AUSTRALIA
7 News
AAP
June 30, 2014
The outgoing head of the Anglican Church in Australia says a lack of central authority in the church has affected its efforts to deal with child sexual abuse.
Addressing the church’s national parliament in Adelaide on Monday, Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall said the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse had expressed surprise and concern at the dispersed power structure within the church.
Dr Aspinall, the Anglican church primate, said the church had taken a number of steps to improve child safety and respond to allegations of abuse over the past decade but acknowledged more work was needed.
However he said the “very weak” nature of the national offices within the Anglican church represented a serious challenge.
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