My first blog about Stephen Kuhrt’s book Safeguarding the Institution concluded with his comment on pp133 that urgent attention needs to be paid to the wider approach to behaviour in the Church of England that brought about an appallingly arrogant sense of entitlement. This sense of entitlement built on a deeply unhealthy structural privilege embedded within the Church that fuelled the abuse committed by Peter Ball, Colin Pritchard, Roy Cotton, George Rideout, Jonathan Fletcher, John Smyth and David Tudor and others.
The impact of Dishonesty about Sex in the Church
Stephen says the next chapter, What Has Sex Got to Do With It?: The impact of Dishonesty about Sex in the Church, was by some way the most difficult chapter to write. Many of those who have agreed with much of the book so far will find this chapter the most uncomfortable one to wrestle with. I wondered whether I would be one of those people.
The chapter opens with a historical survey of the development of clerical celibacy around 1,000 years ago, the rejection of clerical celibacy 500 years ago as a key element of the Reformation, the mid-nineteenth century rise of Anglo-Catholicism, the later idealisation of prominent figures associated with evangelical celibacy, the sexual revolution of the 1960s and gay people ‘coming out’ as an act of courage and integrity in the 1980s and 90s.
Stephen names Changing Attitude and Inclusive Church as two groups formed in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the intention of bringing about full gay emancipation within the church, following which rapid support for this programme developed. He identifies me as one of the people being just as critical as conservative evangelicals of the deeply hypocritical difference between the official policy of the church and its practice on homosexuality. Such dishonesty is deeply damaging to its ministry and mission. This has led to the situation where almost any form of accountability for the sexual expression of clergy outside of a heterosexual setting has become impossible.
“In the absence of honesty and openness about the church’s position in regard to sexuality, and any desire on the part of the bishops of the Church of England to resolve its inconsistency, this space is filled by clergy becoming self-governing.”
It is now time, writes Stephen, for the Church of England to recognise the catastrophic impact of its policy regarding sexuality upon its safeguarding record.
“It is time for everyone, of whatever perspective on sexuality, to wake up to the fact that the current situation cannot be allowed to continue. Until dramatic change occurs, members of churches will continue to be abused and pay the price for the wilful confusion created by the Church of England’s duplicitous policy on sexuality, which its leaders seem committed to preserving.”
Prophets and Whistleblowers: The Courage Needed to Rock the boat in Churches
Stephen devotes a chapter to the crucial role that courage plays in addressing safeguarding, the need for honesty about the obstacles that stand in the way and the sacrifice entailed in daring to challenge the system. He identifies the many times the command to be courageous occurs in the Bible. Prophets are solitary figures and prophecy itself often becomes corrupted. It is hard to critique the culture in which we live. I have observed this repeatedly in the course of the forty years plus in which Changing Attitude challenged the status quo. Resisting assimilation into the culture of the institution as Stephen notes, requires both insight and courage to recognise the things that are wrong and need to be confronted. Every problem with safeguarding that Stephen encountered and confronted existed because “the culture is utterly invested in untruth and injustice”. I have witnessed the effect on gay male clergy especially, of daring to challenge “the system”, the subtle, underhand, dishonest, manipulative, incompetent ways in which the various elements of the institution protect themselves and the reputation of the church at the cost of integrity, truth and the embrace of life in all its fullness as a Christian fundamental. Stephen concludes that . . .
“.. . . the problems of safeguarding in the Church of England cannot and will not be solved without the truth about the wider problems within the church’s culture being spoken and addressed.”
Tough on Safeguarding, Tough on the Causes of Safeguarding
In chapter 9, Stephen returns to his warning that the investment in establishing more secure safeguarding processes and procedures has been largely taken up with ensuring that a proper response is made to the emergence of safeguarding issues rather than having much of a preventative nature. The policies and procedures are relatively minor in their significance for genuine safeguarding. “What is needed for a genuine advance in safeguarding to take place, is a cultural overhaul of much of the Church of England,” Stephen concludes.
“At the root of all the current problems of the Church of England and the deeply dysfunctional behaviour within it is a fundamental lack of confidence about truth.”
Grace and Truth
Stephen argues that it is essential for the church to develop a much greater culture of honesty, one that possesses a far greater confidence about the goodness and power of truth. He roots his argument Biblically, in the Gospel of John: “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1.14). The problem with truth ascribed to wider Western society today is ascribed to postmodernism, evolving from modernist Enlightenment philosophy.
