note that despite continuing uncovering of significant moral and other failures, they still believe wholeheartedly in their own narrative and are not dissuaded in carrying on their crusades to regaining power whatsoever.

In the circumstances, surely none of the existing Christ Church trustees should have been considered for appointment as Dean to succeed Martyn Percy, even on an interim basis. If an appointment was to be made, ahead of Dominic Grieve KC’s report and the implementation of any changes he may recommend to the governance of the college, an outsider should have been appointed, as often happens these days in a benefice where there has been division, and/or other historic problematic issues, when an interim priest-in-charge is appointed, both to seek to heal the divisions and oversee any necessary changes ahead of the appointment of a successor incumbent. Following the translation of Bishop John Perumbalath to the See of Liverpool from the See of Bradwell, there is now a vacancy for a southern suffragan in the House of Bishops.

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Ms Atkinson’s resignation comes at the conclusion of a process of contractually “enforced conciliation” – an oxymoron – which was never likely to have a happy outcome after eight months of estrangement seasoned with findings of adverse data mishandling by the Chair. Survivors were reporting a loss of confidence in her, and one can hardly be surprised that the Survivor Advocate Jasvinder Sanghera took their concerns very seriously. Without survivor confidence the ISB is incapable of functioning properly. The same church lawyers setting up the Kate Wood investigation, and the refusal of those driving the campaign against the Dean to admit that these lawyers had set Wood’s Terms of Reference. (October 2020).

JG So, the Independent Safeguarding Board is in the process of being set up. It’s in phase one and it’s looking forward to the next step, which is to sort of full independence. I absolutely recognise that there have been teething problems in getting that going. Now, we’ve had more conversations this week that have been actually really constructive about how that should look, but it’s not because the Church is resisting independence. It’s about getting the right structures for independence: how it’s funded and what the scope of work is, what reporting looks like, and I think that does need further work, but we are taking some really constructive steps towards that at the moment. What I think is clear from this display is that (as many will have suspected all along) it is not really worth anyone’s while to engage with the Church, and that if effective reforms are to be made, they will need to be implemented by parliament and the government without reference to the Church’s wishes (and whether the Church likes it or not). Perhaps survivors’ groups should simply stop wasting time with bishops and Church officials, and should devote time to engaging solely with MPs and civil servants. I also think that this needs to be done sooner rather than later, whilst the political reverberations of IICSA continue to resound in Westminster and Whitehall. In year or two’s time the policymaking caravan might well have moved on, and IICSA will have joined the mountain of other largely forgotten government reports. Yes, Mr Froghole. Many survivors and our supporters have realised this and are starting to engage with the public sector.

The appointment of Ms Atkinson’s temporary replacement brings additional important issues to light .The former MP Meg Munn who is taking over, currently numbers amongst her career portfolio of offices, that of member of the National Safeguarding Steering Group and Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel. Whether she and /or either of those bodies played any part in the original conceptualisation of the ISB or the current shenanigans is unclear. So much is and will remain unclear; General Synod has not been allowed to debate these problems and may not be in July.

Prof Foot was a senior trustee of a charity which has been issued a Serious Warning by the Charity Commission, which has found “that the trustees failed to manage the charity’s resources responsibly” having “failed to act on its previous advice, given between 2019-2020, to continue to have ‘close oversight of costs’”. In December 2021, when Prof Foot was acting head of the trustee body, “the Commission asked the trustees to provide information about the costs of the actions connected to the former Dean and how these costs were being managed. The trustees were unable to provide the information in a timely manner.” Again under her headship, the charity published accounts with “the potential to mislead the readers”. The Commission found a “failure to ensure the college was accountable for its expenditure on legal and public relations fees” and in summary That being so, what I feel survivor’s groups need to do is to develop their own draft legislation and present it to some interested MPs. It might be worth engaging with a parliamentary agent (usually a Westminster law firm) to draft legislation.After all Jasvinder and Steve have been doing a perfectly good job these last seven months, given the absolute paucity of resources the Church has made available to them. Revd Hayns may be one of those subject to investigation by a full and proper Christ Church Review: it is not nice, especially when one emerges the other end with the allegations unsustained, but nevertheless harmed. JC: Absolutely, my view is that we do not have confidence in an appointment that has been made without due process, without any consultation with survivors or existing members of the Board, and where somebody has had that conflict of interest, it is a red line. The Ordinary of the Cathedral and Visitor of the Cathedral Chapter should become the Bishop of Oxford, with the Bishop fully involved in the appointment of all future Deans;