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Spectator
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
The flaw in the CofE's £150 million victims' fund
To much fanfare, the Church of England this week instituted a plan, funded to the tune of some £150 million and overseen by a well-respected City law firm, to compensate the victims of abuse carried out by church officials. So far, so good. But when we are talking big money like this, eligibility needs to be carefully circumscribed, with tough boundaries set. Unfortunately, one doubts whether the new Abuse Redress Measure, which set up the scheme, does this. However well-intended, it actually risks a worryingly unpredictable and at times arbitrary use of church funds. An obvious problem is its sheer width, which strays beyond the clearly deserving case of people physically or sexually assaulted by church officers in the course of their duties (and whom the law already requires the church to compensate). It sweeps up not only physical but so-called 'emotional abuse'. This is difficult terrain. Religion is in the business of harnessing emotion and channelling it, often in a disconcerting way, in the right direction. The suggestion that even potentially this could be a serious wrong inviting a claim for damages misses this point, applies secular standards where they don't belong, and forgets that you don't go to church to be affirmed but to be made uncomfortable about not being better. If you don't like this, feel free to leave: but you shouldn't be able to sue. So, too, with 'spiritual abuse', which is also included. This is doubly disconcerting, since the CofE actually goes so far as to say officially that this includes: 'A consistent pattern of controlling behaviour suggesting that questioning or challenge is an inability to be obedient to God and a reflection of a problematic personal faith,' not to mention 'use of scripture to control behaviour consistently'. Wow. One might have thought the very point of a church was to make clear unequivocally the need for submission to the will of God, the need for constant obedience to it, and the lack of a right to opt out. If the powers that be think this is not the case, Heaven help the church. For all the General Synod's touting of the need for the church to accept corporate culpability for abuse carried out in its name, the scheme also appears to go beyond reparation for victims of direct malpractice by church officers. An interesting feature of the scandal that brought down the previous Archbishop of Canterbury was the tenuousness of the link between what he did and any kind of official church activity. Justin Welby's sin was essentially that he failed to chase up serial abuser and previous acquaintance John Smyth, even though the latter had decamped abroad years earlier. Was this blatant ecclesiastical wrongdoing, crying out for expiation? No matter, said Synod: this, too, must be gathered in. An amendment was carried to assure a share in the fund for anyone alleging abuse by any church office-holder who complained that a church official had later failed to take steps to bring to justice the abuser concerned. Indeed, on close inspection this measure looks less like a piece of necessary ecclesiastical housekeeping than an undignified exercise in ostentatious guilt expiation with money as the medium. If abuse is seen as particularly egregious or outrageous, the measure says, the more guilty the church and the more it must pay. Even if a victim dies after bringing a claim, thus putting himself beyond any earthly solace, there can be no escape: the show must go on. What if a claimant has already received an interim payout from the church? A further amendment passed by Synod says that this must not be deducted: the church must, in the words of the Bishop of Birkenhead, reflect in cash the 'ridiculous generosity' of God. And so on. This cannot be healthy. It's all very well for well-meaning churchpeople to talk of generosity, even 'ridiculous' generosity. But they might also bear in mind an inconvenient fact: every penny generously spent here is a penny less for other purposes. As any personal injury lawyer will tell you, no-one actually knows how far big money can actually make good a victim's anguish: on the other hand, it is grimly certain what will happen if many millions of pounds otherwise destined to pay priests, look after worshippers' souls and tend to the spiritual life of the nation have to be diverted elsewhere. The well-meaning synodists who voted in this scheme in the name of generosity and the supposed expiation of guilt might perhaps have also considered Paul's words to the Colossians: 'set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.' It might at the very least have concentrated their minds.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
