MeanderthalMan

Prof. Martyn Percy FKC. Own views/comments. Writes, teaches on culture, education, values, theology, faith and public life. Essays & Reviews @meanderinforms.

[Fergus Butler-Gallie @_F_B_G_]

Including a description of why I stay. I can’t presume to speak directly for others, nor do I judge those for whom it’s too much, but people have articulated similar sentiments to me for about a decade now.

[BijanOmrani @BijanOmrani]

Astonishing throw-away comment in Letters to the Editor of the Church Times about parish amalgamation - as if people wanting to worship Christ in the churches near to them which were provided to the glory of God by generations of benefactors, and which record the devotion of generations, constitutes more "loyalty to a building" than "loyalty to Christ" - why should parishioners have to see their ancient local places of worship closed down because a galloping central bureaucracy wants to spend their money on random fads, and then get accused of idolatry if they object? (And this letter from a priest as well!)

[Dr Francis Young @DrFrancisYoung]

Why has the public lost confidence in the Church of England? If we don't form another committee and commission a years-long study to find out and report back to another committee, we'll just never know.

[Madeleine Davies @MadsDavies]

and condemned as ‘the most egregious’ issue she found ‘the use of safeguarding to address matters of conduct which had nothing to do with risks to children or vulnerable adults’

[Simon Sarmiento @simonsarmiento]

https://t.co/H4CEXsLrAO

[National Secular Society @NatSecSoc]

Tom Gordon MP is quite right to describe reserved parliamentary seats for clerics as "crackers in the 21st century".

If bishops feel they would like to enter political life, they should seek election like any other individual.

@tomgordonLD

https://t.co/YrKfASZLxB

[GuardingtheFlock @GuardintheFlock]

NEW BLOG:

“To Nourish a Viper in One’s Bosom” 🐍🩸

https://t.co/WXSA85yfQC

Church safeguarding rarely fails because nobody saw the snake. It fails because people kept calling the snake “misunderstood” right up until it bit someone.

#Safeguarding #SpiritualAbuse #ChurchToo #ChurchOfEngland #ToxicLeadership #GuardingtheFlock

[Church Times @ChurchTimes]

The failure of a raft of initiatives to stem the decline of the #ChurchofScotland — proceeding at about 160,000 members per decade — is, in part, the result of clinging to the parish system, a new internal report suggests

#churchnews #churchtimes

https://t.co/JqWD7BpSTP

[GuardingtheFlock @GuardintheFlock]

66 problems but a fix ain't one...🐑

Blog coming soon.

https://t.co/bf8buCCwpM

[Robert Thompson (he/him) @Rgt71Robert]

66 recommendations for CofE Safeguarding change.
66 makes us one off the Mark of the Beast.
66 ….. just one of the embodiment of evil.

Yet again another completely excoriating report into our safeguarding culture in the Church of England 66 recommendations for the Church of England’s own National Safeguarding Team. Let it sink in..66.

This is a judgement:
Not on a tiny struggling parish trying to keep the lights on.
Not for an exhausted priest or volunteers in a deprived community.
Not for the people endlessly told to “improve compliance”

Rather it is judgment in our national safeguarding structures themselves. And that raises some very uncomfortable questions. And it needs all of us to take notice, to listen to stand up to demand change.

If the NST itself requires this level of recommendation and restructuring, what exactly has been demanded for years of survivors, clergy, dioceses, and parishes in terms of “confidence” and “trust”?

If the centre itself lacks capacity, clarity, and consistency, who has really been carrying the safeguarding burden all this time? Because it certainly hasn’t been equally shared. Poorer parishes, overstretched clergy, survivors, and frontline safeguarding officers know that. This is awful.

And let’s ask the much much harder question plainly: can safeguarding ever be truly independent while remaining embedded within the very institution whose reputation, liabilities, and internal culture it is also required to protect?

No it can’t. No it can’t.

This is why so many of us have kept saying the safeguarding crisis was never simply about process. It was about power and culture.

Who holds it.
Who protects it.
Who fears losing it.
And who gets sacrificed when institutions become defensive.

66 recommendations do not describe a few isolated mistakes. They describe a system under strain.

They also describe the utter lack of leadership that there has been over the past number of years. The present Bishop of Saint Edmundsbury and Ipswich, who was in charge of that culture needs to take responsibility for it. Joanne Grenfell needs to resign.

Just like Justin Welby - although he had to be pushed before he went - she needs to show that this lack of responsibility has its consequences for those who were in charge. Otherwise no change will happen. Because for bishops there is never any cost. That then the cost is borne by victims and survivors that the very same bishops even refuse to meet with.

And the Church now has to decide whether it wants real safeguarding reform.

Real reform that redistributes power and accountability.
Real reform that really puts victims and survivors at its heart
Real reform that is simply truly Christian, truly Christlike and stands with and raises up the abused.

Another round of managerial language, branding exercises, and institutional self-protection dressed up as change simply will no longer do.

What would Jesus do?
Who will Jesus stand with?
Or will you walk by on other side?

https://t.co/ate0xMBFIL

[National Secular Society @NatSecSoc]

A proposed new parliamentary group on spiritual and cultic abuse will seek to end "automatic right" of religious groups to charitable status.

https://t.co/3d9yamxqAe

[Simon Sarmiento @simonsarmiento]

Anglican Down Under: Goddard v Avis and a few other things https://t.co/BrEcjSwJZy

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

Medieval painting of an emotional support dragon, (1503-1508).

[Church Times @ChurchTimes]

"The Communion is currently fractured and dysfunctional, but, if the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals were accepted, the Communion would not be a 'communion' at all," ✍️ Paul Avis

#AnglicanCommunion #Anglicanism

https://t.co/3rsQtVPXaP

[Charlie Bączyk-Bell 🏳️‍🌈 @charliebelllive]

What fantastic news for Edinburgh, and what a sad indictment of the Church of England that such a talented bishop was not made a diocesan in our own provinces.

https://t.co/awLnyIMd4K

[Isabel Mathias @IsabelMathiasPR]

"If Candlemas Day be fair & bright
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud & rain,
Winter won't come again"
Stained glass window by Kempe from St Mary Magdalene Church, Hadnall
#Shropshire
#Candlemas

[Stephen Evans @Stephenmevans1]

Incoming Archbishop of Canterbury cleared ‘by friend’ over handling of abuse.

This process “cannot possibly command the confidence of survivors”, says @Richard_Scorer.

Fully independent complaints and disciplinary process needed.

https://t.co/ezd1jkjP1m

[MeanderthalMan @MeanderthalMan1]

Hope!

[MeanderthalMan @MeanderthalMan1]

@MartynPercy

[Church Times @ChurchTimes]

The Dean of Coventry, the Very Revd John Witcombe, has described standing in the ruins of #CoventryCathedral with the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on Friday, as “a precious moment”

#churchnews #churchtimes #germany

https://t.co/HQVlHRIU9R