Church safeguarding is firmly rooted in Scripture

If anyone has doubts whether church safeguarding is firmly rooted in Scripture, today’s Epistle reading from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer can dispel them.

The passage is from the Apostle’s Paul New Testament letter to the Christians in 1st century Philippi:

“In your relationships with each other, have the identical mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, didn’t consider equality with God something for use to his own advantage; quite, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being present in appearance as a person, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the best place and gave him the name that’s above every name, that on the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and each tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11 NIV).

Shortly after the publication of her strongly critical report into Church of England safeguarding practices in February 2024, the previous chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, Professor Alexis Jay, addressed the General Synod by video.

She said: “Safeguarding within the Church today falls below the usual expected and set in secular organisations, that are required to follow statutory guidance.”

She called on the Church to “challenge erroneous beliefs about safeguarding which proceed to be held.

“For example, we heard from quite a lot of people who safeguarding needs to be rooted in Scripture and that being a practising Christian needs to be a prerequisite to holding a safeguarding role,” she said.

Regardless of the controversy over whether churches should insist that their safeguarding officers be practising Christians, the very fact is that safeguarding is rooted in Scripture because the biblical passage above clearly demonstrates.

Church abusers make the most of people. They use their trusted position of Christian leadership to take advantage of people for their very own gratification. But Scripture commands Christians to eschew the selfishness and narcissism that may result in church abuse and as an alternative to follow the instance of Christ in putting themselves out to serve the most effective interests of other people.

The Channel 4 News report last February into the abuses committed by the Rev David Fletcher exposed the anti-Christian character of the church abuser. Fletcher led the Iwerne evangelical camps in Dorset where the savage serial abuser John Smyth groomed his victims within the Nineteen Seventies and early Eighties.

The report by investigative broadcaster Cathy Newman related: “Jeni lives in Australia now, but she grew up in Hertfordshire, and met David Fletcher when she was just 13 years old. She’d been adopted as a toddler and formed a bond with the Reverend Fletcher and his wife, Sue. But it wasn’t long before his behaviour began to concern her.

“He would attempt to kiss her on her lips when she was 15 or 16, and on about three occasions, she says he tried to place his tongue in her mouth.”

Fletcher, the son of a former cabinet minister in Harold Wilson’s Labour government within the Sixties, sexually abused Jeni in 1980 within the swimming pool of his parents’ luxurious home in Hertfordshire.

Jeni attended the Iwerne camps and described Fletcher there as “a bit like a spider in an online”. In 1986 he became Rector of St Ebbe’s, the conservative evangelical flagship church in Oxford. He died in 2022.

The behaviour of church abusers like Fletcher is clearly ruled out by Paul’s description of Christ’s example in sacrificing his own interests for the sake of sinful humanity, “taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” and “becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!”

The followers of Christ must subsequently take care to make sure that the inflated egos that result in abusive behaviours will not be allowed to flourish in their very own hearts and of their churches. Safeguarding is indeed every Christian’s responsibility.

The Collect for today, the Sunday Next Before Easter, highlights the instance of Christ’s humility:

“Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that every one mankind should follow the instance of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may each follow the instance of his patience, and in addition be made partakers of his resurrection; through the identical Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.