An abuse survivors’ advocate has accused the Church of England ignoring the crimes of serving bishops following the publication this week of a list of ten clergy who could face disciplinary proceedings over their handling of abuse allegations made against John Smyth.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, the former Bishop of Durham, the Rt. Rev. Paul Butler, the Rev Roger Combes, the Rev Sue Colman, the Rev Andrew Cornes, the Rev Tim Hastie-Smith, the Rev Hugh Palmer, the Rev Paul Perkin, the Rev Nick Stott and the Rev John Woolmer would be subject to disciplinary proceedings brought by the National Safeguarding Team following the publication of the conclusion of the Makin Review four step process.
However, Andrew Graystone published a comment on X voicing his disdain for the accused list.
In an interview with Premier Christian News, Mr Graystone said the report was “an example of how broken the Church of England’s internal safeguarding processes are.
“What’s really notable is that none of the currently serving bishops, those who are still in post who were strongly criticized in the report, appear on this list of people who are going to be subject to the disciplinary process. So there seems to be a sort of immunity for bishops who are still in place and still at work.
“If you look at this list of people who’ve been criticized, it seems that the wagons have been circled to protect those who are currently working in the church, and particularly those who are currently senior leaders in the church, some of whom are named and criticized in the Makin review, but they’re not on this list. And of course, because everything is done quietly and undercover, we’re not going to know why. We’re not going to have any justification or be able to question for any of these decisions.
“It’s no help in making the church any safer, and it’s no help to those victims and survivors of John Smythe who have seen no justice over all these years,” he said.
A statement on behalf of survivors has subsequently been released on social media.
