Bishop says scandal revelations feel as if Church of England ‘being purified’

Recent scandals engulfing the Church of England have resulted in “huge reputational damage”, a bishop has said, adding that it feels as if the Church is “being purified”.

Philip North, the Bishop of Blackburn, said he feels less confident speaking out on social issues, amid the continuing focus on failures in safeguarding in the Church.

Justin Welby’s resignation last month as archbishop of Canterbury – announced in November following a damning report into serial abuser John Smyth – was followed by separate revelations which have prompted calls for his temporary stand-in the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell to quit.

Last week, John Perumbalath quit as Bishop of Liverpool following sexual assault and harassment allegations against him.

Mr Cottrell “categorically rejected” allegations, reported by Channel 4 News, that he had bullied members of a committee to secure Mr Perumbalath’s appointment as Bishop of Liverpool.

Bishop Perumbalath announced last week that he had decided to retire without any admission of fault or liability, and to avoid the issue being “a distraction”, claiming there had been a “trial by media (be that social or broadcast)” which had made his position untenable.

The second complainant, who alleged the harassment allegations, identified herself as the Bishop of Warrington, Beverley Mason.

In a statement she called it a “biblical imperative” that “a bishop cannot be above the law”.

Speaking in the aftermath of the latest reported scandal, Mr North said he “can totally get why trust in bishops is at such a low ebb”.

At a briefing organised by the Religion Media Centre, he said: “There’s reasons for that. We’ve seen poor judgment. We’ve seen quite possibly poor behaviour.

“We’ve felt trapped, I think, quite often, by systems and structures and processes that appear often to be controlling us. And I think you know, when the bishops were meeting last week, we’re very, very deeply shaken by this.”

On the impact of various scandals on the wider perception of the Church, Mr North said: “I can’t deny there is huge reputational damage done to the church at a national level, to the standing of bishops and to the perception of the Church in the Church of England, and we feel still to be very much on the back foot, very much on the defensive.”

He described the Church at a local level as remaining “credible” and “still vibrant”.

But he added: “I think, speaking as a bishop, we’ve got some work to do to recover trust, and certainly I feel less confident in speaking to the public square than I did last year.”

Giving examples, he said he feels less confident in speaking out on some issues around justice and poverty.

Asked during the discussion whether “bringing all the bad apples to the surface, opening the skeletons in the closet”, the Church might be in a better place, Mr North said it felt like God might be working through the “media frenzy”.

He said: “It does feel like the Church is being purified, and it does feel like God is working through this kind of media frenzy that’s happening at the moment.

“The question is, what do we do about it? What do we do to recover trust at a national level? We need action.

“And for me, what’s going to Synod next week is just the start, because we need to look much more deeply at clergy terms and conditions and at the HR processes that should stop these slow, heavy legal processes that so much distress people.”

The General Synod, otherwise known as the Church’s parliament, will debate and vote on a new model on safeguarding next week.

Alex Frost, a Synod member and vicar in Burnley, described the Church’s hierarchy as being “in disarray”.

He said: “I think locally people are very keen to just get on with the job in hand.

“I think we’re kind of running two parallel universes here – we’re running the hierarchy of the Church of England that is in disarray, and we’ve got the local churches that are going about their day-to-day ministry, doing their best against the backdrop of a church that seems to be in freefall.”