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Church of England Approves Sex Abuse Apology

Sky News
July 7, 2013

http://news.sky.com/story/1112679/church-of-englands-apology-over-sex-abuse

The Most Rev Justin Welby making an address at the General Synod opening

Dr John Sentamu with the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Synod service

Members of the General Synod unanimously back an apology for past child abuse after a series of cases involving senior clergy.

A bishop has said the Church of England "failed big time" over child protection as the General Synod formally apologises for clerical sex abuse.

The Rt Rev Paul Butler, Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, said for "far too long" the Church of England had either disbelieved the stories of victims, believed them but tried to hide the truth away or hoped that by removing an offender the problem would go away.

"We can make all the excuses that we like about society being different in previous decades - or our understanding of abuse being so much better," he said.

"We can note that our policies were different then and we followed those policies. But these take nothing away from the fact that we failed to listen properly, we did not acknowledge the wrong done, and we protected the institution at the expense of the person abused."

He added: "We failed big time, we can do nothing other than confess our sin, repent and commit ourselves to being different in the years ahead."

His remarks followed a 30-second silence observed by the General Synod after the Rt Rev Butler read a statement from the Stop Church Child Abuse Group (SCCA), a coalition of survivor support groups, to the General Synod.

In the statement the SCCA called for an independent public inquiry into the extent of child abuse within the Church of England.

The debate comes after the final report was published earlier this year into child abuse scandals in the Chichester Diocese.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby said: "For us, what we are looking at today is far from enough, we are opening a process, continuing a process in many ways, that will go far further than we can imagine."

He added: "We cannot in 20 years be finding ourselves having this same debate and saying 'well we didn't quite understand then'. There has to be complete change of culture and behaviour.

"In addition, there is a profound theological point. We are not doing all this - we are not seeking to say how devastatingly, appallingly, atrociously sorry we are for the great failures there have been, for our own sakes, for our own flourishing, for the protection of the Church.

"We are doing this because we are called to live in the justice of God and we will each answer to him for our failures in this area."

Members of the Church's national assembly were asked to back an apology issued by the Most Rev Welby and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, over failings in procedures to protect children from abuse by clergy and others.

The apology also covers the "failure to listen properly to those so abused".

It was discussed during a debate at the General Synod's meeting at the University of York.

The start of the service was temporarily disrupted as a man was arrested on suspicion of assault.

The man was restrained within metres of the Most Rev Welby and Dr Sentamu.

The apology has been backed unanimously by the General Synod with no abstentions and no votes against.




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