“If this isn’t forgery, it is certainly a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”
Averting a catastrophe in the Church of England. Is it too late?
Stephen’s Blog Stephen Parsons
In September 2018, the Church of England, as part of its ongoing safeguarding efforts, published a very comprehensive fact sheet on different types of abuse. It is an attempt to encourage a reader to become used to recognising the great variety of abusive practices that can occur in the Church and elsewhere. In 2015, English law codified the idea that domestic abuse is much more than just physical violence. It may include a range of behaviours that come under the broad category of coercion and control. Even without evidence of physical violence, a man or woman can now be convicted of a criminal offence for abuse. Educating people to have a broader understanding of abuse in a religious context was also needed. I have a personal interest in this topic. When I wrote my book Ungodly Fear over twenty years ago, I was trying to explore this idea that the misuse of power in a church context was a widespread reality and the cause of much suffering. Abusing power is a far bigger topic than just the sexual exploitation of a vulnerable person.
This morning, on a sister blog Archbishop Cranmer, we heard new details about the Dean Percy affair. I do not propose to repeat the points made in that disturbing article, but to use some of Cranmer’s material to indicate that Percy has become the victim of many of the types of abuse mentioned in the 2018 document. Apart from naming a wide range of abusive practices, the 2018 CofE document also provides suggestions of the way that the Church can respond to the victims and survivors. Percy, because he has been labelled as a perpetrator, has not been offered much help, pastoral, financial or practical. Help is supposed to be offered in such cases, according to the Church’s safeguarding protocols but only the tiniest amount has been forthcoming. Somehow the level of vitriol in the College is such that a regime of extreme isolation has been imposed. The help and support that Percy has been able to gather is that which has come from family and friends. He has also seen the complete depletion of the family finances.
The 2018 document first of all discusses emotional or psychological abuse. I would see these two forms of abuse as sometimes distinct categories and, at other times, overlapping. Over the past three years there have been many examples of psychological threats and abuse towards Percy. Phone calls/emails late at night are part of the stock-in-trade for those who want to harass and put someone permanently on edge. Also within a community like a college, it is not difficult to create an unfriendly environment for an individual. Shunning and ostracism, when they are practised, are especially cruel. This is a topic to which I often return in this blog as it is one of the most evil practices that can be enacted. The 2018 document mentions this behaviour when it describes ‘causing or forcing isolation/withdrawal from family/friends and support networks’. The extraordinary lengths to which the Censors and members of the Chapter has gone to prevent members of the clergy/colleagues even visiting Percy are described as practices that the Church should be fighting against. Can unproven allegations of sexual harassment ever justify the rolling out of such viciously cruel behaviour?
Abuse can also be financial. The 2018 document has in mind such things as the forcing of an elderly person to change a will or hand over property. In Percy’s case, the financial abuse has been by forcing him virtually to bankrupt himself in employing lawyers to defend him in the first legal challenge by the College to oust him in 2018. He was declared innocent of all the 27 original charges brought by the Censors. Percy’s accusers were also shown up to have produced manipulated documents. In short, the accusers engaged in lying to make their case. Retired Judge Andrew Smith saw the lies and commented on them in his report. In the latest attacks by College and National Safeguarding Team, overseen by the Bishop of Birmingham, Percy has been unable to instruct legal representation. This is partly for financial reasons and partly for reasons of his health.
The CofE document mentions discriminatory abuse. This is taking advantage of someone who is in a weaker position because of poverty, disability or some other handicap. Discriminatory abuse is to be found all over the recent treatment that Percy has received. The Sub-Dean, Richard Peers, has taken it upon himself to prevent even the fellow members of Chapter from making contact with Percy. I understand that not even his request to receive Communion in the home has been allowed. Such isolating of a sick man, socially, spiritually and psychologically is desperately underhand behaviour.
Institutional abuse is described. This is the kind of situation that might occur in a Home where one patient is treated badly because they are deemed to be difficult in some way. When an institution, like a Home, turns against an individual, it is hard to see how anyone can resist such enormous pressure. It is clearly going on at Christ Church. The financial bullying of Percy, backed by the enormous financial resources of the College, was another example of institutional abuse. The Censors must be hoping that the Dean’s ability to fight back financially will eventually be defeated by the sheer fire power available to the College because of their endowments.
