Dear Sir
Ref : Daily Mail 18/5/2018 Page 21
A Load Of Unholy Cobblers
In response to the staggering level of sexual misconduct within religious establishments, and as an insurance requirement, the Archbishop of Canterbury has imposed an additional layer of paid bureaucracy within the Church of England.
Safeguarding Officers have been hired to oversee both paid and volunteer staff at every level.
Their stated policy is “Believe no one. Always suspect the worst. Pro-actively snoop.”
The Archbishop’s general decision is sound. I suspect that you are not fully aware of the depth of anger, outrage and fury in the country at the astonishing scale of church sex crime.
Nothing less than an additional bureaucratic level of safeguarding will placate the community.
Unfortunately, as you point out, the Archbishop’s implementation has ‘failure’ written all over it.
Local communities should be responsible for policing the religious establishments in their area.
Independent non-Church volunteers should be appointed as Safeguarding Officers.
There are reputable independent-minded citizens in every community who would welcome the opportunity to police their Church and it is time they were given the authority to do so.
Only on-going outside scrutiny will reassure the public.
Only on-going outside scrutiny could begin to repair the reputation of the church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has built an internal safeguarding layer.
Internal will not now placate a sceptical and suspicious public.
Only external will do that. And it’s cheaper.
You have
also written that church volunteers are now required to work in pairs.
The obvious failure there is that working alone in pairs is what caused the problem in the first place.
The only fair compromise between the Me-Too movement and the church is that men do not speak to women alone, women are not left alone with men, and all dealings with children are in the presence of a woman. This was the way of the early church and it is good enough for the church today.
The obvious failure there is that working alone in pairs is what caused the problem in the first place.
The only fair compromise between the Me-Too movement and the church is that men do not speak to women alone, women are not left alone with men, and all dealings with children are in the presence of a woman. This was the way of the early church and it is good enough for the church today.
Best wishes
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