C of E warned over influence of ‘extreme views' after cuts to anti-racism funding
The Church of England is susceptible to the influence of 'extreme views from abroad and at home', a bishop has warned after church officials made a 'brutal' cut in funding to tackle racism. There were people in the C of E who were 'deeply resistant to any funding for racial justice', said Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall and joint leader of the church's racial justice work. He made his comments after the officials cut funding for racial justice from £26.7m over the past three years to £12m for the next three. The budget was more than halved despite the value of the C of E's endowment fund rising by 10.3% to £11.1bn last year – the 16th consecutive year of increases. Arora said: 'At a time when the evils of racism are increasingly rising to the surface in our world, there is a danger that extreme views from abroad and at home are starting to leak into the C of E's decision making bodies. 'We know there are those who are deeply resistant to any funding for racial justice and who maintain a distinct indifference to such work. Justice is not an ancillary add-on to the work of the church, it is the very work of God.' The C of E's latest spending plans, announced this week, include a 11% pay rise for clergy next year and an extra £4.6bn to support parishes and congregations over the next nine years. The church has also allocated £28.2m for the refurbishment of Lambeth Palace, the archbishop of Canterbury's London headquarters. Buried in the details of the plans was a 55% cut in funding for work on racial and social justice. Arora and Rosemarie Mallett, the bishop of Croydon and his co-lead on racial justice, were not informed of the cut before it was announced. The C of E's move comes amid a crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes by the Trump administration in the US, and a pledge by Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, to follow suit in councils controlled by his party. It also comes four months after its governing body, the General Synod, called for 'crucial resources [to] remain available … to further embed racial justice in the life and practice of the church'. The motion was carried 311 votes to one. The C of E has sought to tackle racism and discrimination in parishes and national bodies in recent years. Justin Welby, the former archbishop of Canterbury, spoke of his shame at the church's 'institutional racism' in 2020, and set up the Archbishops' Commission on Racial Justice. In a foreword to the commission's final report earlier this year, Lord Boateng, its chair, said: 'Without the racial justice unit being adequately resourced, I am firmly of the view that we will not see the progress which we need.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Arora said he and Mallett were 'deeply concerned and troubled' by the 'brutal' cut in funding. The decision had been taken 'without any evaluation on the effectiveness of current work' and was accompanied by a 'lack of transparency that will inevitably impact on trust'. A spokesperson for the C of E said: 'In 2023-25 specific funding was made available to provide a short term 'boost' and make a significant change in the area of racial and social justice in the church. At the time this was envisaged to be for one [three-year period].' However, further funding was allocated in the recent spending round in recognition of 'the importance of building on the work carried out on racial justice over the last three years'.
Spectator
24-05-2025
- General
- Spectator
How to save the Church of England
The Church of England's various travails and dilemmas – on controversial issues, like sexuality and safeguarding – are on one level beside the point. Even if it managed to solve these problems, the Church's drift to the margins of our culture looks likely to continue. The really fundamental issue is how the CofE can reverse that drift, how it can renew itself. This is harder to talk about, as it has little connection with the news cycle. The renewal of the Church depends on the quality of its worship culture, and the traditional forms seem unable to generate new excitement. Its main historic attempts at renewal were rooted in worship culture. The Catholic revival of the mid-nineteenth century, known as the Oxford Movement, involved lots of ritual finery and theatrical pomp. It produced many good things, but the 'high' style could not really unite a Church rooted in Protestantism.