Abuse by neglect and acts of omission are other examples of behaviour suffered by Percy. The utter failure of the College or Canons to reach out to a sick man to offer help and support of any kind is an inexplicable failure of any institution, let alone one founded on Christian principles. The 2018 document is not a particularly Christian document. It is rather an adaptation of the Care Act of 2015 which wanted to show how we need to take a much broader understanding of abuse than society has done hitherto. As with the Charity Commission, the values being articulated are human values. If Christian individuals and institutions find these hard to hold on to, what can we expect of the rest of society? Are we not able to hope that Christians take morality and goodness seriously?
The final category of abuse mentioned in the document is complex abuse. This is a name given to a situation when an institution or an individual is using a variety of abuse methods against one person. We have already indicated that Dean Percy is the target of a many-sided form of abuse. Complex abuse might be considered to be an convenient shorthand for what is going on here. But there is one great irony about the document Types of Abuse. This was put together by experts in the Safeguarding world to help Christians identify those in need of help. Here we are discovering that in fact it is, in this case, the Church itself committing acts of abuse against an individual. If I am right in identifying six of the categories of abuse in this church document being set in motion by church officials, then someone needs to blow a whistle on this event. We often speak about survivors on this blog, but here we have to describe Percy as a victim. Six forms of abuse coming from two distinct institutions, operating with an extraordinary level of malice, is enough to put anyone into a breakdown. No one going through such an experience is easily able to fight back. Humanly, the force being used is barely survivable. The only human strength that can operate here is that provided by supporters, family and friends.
Two things need to happen if the Church is to emerge from this disaster with any integrity.
One is that all the clergy who have been guilty of dirty tricks and abuse against Percy should be named in a new Clergy Discipline Measure process. There have been so many procedural dishonesties in this episode. One mentioned by Archbishop Cranmer, is what I call the dirty dossier. This is a fraudulent risk assessment document submitted with the CDM documents to the Bishop of Oxford. The College have admitted that they were wrong to back this document but the damage has done in creating the over-the-top risk assessment which has now been put in place around the College.
The second thing that could save the day and rescue the Church’s integrity from a mire of self- destruction, is for someone of stature to come forward. They would then ask for all the destructive church processes to be halted for a while. The one person that could do this is the Archbishop of York. The Archbishop of Canterbury is likely to be entangled with the same legal firms as have been advising the Diocese of Oxford and Christ Church College, as well as the various bodies that work out of Church House. Stephen Cottrell, hopefully, can recognise what a disaster these events are for the whole Church of England. I believe that the paths of Dean Percy and Cottrell have crossed in the past. If that is true, he will know that Percy is not a sex-crazed lunatic, which is how his enemies at Christ Church have been trying to portray him for their own political ends. If the Archbishop pf York could put in place a moratorium on the church processes for three months, this might help to calm things down and stop the current madness infecting and afflicting the church in Oxford and elsewhere. There is a crisis; we need something dramatic to happen to resolve things. Stephen Cottrell, you are our last hope!
About Stephen Parsons
Stephen is a retired Anglican priest living at present in Cumbria. He has taken a special interest in the issues around health and healing in the Church but also when the Church is a place of harm and abuse. He has published books on both these issues and is at present particularly interested in understanding how power works at every level in the Church. He is always interested in making contact with others who are concerned with these issues.
3 thoughts on “Averting a catastrophe in the Church of England. Is it too late?”
John Wallace Stephen, you are so right in this. Nearly 30 years ago, the children’s home where I worked was subject to allegations of abuse as a result of a new deputy Social Services Director, who wanted to make her mark. 52 of us were suspended. Fortunately, through the strength of numbers and putting pressure on councillors, we eventually got an independent enquiry which exonerated us and resulted in the Director and the deputy resigning and the rest of us being redeployed or receiving a financial settlement. Even at that time, the enquiry was reckoned to have cost the County Council around £1m. Martyn does not have the luxury of these numbers, but perhaps those of us who want to see fairness for Martyn – and believe in his integrity – should start a campaign of writing to + Birmingham (as in charge of the CDM), to +Oxford as the diocesan and to ++ Canterbury and ++ York (copying the Charity Commission into our correspondence). I believe totally in Martyn’s innocence and integrity but equally believe that any challenges to this should be based on fairness, openness and, dare I say, the spirit of Christian charity and humility. Initiating CDM processes during absence due to sickness is certainly bad practice and could well be illegal. I’m sure our legal participants to this blog will clarify this. Martyn has already suffered enough at the hands of vindictive academic and ecclesiastical manipulators. It is time for more vocal support for fairness and transparency of process.
