BISHOPS must have the facility to remove from office priests identified as a safeguarding risk, the Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, has said.
On Friday, he blamed a 2014 decision to not introduce such a provision for the “crisis” at Blackburn Cathedral, concerning Canon Andrew Hindley, which was first reported by the BBC on Tuesday (News, 14 August).
Several risk assessments concluded that Canon Hindley was a safeguarding risk, but there’s currently no provision to remove a priest from office on such grounds. Because he held his position under freehold, he couldn’t be faraway from office and not using a Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) finding against him.
Several complaints brought against him under the CDM were dismissed without going to a tribunal. Five police investigations, spanning greater than 25 years, were closed without the making of any charges.
Speaking to the BBC, Canon Hindley denied all allegations, and said that he had never been a safeguarding risk.
In a post on the Blackburn diocesan website, Bishop North also called for priests to be employed directly by the diocese relatively than function office-holders. He argued that this could allow disciplinary matters to be “settled through an HR process relatively than through long and clumsy legal procedures”, and argued for further reform of clergy-discipline processes.
The freehold system began to get replaced by common tenure in 2011. But existing freeholders were allowed to retain freehold status.
Bishop North expressed scepticism about whether common tenure was “much of an improvement. Such strong security of tenure is at odds with a contemporary safeguarding culture by which accountability is critical. To be a safer church we must address this issue.”
He suggested that priests must be employees of the diocese, “with all of the transparency and accountability that provides”.
His suggestions were made in response to a BBC investigation into allegations remodeled twenty years about Canon Hindley, who was Canon Sacrist of Blackburn Cathedral, and right into a payment made to him in 2020 to settle a legal claim after he had been compulsorily retired by the diocesan Bishop on the time, the Rt Revd Julian Henderson.
Bishop Henderson said that the foundations governing clergy offices and disciplinary processes meant that the plan of action taken had been the “only option” for Canon Hindley’s removal.
Several independent risk assessments had concluded that Canon Hindley was a possible risk to children and young people. On Friday, Bishop North argued that such findings should suffice to enable a cleric’s removal from office.
After the 2013 publication of a report on safeguarding failures in Chichester Cathedral (News, 3 May 2013), a proposal was considered that will allow a diocesan bishop to be faraway from office if a risk assessment concluded that there was a risk of way forward for misconduct.
A paper, GS 1941, was presented to the General Synod in February 2014 by which the choice was outlined, but revealed that it had been “heavily criticised” in a consultation, and beneficial that bishops be given the facility to discipline a priest only in the event that they refused to cooperate with a risk assessment, but not if the assessment identified risk.
Reasons for this were outlined within the paper, and included concerns that it will amount to judging someone before they’d offended, counting on an assessment that they were prone to offend in the long run.
On Friday, Bishop North sought to reopen the talk: “This issue have to be addressed as a matter or urgency. The church won’t be secure unless we’re in a position to remove clergy and officers who demonstrably pose a danger to children and vulnerable adults.
“The decision made in 2014 have to be revisited and a failure to accomplish that in the sunshine of the Blackburn case could be unconscionable.”
Changes to the foundations referring to risk assessments were approved by the General Synod in July without debate, and don’t touch on the problems that Bishop North has raised. The Clergy Conduct Measure (CCM), which is in its final stages of drafting, will, if it receives final approval, replace the CDM.
Bishop North welcomed the change, and said the CCM “will address lots of the current weaknesses”.
But a disciplinary process “is just nearly as good as those that administer it”, and likewise required “just and fair determinations which are based on the evidence with a deal with that which can keep the church secure”, he wrote.
Several attempts to bring a CDM case against Canon Hindley were refused permission to proceed by a judge. One of those, described in Tuesday evening’s episode of BBC Radio 4’s File on 4, related to Canon Hindley’s conduct at a drinks party within the cathedral gardens, after which he was accused of getting indecently assaulted a lady, kissed an under-age girl, and improperly touched two men.
Canon Hindley denied wrongdoing, the BBC reported, and a judge dismissed the grievance, saying that “some alcohol appeared to flow pretty freely, and, while alcohol provides no defence to assault, for assault to be constituted there must be a point of deliberation.”
On Friday, Bishop North called for an appeal mechanism, to “avoid one other situation just like that which arose in Blackburn Cathedral”.
Church House, Westminster, was approached for comment on Bishop North’s proposals.
In a press release responding to the unique BBC investigation, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York said that the C of E “has made huge strides in safeguarding up to now 10 years particularly in listening to the voices of survivors and victims.
“However, this case, which matches back a few years, shows that we’re still working to get our processes right and we must learn from the mistakes of the past.”
ON TUESDAY, a press release from the trustees of Blackburn Cathedral acknowledged failures within the case, and refers to “the systemic nature of the institutional failures throughout the Church of England that prevented Blackburn Cathedral from dealing effectively with the concerns”.
The statement, signed by the Dean of Blackburn, the Very Revd Peter Howell-Jones, points readers to an October 2023 publication about “lessons learnt”. It summarises improvements to which the cathedral had committed itself in response to a independent review, but provides no detail concerning the issue that prompted it.
Commitments are made to being “more proactive and transparent in our dealings with whistleblowers and survivors”, and to making sure that they feel “secure, supported, listened to and updated about outcomes”.
There are commitments to “cultural change” within the cathedral, and to working “urgently and determinedly” with the broader Church “on critically essential matters resembling improving clergy & staff discipline, employment law & policies and safeguarding case management”.
Tuesday’s statement says that “the Cathedral has worked and continues to work assiduously to enhance its safeguarding culture, policies and procedures to make sure everyone seems to be, and feels, secure.”
