A Retired Rector's Reflections

I’ve mentioned here about serious abuse which I suffered at the hands of a priest in the Church of England. When it was reported many years ago the bishop involved instructed myself and friends who knew of it never to speak to anyone about what happened. There was an implied threat that if we were to it could seriously affect our careers in the Church.

I’ve also posted here about the totally incompetent and grossly uncaring way my disclosure about this, three years ago, and the subsequent complaints I made, were handled by the Diocese of Manchester, and in particular by the Diocesan COO (Chief Operating Officer / Senior administrator) and the Bishop of Manchester.

Hearing of the Church of England redress scheme for survivors earlier this year I decided to register my interest in this. It seemed to me the Church has a duty to victims – to show sensitivity, pastoral care and to give appropriate redress. I registered my interest in confidence, and it was my belief that the redress scheme would respect my privacy.

This evening (26th August) I received an email from the redress scheme in which my name and email address and that of all other ‘prospective applicants’ who had registered interest was openly shared – about 200 names and email addresses. A number of solicitors in law firms were also included in the sharing.

This is a total breach of confidentiality, and shatters my confidence in the process. I suspect an individual may be blamed for the breach. In one sense it was a simple mistake. However what the breach reveals is that inadequate confidential care is being taken, and supervision and oversight of those handling the data is also inadequate. It is part of a history of appalling treatment of victims, and as a friend comments “It boils down to this: the establishment deem (at best) that survivors do not merit careful, professional treatment.” The Church of England should have taken the greatest of care to ensure this kind of data breach would never happen. Clearly it did not.

Naturally this breach further abuses survivors of church abuse. Understandably some are already expressing their upset at the action. Here are the words of some who have responded within a few hours of the email: “I am so traumatised that my email address has been shared,” “its triggering and adds to mine and other peoples suffering, mental health and trust issues” “Why did I ever trust this scheme…” ““I cannot begin to put into words how appalled and upset I am by this.”

As I write this not one caring word has come out from the Church of England about this. Those affected have not been contacted. As Andrew Graystone, an experienced and trusted survivor advocate has commented on ‘X’:

I have been a priest in the Church of England for over 40years. Now I feel utterly ashamed to belong to it. I am personally very hurt by the Church’s continuing, unending, lack of due diligence and care for those who have been abused by it. The leadership of the Church is clearly not ‘fit for purpose.’