Rowland Wateridge If, and we have to say if, a fraudulent document was used in initiating the CDM procedure, the CDM should be set aside, no ifs and buts about that. You can’t have a legal disciplinary procedure based on illegal material. So, the full facts about that document including how and by whom it was produced must be established urgently. I believe steps to that end are already in hand.
“LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN CHRIST CHURCH OXFORD SAGA” – ‘THINKING ANGLICANS’
COMMENTS
Richard W. Symonds Awaiting for approval
Stephen Parsons, over at ‘Surviving Church’, asks: “Averting a catastrophe in the Church of England. Is it too late?”, and concludes it is not – but…
“This morning, on a sister blog Archbishop Cranmer [and elsewhere – Ed], we heard new details about the Dean Percy affair…
Two things need to happen if the Church is to emerge from this disaster with any integrity.
One is that all the clergy who have been guilty of dirty tricks and abuse against Percy should be named in a new Clergy Discipline Measure process. There have been so many procedural dishonesties in this episode. One mentioned by Archbishop Cranmer, is what I call the dirty dossier. This is a fraudulent risk assessment document submitted with the CDM documents to the Bishop of Oxford. The College have admitted that they were wrong to back this document but the damage has done in creating the over-the-top risk assessment which has now been put in place around the College.
The second thing that could save the day and rescue the Church’s integrity from a mire of self- destruction, is for someone of stature to come forward. They would then ask for all the destructive church processes to be halted for a while. The one person that could do this is the Archbishop of York. The Archbishop of Canterbury is likely to be entangled with the same legal firms as have been advising the Diocese of Oxford and Christ Church College, as well as the various bodies that work out of Church House. Stephen Cottrell, hopefully, can recognise what a disaster these events are for the whole Church of England. I believe that the paths of Dean Percy and Cottrell have crossed in the past. If that is true, he will know that Percy is not a sex-crazed lunatic, which is how his enemies at Christ Church have been trying to portray him for their own political ends. If the Archbishop pf York could put in place a moratorium on the church processes for three months, this might help to calm things down and stop the current madness infecting and afflicting the church in Oxford and elsewhere. There is a crisis; we need something dramatic to happen to resolve things.
Stephen Cottrell, you are our last hope!”
FURTHER INFORMATION
“THE CASE OF BISHOP GEORGE BELL” BY DAVID JASPER DD FRSE
COMMENTS
COMMENTS
You may have seen a recent letter to the Church Times...about the case of the Revd John Roberts in Woolton. Liverpool…But it was Justin Welby’s behaviour when John Roberts was ‘helping’ at the cathedral that really struck us. In that situation, Welby sided with a convicted abuser against a genuine complainant. Clearly, he has very poor judgement on occasion, as was abundantly shown later by his ‘significant cloud’ comment. Private Eye has covered the case to some extent but, so far, Welby has largely escaped as far as the national press is concerned. At the time of IICSA, the John Roberts case was going through the courts, so there are only veiled references to it in their reports. Liverpool diocese is undertaking a review of the case, so we shall see if that says anything much about Welby’s involvement.
‘M’ – 21/03/2021
It brings it all back, doesn’t it? I don’t think my anger and disgust will ever go away and my regard for the Church of England which was low anyway has pretty well gone…
‘J’ – 20/03/2021
Thank you for sending me this article by David Jasper. Whilst its contents will be familiar to those of us concerned for Bishop Bell’s reputation, it brings the necessary material together for a wider readership. I wonder whether copies of it have gone to Welby and Warner, though in the case of the former it would probably be intercepted by his staff and kept from his sight, and Warner remains obdurate in his refusal to admit his errors and those of the group which tried to trash Bell’s reputation. After the Carlile Report, an honourable man would have apologized and at least have offered his resignation. It was suggested to me that Warner’s chief concern is protecting his safeguarding team from all blame. I do not know whether this is so, but it is a black day for the Church when matters of truth and justice take second place to defending diocesan functionaries.
