“Shabby and shambolic” – the CofE still conspires against truth and justice in historic sexual abuse

Aug 2, 2019 by Jill

by Martin Sewell, Archishop Cranmer:

Anyone wishing the Church of England well might have hoped that the end of the IICSA hearing last month represented the nadir of its unhappy handling of victims complaints. Despite both Archbishops at last adopting the honest appraisal by the Lead Bishop for Safeguarding, that the handling of the Rev’d Mattew Ineson case was “shabby and shambolic”, Archbishop Sentamu declined to offer any apology to the victim, who was sitting in the room with him, even when gently reminded by Counsel to the Inquiry that he could now do so for the original abuse, given that liability had been admitted and financial compensation concluded almost a year ago.

Archbishop Justin did no better, seeking refuge in the formula that somehow Mr Ineson had “not heard” his apology at a Lambeth Palace meeting with both the victim and his lawyer were present. Next day, on checking the Lambeth minutes of the conversation, Mr Ineson’s legal team drew attention to the fact that those minutes contained no record of such an apology, but rather recorded that the apology could not be officially issued until the legal case was concluded. Mr Ineson has added at interview that this was seven months before the Rev’d Trevor Devamanikkam, his abuser, was charged, asking whether it was credible that the Archbishop was so convinced of Devamanikkam’s guilt that he apologised months before any charges were brought.

For neither Archbishop to have seized the opportunity to embrace humble repentance and offer a plain-language apology there and then can only leave people flabbergasted. Did none of their advisers counsel, “Don’t forget the apology”? Christians are supposed to be good at this kind of thing: ‘A soft word turns away wrath.’ We are to ‘do good to those who revile you‘, and I am absolutely sure that in every other circumstance doing the right thing would have been done. But here yet again, when exercising a formal role, good men seem to fall short; such is the gravitational pull of the official, the legal, and the institutional. One of the lawyers for the survivors William Chapman put it succinctly: “..the Archbishops just don’t get it.”

Read here