NEW WINE has commissioned the barrister who’s conducting an independent review of the Revd Mike Pilavachi’s behaviour at Soul Survivor, to review how the allegations relate to New Wine, its trustees have announced.
The barrister Fiona Scolding KC was commissioned by Soul Survivor last 12 months (News, 8 September 2023). Shortly afterwards, the trustees of New Wine announced that a “full and independent review” of its relationship with Mr Pilavachi and Soul Survivor could be carried out (News, 22 September 2023).
New Wine was launched at St Andrew’s, Chorleywood, in 1989. Mr Pilavachi became youth leader of St Andrew’s in 1986, and ran the youth work at the primary New Wine festivals. The success of this gathering inspired the launch of the Soul Survivor festival in 1993. He continued to steer the youth work at New Wine for quite a lot of years.
A church, Soul Survivor, Watford, was also launched in 1993, as a plant from St Andrew’s. It was at St Andrew’s that Mr Pilavachi first met Matt Redman, a member of the youth group who later served as a worship leader at Soul Survivor. Last July, Mr Redman said that he had experienced “harmful behaviours” from Mr Pilavachi (News, 14 July 2023).
On Wednesday, the trustees of New Wine said that that they had commissioned Ms Scolding to “undertake an independent review into the allegations made concerning Mike Pilavachi, to explore how they relate to New Wine, and to spotlight what we will learn for the long run”. It could be an “addendum review” to her report on Soul Survivor, “constructing upon the learnings of that review”. Her review would come with “a relationship audit into the character and extent of our relationship with Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor”.
Terms of reference could be published online shortly. No information supplied to the Soul Survivor review could be shared with New Wine Trust. At the review’s conclusion, Ms Scolding would produce a separate report, which New Wine would publish in full.
Ms Scolding was lead counsel to different investigations by the Independent Inquiry for Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), regarding the Church of England and Church in Wales, schools in England and Wales, and other religious institutions (News, 9 March 2018). She is working alongside one other barrister, Ben Fullbrook, who acted as junior counsel to IICSA, on the review.
Safe Spaces is a free and independent support service, providing a confidential space, for people or survivors of abuse searching for support or who’ve experiences related to Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor, or New Wine.
safespaces@firstlight.org.uk
