Following the events of the past weeks, with the Makin report publication and the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Robert wrote a letter to the diocese:

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, 

Publication of the Makin Report 

Many of you will have read or seen coverage of the publication of the Report by independent reviewer Keith Makin into the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth. Smyth was a lay reader in the Church of England and a senior member of his own profession who was involved in running camps for young people. His appalling abuse has deeply wounded many individuals. The failure to report by those who knew about the abuse in the 1980s, as well as the failure of the wider Church to respond well to it from 2013, have for many led to a sense of shame and anger. 

I express my own deep sense of sorrow for the pain and suffering caused to those who are victims and survivors of Smyth, and of all other abuse. Our prayers are first and foremost for them. If you are affected in any way by abuse, by the reading of this Report, or by the current news coverage, please do seek help locally, from our diocesan safeguarding team or by calling the ‘First Light’ agency: Home - Safe Spaces England and Wales. 

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has taken personal and institutional responsibility for the period between 2013 and 2024 and has submitted his resignation. To be clear: whilst he has announced his resignation, the Archbishop remains in office for the time being in order to honour responsibilities both to the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. Meanwhile, we pray for Justin, Caroline and their family at a very difficult time for them. 

The resignation of an archbishop in this manner is unprecedented. It is a mark of the seriousness with which the Church takes safeguarding. There have been dramatic improvements in safeguarding in the last decade. In our own diocese, we now have an extensive network of committed and hardworking chaplaincy safeguarding officers. Checks and training are in place, and we support a professional safeguarding team led by our Head of Safeguarding Grace Fagan-Stewart and her deputy Andy Munro. But there is more to do, particularly at the level of the national church, where co-ordinating efforts across hundreds or thousands of different independent bodies is hard. The Makin report contains 27 recommendations for improvement, all of which are being studied in detail by the National Safeguarding Team with work on some of them already underway.

I appreciate that the events of this past week may well be leaving you feeling disturbed, shocked, angry or bewildered. I want to assure you of the commitment of all our senior staff to doing whatever we can to ensure that the Diocese in Europe provides a secure and well-ordered environment in which chaplaincies can flourish and where people can find security and safety. 

The victims of Smyth’s activity in England were mainly high-achieving young men from well-to-do backgrounds. The Makin report is a salutary reminder that all of us can be vulnerable or made vulnerable at times. Our churches should be places where we can find comfort and consolation in those times of weakness and need that we all inevitably face. 

We reflected at length on the Makin report at our senior staff meeting earlier this week. One lesson that particularly struck us was the importance of disclosing abuse. Making a disclosure of abuse requires courage – especially so if one is living outside one’s maternal country where it is harder to understand local culture, laws and processes. Yet we have been made painfully aware that a lot of people knew about the abuse being perpetrated by John Smyth, but for various reasons didn’t disclose it. As a result, many more people suffered abuse from him, in Southern Africa (where he was – incomprehensibly - encouraged to relocate) as well as in England. Jesus said: ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free’. We need to be bold to speak the truth and to allow the light to dispel the darkness in which bad things may happen. 

We are learning, constantly, that safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone, not just a few officers or professionals. This weekend we are observing ‘Safeguarding Sunday’ across our chaplaincies, and we held our diocesan service on Friday evening. These services are an opportunity for all of us to consider the part we can play in creating a sense of safety. This means things like: undertaking training willingly and wholeheartedly, listening deeply and carefully to those who may be signalling distress or abuse, encouraging a culture where keeping up to date with checks is essential. We must enable our churches to be spaces in which it is permissible to talk about hard things, how we can enable one another to step into brokenness. 

I extend my warm thanks in particular to our chaplaincy safeguarding officers. Many of you gathered for a conference together this weekend. Your work is sometimes painstaking and sometimes hard, but it is immensely important and often takes real courage. 

Above all, I pray for all victims and survivors of abuse. The Makin report has brought home to us, again, the long-lasting effects of abuse. Human beings suffer from what we rightly call ‘sin’, and some misuse the power they have over others. This weekend please do join me in a re-commitment to do what we can in the journey towards creating a safer church for everyone. 

Yours in Christ, 

+Robert Gibraltar in Europe