THE challenge of meeting demands for transparency while protecting the privacy of people was aired during a webinar this week exploring recent events within the diocese of Liverpool.
During the discussion, organised by the Religion Media Centre, the journalist Mick Ord said that the absence of the Bishop of Warrington, the Rt Revd Bev Mason, for 18 months, had not been explained to clergy or congregations: “That built up a sense amongst many clergy, so I’m told, that a veil was being drawn that only a small number of individuals within the hierarchy were aware of.”
“In what other industry would someone have 18 months of study leave?” asked the Vicar of St Matthew the Apostle, Burnley, the Revd Alex Frost, a General Synod member. “It just doesn’t. To other people it just looks ridiculous. . . That trust is eroded because we are usually not giving clarity concerning the actual situation.”
The Archdeacon of Liverpool, Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, said that she had not known “exactly what the situation was”, and that she had chosen to respect Bishop Mason’s privacy. The diocesan director of communications, Canon Stuart Haynes, said that there was a must “protect the person”. He said: “It’s not for us to interrupt the confidences of people”.
Dr Threlfall-Homes said: “What we would like to say because the people inside the diocese is we’ve got no way of knowing what the reality is behind these allegations. It could be totally improper for us to be making a judgement. We haven’t got the data and it’s not our place to accomplish that. . .
“The appropriate thing could be for them to be investigated fully and properly; that’s something we all know the Church of England’s systems are usually not particularly well set as much as do.” This was something that Synod members were “trying to alter”.
The Bishop of Liverpool, Dr John Perumbalath, had been “put in an unattainable position”, she said. “We used the word ‘untenable’, and I feel that was factually true [News, 31 January]. Whether that’s the Church, whether it’s the entire situation, whether it’s the media, I feel all the pieces just got here together to make it a very difficult and unattainable situation, and there couldn’t be any winners or any losers at that time.”
Both Dr Perambalath and Bishop Mason were receiving pastoral care, Canon Haynes said. The diocese had deliberately referred to Dr Perumbalath’s retirement relatively than resignation, as that was the term that he himself had used. It was for the Church Commissioners or Archbishop of York’s office to “establish what the position is”. Dr Perambalath had been asked only to step aside.
The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, said: “I can totally get why trust in bishops is at such a low ebb. . . We’ve seen poor judgement, quite possibly poor behaviour. We’ve felt trapped, I feel, very often by systems and structures and processes that appear often to be controlling us.” The meeting of the College of Bishops last week had been “very, very deeply shaken”.
The Book of Common Prayer last Sunday had marked the Feast of the Purification, he said. “It does feel just like the Church is being purified, and it does feel like God is working through this type of media frenzy that is going on in the mean time.”
The Church needed to look “way more deeply at clergy terms and conditions”, he suggested, “and the HR processes that ought to stop these slow heavy legal processes that a lot distress people”. Bishops needed to have a look at “how we lead in another way. . . and relearn the art of humility”.
Panellists were asked whether there had been a presumption of guilt within the media coverage of events. The Vicar of Huddersfield, Canon Rachel Firth, a General Synod member, agreed that this had been her impression.
“There has also been a quite disturbing polarisation: the words ‘bandwagon’, and ‘pitchfork’, and ‘torch’ have been used lots as people have assumed based on what they do know, and what they don’t know, things which have happened on this particular situation.
“I feel that’s been dangerous and disruptive, and it doesn’t help us to assist anyone who has been hurt in a situation like this. Slightly bit more care and nuance and compassion could be really helpful.”
