Thirtyone:eight has been commissioned by Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon to undertake an independent lessons learnt review concerning Jonathan Fletcher and Emmanuel Church to start immediately. The review will take place over the next six months, with a report of the findings to be published by May 2020.
Focusing on the activities of Jonathan Fletcher while he was minister of Emmanuel, we have been commissioned to undertake a robust and comprehensive exploration of both good practice and failings in culture and safeguarding practice at Emmanuel Church Wimbledon from 1982 to the present. The review will enable the voices of those impacted by the behaviour of Jonathan Fletcher to be expressed, heard and considered alongside other contextual information and concerns from other relevant sources. The draft scope for the review can be viewed here.
The review process will be entirely independent, and measures are being put in place to achieve this, including the establishment of an Independent Advisory Group. The group will consist of up to six individuals, with a representation of victims/survivors. Thirtyone:eight invite any individuals interested in participating in the Independent Advisory Group to express their interest by 20th December. Further details are available here.
The names of Independent Advisory Group participants will be kept confidential and will not be known by Emmanuel Church Wimbledon until the publication of the report. The group will oversee the work of the review and will be chaired by Justin Humphreys (Chief Executive (Safeguarding) at thirtyone:eight). The review itself will be led by Dr Lisa Oakley. Once the Independent Advisory Group is formed, it’s first task will be to review, shape and finalise the detailed scope with the review team, ensuring that all legitimate perspectives and appropriate lines of enquiry have been considered. The Independent Advisory Group will then meet at agreed intervals throughout the process of the review, with the overall purpose of guiding its work, acting as a point of reference and scrutiny, and ensuring complete independence.
Once the scope has been finalised, the fieldwork for the review will commence. A proposed timeframe for the different stages of the review can be found here.
In the meantime anyone, including victims/survivors, who wishes to participate in the review or who wishes to pass on information to thirtyone:eight can do so confidentially by using the contact us link which can be found here or by emailing JFsafeguardingreview@thirtyoneeight.org. Thirtyone:eight and Emmanuel Church Wimbledon take data privacy and confidentiality very seriously. Identities of confirmed participants will be known only by the reviewers and the Independent Advisory Group. No victim/survivor identifiable details will be passed between Emmanuel Church and thirtyone:eight without prior consent from those individuals.
Thirtyone:eight continue to operate an independent helpline for victims/survivors of abuse. If you have been affected by matters related to Jonathan Fletcher and you would like to speak to someone independent about this you can contact the thirtyone:eight helpline on 0303 003 1111. Please quote ‘2019’ to identify that your call relates to Jonathan Fletcher. Information you share with the helpline will not be shared with others, including the independent review team, unless you consent to that or action needs to be taken to protect you or others (in adherence to standard safeguarding practice and protocol).
Surely Emmanuel Wimbledon deserves tremendous credit for insisting on the independence of this review to be undertaken by the excellent Thirtyone:eight? Is the lack of credit for Emmanuel from some usually noisy Anglican twitterers and bloggers due to the fact that it is a conservative evangelical church that has worked hard to ensure that who knew what and when about the psychological, emotional and sexual abuse committed by Fletcher is subject to a thorough, truth-seeking, independent investigation, which would actually be a model for the Church of England to follow in its own abuse reviews?
I should have thought that openness ought to be a basic instinct among Christians and therefore not really a cause for expecting tremendous credit. Speaking as someone who might well be described as a conservative evangelical, I’d hope that we’d all be more than pleased to have this whole wretched scandal cleared up as soon as possible.
As for those who have been calling out the tight lipped response around Fletcher’s colleagues, I would suggest it’s not particularly gracious for those whose house was discovered to be on fire to question the motives of their neighbours who were calling for the fire brigade to come!
Surely the clue to the significance of what Emmanuel has done in commissioning this review is in the word ‘independent‘?
Yes indeed, Julian, we’re certainly at one in that regard.
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