Telegraph
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
It shouldn't take Peter Tatchell to tell us our asylum system is broken
Asylum seekers are gaming the system. They're pretending to be gay to stay in Britain. These bogus homosexuals are exploiting our kindness – or our weakness, some might say – to get a foot in the door of our nation. Who's been making this claim? An old-style Tory, perhaps, the sort who has sleepless nights fretting over our porous borders? Actually it's Peter Tatchell, the famed agitator for gay rights. Yes, one of Britain's best-known Left-wing rabble-rousers, a man who loves nothing better than a noisy protest, is raising the alarm about phoney asylum-seeking. When even a Leftie like Tatchell worries out loud that people are lying their way into the country, it's time to pay attention. In an interview this week Tatchell warned that some foreigners are play-acting as gay to win the sympathy of woke Britain. These fauxmosexuals – if you will – are applying for membership of organisations like the Peter Tatchell Foundation in order to pass as gay. Tatchell clocked a spike in 'small donations' from Pakistani men. Some give as little as £3 and then speedily request membership cards or letters to support their asylum applications. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to see what's happening here – these men are seeking 'proof of homosexuality' to swindle the Home Office and make it believe they'll be strung up if they're sent home. Tatchell says his foundation sometimes receives as many as 30 small donations a day. They're literally playing 'the gay card.' These fake gays crave a piece of paper with their name alongside Peter Tatchell's in the hope that a Home Office bureaucrat will stamp 'APPROVED' on their applications. One wonders how many foreigners are cosplaying as oppressed to win asylum here. We already know about the scourge of fake conversions to Christianity. Last year a whistleblowing priest said there is a 'veritable industry of asylum baptisms' in the CofE. There's a 'conveyor belt' of such sacrilegious stunts, he said, with asylum-seekers pining that splash of baptismal water that might convince the Home Office they were repressed back home. And too often, he said, the Church is complicit in the pantomime Christianity of these cynical asylum-seekers. Tatchell has proved himself a braver voice than many of the nation's bishops by calling out the 'fake conversions' to homosexuality that are also taking place. Asylum seekers who pretend to be gay or Christian are being deeply dishonest. Falsehoods are not a good foundation on which to build your residency here, far less your future citizenship. But the real problem is the system itself. It's too soft, too gullible. There will always be asylum seekers playing tricks – what we need to ask is why the Home Office is so trickable. There have been some mad cases lately. Like the Albanian criminal whose deportation was halted because his kid is a picky eater. Or the Nigerian rapist who's still here because European judges ruled that he has the right to 'family life' in the UK. If some foreigners think Blighty is a soft touch, easily hoodwinked, can we blame them? The horrible irony is that some of the fake gays will likely be homophobic. Coming from Muslim countries, they may well feel hostile towards gay people. If the Home Office is letting in homophobes wearing the mask of homosexuality, that is unforgivable. There are genuinely oppressed people who could do with Britain's help. Real gay people in countries like Pakistan. Women who hate the hijab in Iran. Christians suffering harassment under the Taliban. These good people lose out when we let phonies bring the system into disrepute.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
American interns aim to make a difference in Ryde
Christian interns from America have moved to the Isle of Wight as part of a project to rejuvenate local C of E churches. They arrived from the US state of Georgia are now living in a vicarage in Ryde and getting involved with local churches and communities. Married couple Ashton and Cody Wood are heading up a team of young believers who have relocated to the Island to help make a difference. The four young people they are leading aim to kickstart a project to increase congregation sizes and engage more effectively with the community. The interns are all part of the 'Ministry Development Year', which enables young Christians to get a taste of working with a church as they consider it as a possible future career. They arrived in November and will be on the Island until August – after which a second cohort will be recruited. It's all part of the project to rejuvenate the five Church of England churches in and around Ryde, which includes creating several new congregations and expanding their work with schools and community groups. Makensley Wyatt, 19, is focussing on working with children and their parents in her Ministry Development Year. She's involved with the weekly toddler group at All Saints Church, and its Sunday groups for children. Alec Mumpower, also 19, is involved with the production and technology side of church life, including livestreaming services, and handling images, video and audio-visuals. Hannah Sansot, 22, is involved with the administrative side of ministry and also with young people via a partnership with Youth For Christ. She serves at a lunch club each week and leads Youth Alpha in Ryde School every Friday. Joseph Sosebee, 19, has got involved with the church's social justice programme, which includes its work to help women in refuges who have suffered from sex trafficking or domestic abuse. The group live near St Michael's Church in Ryde. 'Part of our role is to lead and guide the interns spiritually and practically,' said Ashton. 'That means introducing them to a rhythm of prayer throughout the day, and helping them to develop life-skills in cooking, cleaning, budgeting and so on."
