The product of almost five years’ work and more than 70 in-depth face-to-face interviews with people across the Church, the report analyses possible causes of breakdown of trust and how they might be healed.
Synod heard from the authors Professor Veronica Hope Hailey – a senior academic who has carried out organisational reviews across bodies ranging from the United Nations to companies, charities and voluntary organisations – who carried out the analysis, and the renowned theologian Prof David Ford, who authored an accompanying theological commentary.
Prof Ford told Synod Prof Hope Hailey’s work amounted to “an unprecedented in-depth listening exercise”.
Setting out her findings, Prof Hope Hailey told Synod that the interviews revealed a picture of complex organisation with a long history facing the challenge of renewing its structures, cultures and systems in he 21st Century faced with a number of crises.
She divided challenges the Church faces into those which are “usual” in large, complex organisations – and “unusual” issues particular to the Church’s structures, culture, and recent events.
The interviewees highlighted a particular “blame culture” and “tribalism” within the Church as well as challenges such as the Church’s unusual governance structure and “ambiguous leadership roles”, she said.
But they also pointed to much that was unusual but positive including “extraordinarily high” levels of commitment from clergy.
“Most private sector or public sector organisations would be envious of this,” she said.
Sam Atkins/Church of England
Summing up she said: “This institution was formed from dispute, I am an historian originally.
“It’s a broad based church, which by its declared aims and purposes, must serve a diverse nation, and a nation that changes.
“And that means you must continually renew structures, leadership, systems, and cultures, like everybody else does, in the ever-changing world.”
She continued: “Personally, I felt deeply inspired by almost everyone I’ve interviewed in the course of this work.
“Like my maiden name, I am full of hope. And I agree with the Archbishop of Canterbury in her address yesterday, when she said ‘if hope is the fruit, trust is the root’. Good luck to all of you.”
Prof Ford said: “As you can read in the Report, the interviewees agonised over one example after another of disunity and distrust in our Church after another.
“A question I asked myself again and again: in the face of the situation in our Church and in this country, can we in the Church of England find a renewed and deepened passion for unity, with Jesus and his Father first of all, then among ourselves, and with other Christians, for the sake of our mission to this country and beyond?
“Our Church has always wanted to be a blessing to this country, I see this report opening a way to be that more and more fully.
“This country needs institutions that show how trust can be repaired, renewed and sustained—we need these lively signs of trust and trustworthiness. At present, in most people’s eyes, we are not that. If we humbly seek to follow through practically on this Report, that could change – we could change.”