After Makin: former Bishop of Durham among clergy asked to ‘step back’ from ministry

Nov 28, 2024 by Jill

by Madeleine Davies, Church Times:

Clerics named in the review subject to safeguarding reviews.

A FORMER Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, is among the clergy who have been asked to “step back” from ministry while safeguarding reviews prompted by the Makin review are conducted, it was confirmed this week.

The Makin review concluded that John Smyth’s abuse became an “open secret amongst a whole variety of people connected with the Conservative Evangelical network” (News, 7 November). The individuals named in the report, running into dozens, range from those who actively covered up the abuse in the 1980s to those who learned of it in the past decade, after survivors made disclosures to the diocese of Ely.

On Sunday, the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen Ann Hartley, wrote on social media: “It’s clear from the 100s of emails I continue to receive that there’s a crisis of trust in the episcopate (not surprising, and not new). Makin must be a watershed and all (all) named in the Review must step back from public ministry now pending independent investigations.”

During the compiling of his review, which began in 2019, Mr Makin passed on concerns to the National Safeguarding Team (NST), in addition to the police and other authorities. Since then, some clergy have already been subject to safeguarding reviews. They include Lord Carey, whose permission to officiate (PTO) was withdrawn in 2020. Since it was restored in 2021, he has maintained that he “respectfully disagrees” with the NST’s conclusion that he had seen a report about Smyth’s abuse (News, 29 January 2021).

Read here