Diocesan Synod met at St Paul's Church, Parkwood in Gillingham on Saturday 7 December. On the agenda were items on the new vision and strategy, the budget, and safeguarding.
The agenda item on safeguarding saw a late-tabled motion calling for Diocesan Synod to back a vote of no confidence in the Archbishops' Council's oversight of safeguarding. Read more
In his Presidential Address, Bishop Jonathan reflected on the recent events that have taken place since the publication of the Makin Review into John Smyth.
"That review, along with the other reviews and reports published in recent years, has revealed both personal and systemic failure in the life of the Church at every level.
"Evil has been covered up, the plight of victims and survivors has been played down or ignored, and this has felt like a betrayal not only of the victims of abuse but also of those countless people, clergy and laity alike, who have been working so hard at diocesan and parish level to improve the quality of safeguarding in the life of our Church.
He said it made it even more relevant that one of the key priorities of the new diocesan vision and strategy is to grow safe and healthy cultures:
"As you will be hearing later on, we are making the very first priority within our vision and strategy that of creating a safe and healthy culture in all our churches and other organisations.
"As far as I am concerned, nothing else matters as much and every other priority needs to be viewed and approached through this lens.
He added:
I would like to see the Diocese of Rochester leading our national church in this regard: that we demonstrate that in everything we do we put growing a safe and healthy culture before anything else.
This is the only way we can begin to win back people’s trust, and it is also what we are called to do if we are to know God’s blessing on the life of our churches.
Read Bishop Jonathan's address in full below
Presidential Address to Diocesan Synod - 7 December 2024
Some words from our Gospel reading this morning: “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
And I guess that may well be how many of us are feeling at the moment, given all that we are facing in both the Church and the wider world. With wars and rumours of wars in many parts of the world, the climate crisis, the rise of AI, and the impact of the internet on us and on our children, the world can seem a pretty scary place.
Add to that everything else that is happening within the Church of England, following the publication of the Makin Review and the unprecedented resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, along with the uncertainty and anxiety (on all sides) connected with Living in Love and Faith, and it is perhaps not surprising that many of us may end up feeling harassed and helpless, and maybe also like sheep without a shepherd when the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church has just stepped down.
This is the reality of the situation we are facing, and we need to be honest about that, because living in denial and burying our heads in the sand just results in paralysis. But equally simply reacting in panic to what we are facing can also makes things worse.
Right now, here today and every day, the first thing we need to do is to look to Jesus and to listen to him, because he is the Good Shepherd who can lead us through these turbulent times and guide us to find the food and water that we need.
In him and through him we have hope, because he has promised to be with us always, to the end of the age. It is in him that we trust ultimately, not any human being, and it is on his call to follow him that we must remain focused whatever storms may come our way.
Having said that, we do need to respond to what has happened in the last few weeks, following the publication of the Makin Review. That review, along with the other reviews and reports published in recent years, has revealed both personal and systemic failure in the life of the Church at every level.
Evil has been covered up, the plight of victims and survivors has been played down or ignored, and this has felt like a betrayal not only of the victims of abuse but also of those countless people, clergy and laity alike, who have been working so hard at diocesan and parish level to improve the quality of safeguarding in the life of our Church.
It is for this reason that I believe that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s decision to resign was the right and honourable thing to do, not only to acknowledge his own failings, but to take responsibility for the systemic failings of the Church of England around safeguarding and abuse.
I was not intending to make this public, but I wrote privately to the Archbishop urging him to resign for these same reasons, and I am sure there were other bishops who did the same, because I spoke with some of them.
The events of the last few days, including his deeply ill-judged speech in the House of Lords, have led me to conclude that people need to know that action was being taken behind the scenes, by a number of bishops and others, to call on the Archbishop to step down as soon as possible.
Later during Synod, as part of the item on Safeguarding, we will debate a motion of no confidence in the Archbishops’ Council over their handling of these issues, and I can well understand the frustration that has led to the tabling of this motion.
So far all we have had from the Council is the outline of what feels like a bureaucratic process to consider the evidence presented in the Makin Review about the alleged failures of certain individuals.
Now of course any such process needs to be both fair and thorough, but my concern is that this is missing the point, namely that we as a Church have failed in this crucial area of our life and there needs now to be a time of profound reflection leading to deep repentance and a fundamental change of heart and mind in our collective life.
At the moment, in terms of the national life of our Church, it does indeed feel like we are sheep without a shepherd, because the national leadership of our Church is failing to lead us into such a time of repentance, which is the only path that can bring us to a place of healing and renewal.
Let me be clear, I do not believe this is always helped by campaigns on social and in other media to focus on the alleged failings of certain individuals. But I do believe that all of us, including those individuals, need to reflect on our own part in the systemic and cultural failures that have pervaded the life of the Church for far too long.
Whether or not the processes that have been set up lead to disciplinary action of some kind, there is here a deeper question of moral responsibility, not only for our actions but for the wider consequences of our collective failure, most of all in relation to the terrible and life-long impact of abuse on victims and survivors.
We all share in the responsibility to seek a fundamental change of heart and mind, leading to a profound change in the culture of the life of the Church. As you will be hearing later on, we are making the very first priority within our vision and strategy that of creating a safe and healthy culture in all our churches and other organisations.
As far as I am concerned, nothing else matters as much and every other priority needs to be viewed and approached through this lens. This means that everything we do, whether to do with children and young people or finance or buildings or ministry or whatever, needs to be considered through the lens of creating a safe and healthy culture. This has to be and will be our Number One priority.
I would like to see the Diocese of Rochester leading our national church in this regard: that we demonstrate that in everything we do we put growing a safe and healthy culture before anything else. This is the only way we can begin to win back people’s trust, and it is also what we are called to do if we are to know God’s blessing on the life of our churches.
This is about seeking first the kingdom of God and putting righteousness and peace and healing and wholeness at the very heart of the life and culture of our churches. There is really no other way – and certainly no other way that I am willing to go as your bishop.
I believe that this could also have important implications for some of the other hugely difficult and divisive issues that our Church is facing, especially around Living in Love and Faith. At the moment, there is huge anxiety and mistrust on all sides, and many are afraid of being further hurt or excluded as a result of the whole process around LLF, whatever course it may take.
A change of heart and mind and a focus on creating a safe and healthy culture for all could begin to unlock new ways of moving forward as well as freeing us from the fear and anxiety that is so pervasive and so damaging at the moment. That is for another day, but I do think it is something we ought to bear in mind.
Sisters and brothers, we have before us today a very big agenda – safeguarding, vision and strategy, budgets and all the rest. But we have an even bigger task before us than even all of these.
It is to seek first the kingdom of God, to look to Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, and to ask him to guide us, to equip us and to send us out to fulfil the apostolic commission to proclaim the kingdom of God, to heal the sick, and to bring Jesus’ compassion to the harassed and helpless people of our world.
So may we go about our work today in that spirit and with that aim, to the honour of God’s holy name. Amen.
The Rt Revd Dr Jonathan Gibbs
Bishop of Rochester