UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Communion News Service
[ACNS] The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, set up by the British government to examine “whether public bodies and other non-state institutions have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales”, will investigate the Anglican Church as one of its first 12 investigations.
The Inquiry was announced by British Home Secretary Theresa May in July 2014; but is only now fully getting underway. It was beset by a series of delays after a number of failed attempts to appoint an inquiry chair from the UK fell through amid claims that the proposed chairmen were “too close to the British establishment”.
It is now being headed by New Zealand Judge, Justice Lowell Goddard. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, had asked Justice Goddard to investigate the Church of England first, saying that he would order his own inquiry if there was a lengthy delay.
On Friday, Justice Goddard announced that “the Anglican Church” would be the focus of one of 12 opening investigations of her inquiry. “I welcomed the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Inquiry to investigate, as a matter of priority, the sexual abuse of children within the Church of England,” she said.
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