A Church of England bishop has confessed that he didn’t raise the difficulty of grooming gangs due to his concern that it would undermine the Church’s efforts to advertise racial justice.
In a frank letter to his diocese, Philip North, the bishop of Blackburn, admitted that he now found his excuse for inaction “unconvincing” and added that the Church’s inaction on the difficulty also stemmed from its disconnection from working class communities.
The bishop said he supported a national public inquiry into the difficulty, saying it could allow survivors to be heard, and for clear facts and data to be established to “address any false presumptions”.
Bishop North praised Baroness Casey for her landmark report into the difficulty, before admitting that her “fearlessness” on the difficulty had prompted much soul searching as to why he had didn’t support an inquiry earlier within the yr.
“I actually have heard directly and on many occasions of the anxiety of working class families that their daughters are vulnerable to well organised gangs. Why did I so readily imagine the voices that claimed that calling for an inquiry was a collusion with the far right?” he said.
He went on to say that he had “close and precious relationships with members of the south Asian Muslim community in Lancashire, sincere friendships which really matter to me and that are critical as we work together for social cohesion and I feared damaging them”.
Yet he noted a “growing distance between a culturally middle-class established church and the needs and concerns of working class communities … our agenda as a Church is generally set by certain sections of the media, Parliament and the academy”.
Bishop North said he now realised that by failing to handle the difficulty, community relations were diminished on account of the perception that one ethnic group could goal members of one other with impunity.
He added that the Church must do more to reconnect to working class communities.
“I’m performing some serious reflection about my fear-driven silence in relation to grooming gangs. I hope other church leaders will do the identical,” he said.
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