Postmodernism
Stephen traces how the truth revealed through Jesus Christ became increasingly restricted to an ‘otherworldly’ salvation that bought a personal relationship/communion with God in the present followed by a place in heaven after one’s death. These developments explain the crisis with regard to truth within all traditions of the Church of England. Postmodernism brought the almost complete demise of the liberal tradition that had bought so strongly into the truths revealed by reason. Evangelicalism and Anglo-Catholicism are also in crisis, partly because both have struggled to defend their truth claims in the face of the postmodern critique that their doctrines represent the attempt to gain power over people’s lives. The safeguarding scandals provide the evidence for this charge.
Holistic spiritual truth
All traditions within the Church of England have struggled to meet the desire for holistic truth that much of the current culture also demands. People everywhere are becoming more open to encountering spiritual truth that will speak into the whole of their life experience in a deeper way. The result – at the root of all the current problems of the Church of England and the deeply dysfunctional behaviour within it is a fundamental lack of confidence about truth.
Stephen writes:
“Belief in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the new creation is therefore meant to banish the fears that have imprisoned the church for too long within a false and damaging perception of reality and guide the whole of our agenda.”
That sentence is a bit tortuous and I’ve had to read and re-read it to confirm that it does make sense. It exemplifies the confused state of mind of the Church of England as I experience it today. Stephen is much more at home in rooting his understanding in the Bible. I’m much more at home in rooting my understanding in my intuition and experience. It often looks as if there is a huge gulf between these two approaches. In reality, there is indeed a gulf when it comes to the attempts in General Synod to discuss equal marriage, understand and reconcile different deeply held views about marriage.
“When a culture of truth is established in the local church safeguarding will improve because congregations are no longer being trained by the culture to ignore or suppress their instincts when they see things that seem wrong. A culture of collective responsibility will have been established instead, with congregation members actively encouraged to ask searching questions about everything within church life and with clergy expressing how important it is for the church to be questioned and held accountable.”
Resolution of the Church’s Wilful Inconsistency in Regard to Sexuality
Though I could have guessed on page 133 I waited patiently until page 222, eight pages from the end, to find out what Stephen really thinks about “the single most controversial issue within the Church of England”. He presents three options.
To bring practice into line with the official position. The clear message would be that sexual relationships outside marriage are not permitted for clergy within the Church of England.
Bring the position into line with current practice, accepting and endorsing “gay marriage”, the option overwhelmingly favoured by the general public and the majority of churchgoers.
Let the situation stay more or less as it is because there is very heavy investment across the church in maintaining the existing approach to sexuality.
Stephen declares that he has now changed his mind and fully supports option 2, equal marriage. He says nothing short of this will create a safe church. His conservative position on the nature of marriage had to be subordinated to the church fulfilling its calling to protect people rather than wilfully sanction their harm. “The church’s endorsement of same-sex marriage is not only permissible but essential to creating a safe church.
A new type of bishop and a purge of leaders needed
On the final two pages Stephen expands an idea raised on p222. A new type of bishop is required to replace the “one single characteristic overwhelmingly found in the bishops of the Church of England – disarming niceness. If anything, this has increased since the advent of women bishops, with most of them committed to being conciliatory rather than confrontational.”
Following the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury a wider clear-out of the Church of England’s senior leaders is desperately needed, a ‘circuit-breaker for the Church since, at present, most new bishops inevitably adopt the ethos of the group they are joining.
“These resignations should include, at the very least, all of those bishops found guilty of dealing inadequately with safeguarding issues.”
“Another perhaps more vital step would then be to deal with the numerous ‘Sir Humphrey Appleby’ figures present within the ‘civil service’ of the Church of England who essentially act as trustees of its culture. It is important to note that some of those with the greatest knowledge of recent safeguarding scandals view the little-known but highly influential figures working at Lambeth Palace as the biggest problem in this regard.”
“The extremity of these proposals should, at the very least, make those in power within the Church of England recognise that nothing other than the most wholesale change is needed for the church to regain its credibility.”
I wholeheartedly agree with everything Stephen Kuhrt has said here. If I had written and published the above manifesto, I would have come under attack from friends and foes alike, and indeed Stephen has been attacked for what he’s written. I’m in an optimistic mood today. Resignations of bishops seems to be trending. The inability to appoint bishops and fill vacancies is also trending. Will a crisis of sufficient proportions develop? Will the outcome result in a healthier, safer, more deeply graceful and truthful church? If the Holy Spirit really is at work in lives and movements today, then the answer will be yes.
Stephen’s book is a vital companion to Adrian Thatcher’s book Ending Abusive Theologies. Both are essential reads for those who want to understand how systemic abuse is integral to the present culture of the Church of England and why the culture requires dramatic and radical change.
Changing Attitude and Unadulterated Love
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