Comments on: Church of England safeguarding: Why won’t Gilo go away?

By: james

james — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 23:05:02 +0000

KANGAROO COURT JUSTICE defiles modern Anglicanism. Shameful cover up of savage bullying has come to cause few shocks when headlines appear in the papers. Bishops (or Archbishops) having to resign has come to barely raise an eyebrow.

The Canon W G Neely case in the Church of Ireland Diocese of Down and Dromore is interesting. Savage child ill-treatment or sexual interference was cynically hidden for almost half a century. Yet even after legal and media exposure, why has the local GAFCON Bishop (David McClay) not formally named the late Canon W G Neely as a child abuser?

Evangelicals are supposed to believe 2 Corinthians 13:1 and to let witness evidence speak for itself. But two out of five 2015-2016 New Wine trainees in Down and Dromore Diocese left local parishes after feeling sadistically accused of sexual misconduct. Both students felt they were given no fair chance to defend themselves. Professional witnesses were alarmed and angered at the failure to address clear evidence of savage student ill-treatment.

This Olive Tree Media YouTube online film was posted 30 January 2022: ‘Karl Faase interviews Joe Turner for Jesus the Game Changer Season 2’. But the local Diocese do not seem to be using this film about growth and revival? Why?!?

What might the local Bishop (David McClay) be hiding here?How many former New Wine ministry trainees have mysteriously vanished from your Diocese, Bishop, and what is being covering up?

By: Jacqueline Darby

Jacqueline Darby — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 19:14:48 +0000

I am a survivor of non church abuse but am deeply troubled by the situation in which we find ourselves. I no longer know how to consider remaining in a process of discernment, where the better good might be done.

By: Janet Fife

Janet Fife — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 12:02:00 +0000

Thank you for the mention. However, like Gilo I am both a survivor and a survivor advocate. Like him, my experience of the C of E as a survivor of church abuse is one of denial, obfuscation, gaslighting, and really unbelievable attempts not to deal properly or fairly with my complaint. And I know the same is true of many other survivors, and also those falsely accused. The C of E seems to be incapable of doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with its God.

By: Susan Hunt

Susan Hunt — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 08:54:40 +0000

Significantly, I should have added, that since October 2020 the Cathedral Safeguarding Canon and the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser have frequently conspired to withold documented evidence that might have exonerated my friend from the allegation. Although during a CDM we filed against the Canon in April 2023 when both the Registrar and the Chancellor said there was no reason for this information not to be given, it was still refused.

More recently the Bishop of the Diocese said that although he had seen our detailed evidence he too refused to give it to us saying, “I am not in a position to override the advice I have been given”.

I think this is strong evidence of the powerlessness of Bishops to intervene in justice for safeguarding. This too,needs serious investigation otherwise there will never be any truth or justice.

After all we have shown the evidence to this Bishop and he knows the truth. Nevertheless,he has to accede to the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser in a collusion of fabrications to preserve reputations.

By: Susan Hunt

Susan Hunt — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 22:26:58 +0000

So much in this article resonates with me in my effort to find justice for a friend who has been falsely accused of sexual touching a chorister. This case has been now ongoing for almost four years and never had any sort of independent investigation.

A few weeks ago our hopes were raised when the Bishop of our Diocese
said he would contact the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser with the expression of his “hope that a resolution might be found”. Instead he replied by email and restated ten points that had already had been robustly proved to be wrong in four formal complaints and which were never responded to. It was the DSA who gave him this information he wrote in the email.

We now know without doubt the fabrications, untruths and false practices are the actions “of a corrupt body rather than a Christian Church” (Ian Elliott). As Martin Sewell quotes from the Wilkinson Review the lack of minutes of important minutes leave ‘a deficient audit trail’.
We now know my friend’s case is unlikely to be resolved. Another case to add to the other many cases of gross injustice in Safeguarding.

By: Opinion – 24 January 2024 | Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 24 January 2024 | Thinking Anglicans — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:00:39 +0000

[…] Church of England safeguarding: Why won’t Gilo go away? […]

By: Stuart Bell

Stuart Bell — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 10:08:04 +0000

Guarding against corporate reputational damage is standard practice in most commercial organisations, and a key senior management function, protecting shareholders’ interests. Is it a coincidence that recent decades have witnessed an increasing emphasis on ‘management’ and all that goes with a management model of the Church across several denominations? Working with that model then leads to the assumption in some quarters that an experienced corporate manager would clearly make a good senior bishop.