I have recent experience of the inability or unwillingness of the Archbishop of York in dealing with a vicar who made false allegations and told blatant lies about me in a document for the Church’s complaints procedure, sent to a Judge. This blatant lying was explicitly not included in consideration of my complaint by the Archbishop. The Diocesan Registrar stated that were I to raise it as a new complaint, this was of “insufficient substance to proceed further under the measure” (!)

I feel that my experience, whilst not related to abuse, has elements which perfectly illustrate the dysfunction of the church’s hierarchy and inadequacy of its complaints procedures, particularly regarding its attitude to the truth. This was a case where a vicar had made written allegations against me, including that I had been subject to a police investigation and had been cautioned by the police. Incredibly, my “offence” was supposedly to have made a safeguarding complaint against his organist- something I had not done. His allegations were clearly proven to be lies, with evidence I gained from the diocesan safeguarding officer and from the police.

After my gaining this evidence the vicar’s Archdeacon was unable to intervene, as the vicar declined to attend a meeting with a mediator present. Unbelievably, this decision was apparently the vicar’s to make, despite his being so clearly in the wrong.

When I tried to raise the matter by writing to the Archbishop of York, this was met with a curt reply stating that the Archbishop “could not get involved with or comment on a matter that has been fully considered and properly disposed of in both a CDM and subsequent review carried out by an independent judge” (which it had not), and that the Archbishop’s Office would not be entering into further correspondence on this matter. Hence the lies of the vicar were compounded by a complete misrepresentation by the Archbishop’s office of what had gone before and a clear attempt to sweep the whole thing under the carpet.

I am left questioning whether there is any concern in the Church about bearing false witness. It certainly appears to be of no concern to the Archbishop of York, his office, and his Diocesan Registrar.