Apologies from Bishops after Report on Abuse Within Diocese of Chichester

By Finn Scott-Delany
The Argus
July 7, 2013

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10531659.Apologies_from_bishops_after_report_on_abuse_within_Diocese_of_Chichester/?ref=nt

The Archbishop of Canterbury during a visit to Chichester

Bishops will apologise unreservedly following a damning report into child abuse in Sussex.

The General Synod is expected to endorse the “unreserved apology” to victims today.

The high-level acknowledgement follows an official inquiry set up into abuse within the Diocese of Chichester.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said the report described a painful story of “individual wickedness” and “systematic failings”.

Archbishop Justin Welby wrote: “The sexual and physical abuse that has been inflicted by these people on children, young people and adults is and will remain a deep source of grief and shame for years to come.

“History cannot be rewritten, but those who still suffer now as a result of abuse in the past deserve this at least, that we hear their voices and take action to ensure that today’s safeguarding policies and systems are as robust as they can be.”

In May retired Church of England priest Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, of Shoreham-by-Sea, and church organist Michael Mytton, 68, from East Chiltington, were found guilty of indecently assaulting boys.

In a separate case Canon Gordon Rideout, 74, from Polegate, was jailed for ten years for 36 historic sex offences against boys and girls.

The Bishop of Chichester admitted to a former choirboy who was abused by priest Roy Cotton in Eastbourne that there was a cover-up.

The Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, chair of the church’s national safeguarding committee, will apologise personally in a speech to the Synod on Sunday.

Members are expected to endorse the apology and vote on a series of recommendations made in the Chichester Commissaries’ report.

The report warned the law of the Church of England was “not in line with the rest of the civil law of employment.”

It called for “urgent consideration”

to be given to amending the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 to permit the compulsory suspension of accused clerics.

In response a motion will ask the House of Bishops and the Archbishops’ Council to “pursue as a matter of urgency” the improvement of the Church’s safeguarding arrangements.

Proposals such as removing a 12-month limitation period for bringing sex complaints and extending Bishops’ powers of suspension will be debated.