The George Bell saga evidences a CofE legal culture which is not merely incompetent, but predisposed toward deception and injustice

Jan 25, 2018 by

by Martin Sewell, from Archbishop Cranmer:

How many times must I forgive my errant brother? St Matthew tells us it is seventy times seven, which, by my reckoning, suggests that Archbishop Justin has at least another 75 attempts to perfect his “less than fully adroit” response to Lord Carlile’s report into the case of the late Bishop George Bell. Being Archbishop in these times is not easy.

I cannot pretend that I was mindful of that verse when I was pressed by a journalist on Monday afternoon to call for the Archbishop’s resignation. Nevertheless, I refused. I was, however, prepared to admit anger and frustration at the present impasse during the course of what became a lengthy conversation. The journalist then reported that I intended to call for an apology from Archbishop Justin at General Synod: I will not, because I will not personalise a serious debate. We need to fix the problem, not engage in gesture politics.

We also do not need the deep problems within the Church of England’s safeguarding culture to be used as a proxy war for other issues.

As I wrote a few months ago, I am not so arrogant as to believe that anyone remembers my maiden speech at General Synod. I remember little of it myself, but I do recall sharing the thought that such expertise to which I might claim within the field of safeguarding law arose within the evolution of this legal specialism over the last 30 years or so. Like police, social workers, lawyers, experts and judges, I was part of a culture that made very many errors along the path to our current understanding, which is actually getting pretty good, even if hard-won lessons are still forgotten in the high-pressure world of busy practitioners.

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Read Martin Sewell’s letter to the Telegraph

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