This month marks the 40th anniversary of the attack on Ealing vicarage that shocked Britain and changed the national conversation about rape. To coincide with…
When a 15-year-old’s abuse is framed as an “intimate sexual relationship”, language becomes part of the problem. This post examines how the Clergy Discipline system describes child sexual exploitation — and why words used by its gatekeepers matter.
Synod has reversed the presumption of private hearings in the Clergy Conduct Measure. But the deeper issue remains: most of the system’s real operation will sit in unpublished Rules. Parliament is being asked to approve a framework without seeing how it will work in practice.
Parliament called it out. Synod was misled. Now the Church is being forced to retreat. The claim that secret hearings are the norm was rejected by MPs and peers — yet Synod members are still being told it’s standard practice. It isn’t.
A Synod chair cut off an answer on trustees’ duties, citing ‘legal advice’. Was scrutiny silenced to avoid awkward truths about charity law and safeguarding?
Last year, nearly a quarter of General Synod members voted against or withheld support for the Archbishop of York delivering a Presidential Address. Now Church leaders are changing the rules to make sure such challenges can’t happen again.
Two questions at this week’s General Synod expose a deeper problem: the Archbishops’ Council says it is still “identifying” what the Charity Commission expects of trustees. But those duties are long-established in law — and delay is no longer credible.
A new briefing exposes how the Church of England’s latest safeguarding proposals delay true independence, keep control in-house, and fail to meet the needs of victims, Synod, and regulators.
When a senior leader declares “no case to answer” while a safeguarding review is still live, it doesn’t just shape headlines — it risks shaping outcomes. Why narrative control is no substitute for accountability.
Invoking a judge’s Court of Appeal title doesn’t make a closed, opaque process equivalent to open justice. Authority comes from safeguards, transparency and accountability — not from who signs the decision.