I also wonder whether a copy of the Jasper article has gone to the Church Times – not that I have much faith in the paper to concern itself with the Bell case. I believe several letters have been written to the Editor on this matter, including one from me, none of which has been published.
However, the important thing is that Welby and Warner must by now be aware that Bell’s defender’s are not going to “put up and shut up”. Warner, in particular, appears oblivious to the fact that it is his own reputation, and that of the diocese and the Cathedral, which are now in the gutter.
‘B’ – 20/03/2021
Lamentable
‘G’ – 22/03/2021
What a devastating summary of the case! I hope that the press will pick it up – not just the Church Times, but the national dailies as well
‘T’
I think what distinguishes the present situation from what has gone before is the suggestion that there has now been a breach of criminal law, not just irregularities in the Church’s own procedures, very serious as some of those have been. We can only wait to see whether this latest development changes things. It may be that only outside intervention will do so
‘R’ – 22/03/2021
Surely it would be better for him to go elsewhere.” That’s what the Governing Body wants. It’s called giving way to bullying
‘S’
Bullying is abuse. The bully is an abuser
‘R’
CHURCH TIMES – MARCH 26 2021 – SUB DEAN CANON RICHARD PEERS
Christ Church Cathedral ‘praying for Dean Percy’
THE Sub Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Canon Richard Peers, issued a pastoral letter on Wednesday to assure the congregation that the Dean, the Very Revd Professor Martyn Percy, who has currently stepped back from duties while a complaint of sexual harassment is investigated (News, 19 March), is prayed for daily in the cathedral. He rebutted rumours on social media that Dean Percy, who is unwell, had been refused communion and was unsupported. He wrote: “Throughout all this, I have encouraged friends and colleagues to make contact with the Percys to offer love and support and prayer in what must be an extraordinarily difficult situation.”
Safeguarding decisions at Christ Church, Oxford
From the Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford
Sir, — I write as Christ Church Cathedral’s Safeguarding Lead, and I can, therefore, confirm exactly what was, and was not, in the leaked risk assessment (News, 19 March).
The version of the risk assessment leaked to the Church Times lists a timeline, including a “Second risk assessment” as having been carried out by Kate Wood on 22 October 2020. Instead of “Second risk assessment”, it should have read “Investigation”: this is what was carried out by Kate Wood and submitted on that date. That subheading was corrected in subsequent versions of the documents.
None of this has any bearing whatsoever on the complaint itself, or indeed the assessment of risk made in the documents. The risk assessments are confidential, password-protected, and with very limited circulations, designed to protect all those involved, including both the young member of staff who made the allegation, and the Dean of Christ Church himself.
It has even been sensationally suggested that the risk assessments in some way restrict the Dean’s freedom to be visited and supported by friends and family, or even to receive communion. None of this is true; and pastoral support has been in place for Martyn throughout.
It is very disappointing how one heading from those preliminary documents is being disingenuously used to imply that the assessments are somehow invalid, to generate mistruths, and to cast doubt on the CDM process itself.
GRAHAM WARD (Canon)
Christ Church
Oxford OX1 1DP
From Mr Martin Sewell
Sir, — I read your report last week about the wholly disproportionate irregular risk assessment concerning Dean Percy. Taking the document at face value, I was one who criticised the independent investigator Kate Wood for exceeding her area of expertise.
The affixing of her name gave that document the authority of her experience and independence, which, it transpires, it did not have. Accordingly, she did not deserve my criticism, though legitimate criticism must now be considered elsewhere.
I hope that you will allow me to apologise to Ms Wood publicly for the upset and frustration that this aspect of the scandal will have caused her, and my inadvertent part in it.
MARTIN SEWELL
Member of General Synod
8 Appleshaw Close
Gravesend
Kent DA11 7PB
The Bell Society 