Extraordinary scenes at Synod as sacked ISB members are given a hearing

Jul 10, 2023 by Jill

by Hattie Williams, Church Times:

THE two sacked members of the Church’s now-disbanded Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB) have told the General Synod that they were “silenced” by the Archbishops’ Council for being “too independent” — and warned that survivors would pay the price for their dismissal.

Jasvinder Sanghera and Steve Reeves were unexpectedly given the opportunity to address the Synod during an informal ten-minute session on Sunday afternoon. This was created through a convoluted process of standing orders at the conclusion of a presentation on the ISB and the future of church safeguarding from a panel of four Council members.

This included the Archbishop of York, who described the fallout as a “watershed” moment for the Church that had changed the Council’s perception of what workable independence should look like — namely, that the Church “can no longer think that we can deliver these things ourselves”.

The Archbishops’ Council made the decision to sack two of the three ISB board members last month (News, 23 June) with two weeks’ notice — which ended two days before they were due to present to the Synod on Sunday afternoon. The slot was filled with a safeguarding item in three parts: a presentation from a survivor of church-related abuse, Jane Chevous; presentations from each of the four chosen Council members (Archbishop Cottrell, Alison Coulter, Tim Goode, and Jamie Harrison); and questions from the floor of Synod.

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