UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Communion News Service
[ACNS, by Gavin Drake] The silencing of abuse victims is itself a form of abuse “as bad if not worse than the first betrayal,” the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said. The Archbishop made his comments in a forward to the current issue of Crucible, which bills itself as the journal of Christian social ethics. Its current issue focuses on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.
In it, Archbishop Welby said that when he was appointed to the post of Archbishop of Canterbury he “had mistakenly believed that the major changes needed in outlook had already been achieved” but that “it very quickly became apparent that [safeguarding] would have to be an area of major concern.
“Not only were some of the measures already taken only a beginning, the proper response to survivors and the embedding of a proper culture of safeguarding in every part of the Church still had a very long way to go.”
He said that one article in particular, Surviving the Crucible of Ecclesiastical Abuse by Josephine Anne Stein, was “particularly hard to read, but vital to absorb.”
“As you read Josephine Stein’s article so it becomes apparent that the culture around how survivors of abuse are heard has in effect been to tell them to be quiet, and to keep them away from the love of Christ.
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