Archbishop Stephen Cottrell addresses the General Synod in a a debate about the IICSA report
25 November 2020
I was ordained into a Church, and IICSA has showed us this so, so shamefully, but I realise now I was ordained into a Church that when it came to safeguarding was concerned, first of all, to protect its own reputation; secondly, to limit damage; and, thirdly, most shamefully, to ignore abuse and its consequences. Over the last 30 years or so, I have seen the Church change and I have been part of that change in different ways.
So, now, we do not ignore abuse. We train clergy and we have a way of protecting children and vulnerable adults. We have made some progress but there is still obviously a third stage of change that we need to go through. . .
The first and the most important is that we change our culture. There is a culture of clericalism and deference in our Church and that cannot continue because it is deeply, deeply unhealthy and it allows some of us to find ourselves in positions where people feel that somehow we have become above reproach and that we cannot be criticised.
This is really, really bad for us. Part of this culture change, therefore, must mean that, when we make mistakes – because we will make mistakes and things will go wrong, we will not always get it right – part of the culture change is to be open and transparent about that as followers of Jesus Christ. . .
Therefore, we welcome independent scrutiny and we look and reach out to the survivors and offenders who have reached out to us, saying “We want your help. We want to build a new culture. We want to stop being in this place where we have to keep saying sorry”. Goodness, I am deeply, deeply shamed and deeply, deeply penitent.
I am finding myself, in this new role, falling to knees in sorrow and shame for what has happened but, more importantly, I want to rise up and be the change and make the change we need to make, which is primarily one of culture but, therefore, must mean that we welcome independent scrutiny and that we get on urgently with the business of reparation.
Getting all this right, Synod, is going to cost us a lot of money. Getting it wrong is going to cost us our soul.
