Safeguarding in Jersey's churches, Bishop trevor isn't in charge

courtesy of Tony the Prof:

TUESDAY, 18 AUGUST 2015

Jerseys Anglican Church: Some Problems with Safeguarding

Safeguarding

Clergy and senior lay leaders in Jersey's Anglican Church have had training in protecting islanders from abuse, the Bishop of Dover said. The Right Reverend Trevor Willmott said new safeguarding measures are in place to reassure everyone in the church. It follows a decision by the church's governing body - the Synod - that improvements must be made. Bishop Willmott said there was no question in his mind that "God's people are safe in this island".

-- BBC News

What would be useful to know, in the interests of transparency, would be the enhanced policies and procedures. I’ve had a look at the Town church website, and the only thing remotely connected is in the diary where there are “safeguarding training and lunches”

There is no safeguarding officer to contact in the list of contacts, no safeguarding policies on the website, and no indication of these new improvements at all, no links to safeguarding elsewhere (such as Dover) - or, for that matter, what training consisted of, or what they had for lunch!

Now pretty well any club or organisation which deals with children and vulnerable adults has a policy on their website, but the Anglican Church in Jersey does not. We have no idea how complaints will be handled, whether minutes of meetings will be kept, whether it will be ensured that vulnerable adults will have someone they trust in attendance.

It is also not clear how the church would act to implement the policies anyway. Part of the problem, both locally and in the UK, has been the way that in local communities, it is difficult to find someone outside and independent to look into these matters.

As one English survivor, called CF, said of her case:

"An abuse policy that does not have a clearly stated process of implementation is effectively worthless. A vulnerable person or an abused person by definition has no power in the Church. This means that someone with power has to make a decision to implement the policy, but to do this they have to suspend their total and complete faith in the priest or other person concerned."

There is a link to the Canons of the Church of England in Jersey on the Town Church website, and it is here that some interesting notes on safeguarding arise as the local Canons differ from the English Canon Law.

Let us look at changes to Canon Law to improve safeguarding in England:

On 16 February 2015, David Pocklingtom reported on changes taking place to Canon Law in England. This is what he noted:

At General Synod on 12 February, Mr Geoffrey Tattersall introduced the main provisions of the Draft PCCs: There was agreement that the disqualification and suspension provisions for PCC members should mirror those in relation to churchwardens. Furthermore, a bishop should also be empowered to suspend PCC secretaries and treasurers who are not PCC members.

(GS 1952A) and the draft Amending Canon No.34 (GS 1953A) – Draft Measure and draft Amending Canon for Revision. The main points identified in his speech are summarized below, and the Report by the Revision Committee is available as GS 1952-3Y.

The main provisions of the draft Measure are:

Suspension of a priest: Section 36(1) of the Clergy Discipline Measure already provides for the suspension of a priest or deacon when disciplinary proceedings are commenced or he/she is arrested on suspicion of committing a criminal offence, is convicted of certain offences, or included on a barred list.

Clause 1(1) of the draft Measure adds a power to suspend where the bishop is satisfied on information provided by the police or local authority that a priest or deacon presents a significant risk of harm – as defined in clause 1(2) – but before suspending the bishop is required to consult at the very least the diocesan safeguarding advisor. Such suspension continues for 3 months but may be renewed.

Churchwardens: The current clause 2 of the draft Measure provides for the disqualification and suspension of churchwardens. Mr Tattersall highlighted that:

Although the initial draft provided for a waiver of disqualification, the Revision Committee was persuaded that any such waiver required further clarity. Consequently clause 2(2) provides that before giving any waiver the bishop must at the very least consult the diocesan safeguarding advisor, and must give reasons for any such waiver, and that any such waiver will be of unlimited duration and have effect in every diocese;

As to suspension, the Committee agreed that a bishop should not only have power to suspend a churchwarden in the circumstances set out the present clause 2(5) of the draft Measure: i.e. if arrested on suspicion of committing a Schedule 1 offence, but also if the bishop was satisfied that the churchwarden presents a significant risk of harm.
And the draft Measure states this:

A relevant person must have due regard to guidance issued by the House of Bishops on matters relating to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults.

(2) Each of the following is a relevant person—
(a) a clerk in Holy Orders who is authorised to officiate in accordance with the canons of the Church of England;
(b) a diocesan, suffragan or assistant bishop;
(c) an archdeacon;
(d) a person who is licensed to exercise the office of reader or serve as a lay worker;
(e) a churchwarden;
(f) a parochial church council.

(1) In this Measure, “child” means a person aged under 18.
(2) In this Measure, “vulnerable adult” means a person aged 18 or over whose ability to protect himself or herself from violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation is significantly impaired through physical or mental disability or illness, old age, emotional fragility or distress, or otherwise.

Given that part of the reason for the split between Jersey and Winchester arose from a complaint made by a lady called HG about a churchwarden, these changes in England’s Canon Law - which mention churchwardens - need to be replicated in Jersey.

What is missing, therefore, from the Bishop’s statement is:

1. Policy and procedure documents available online in the public domain, including contacts and how to report a complaint.

2. Changes to Jersey Canon Law to bring it in line with England’s new safeguarding measures

Without those changes, the statement by the Bishop of Dover, that "God's people are safe in this island" seems rather hollow. It leaves significant gaps which still need to be rectified if that statement is to be made good.

A Blogger's response to the Dean's BBC Jersey Press Release

This blog came out today in response to the Dean's press release yesterday:

http://tonymusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/pastoral-care-and-church-politics-in.html

A message for the Church of England

Dear Church of England.
Now you have spent 16 months or 6 years destroying me and attempting to publish everyone's story but mine,
how about an investigation into what happened to me?

The Walk of a Thousand MEN, arrogance and lack of safeguarding

My experience of 'ThroughFaithMissions' and their 'walkofaThousandMen' goes back a long and miserable way, to long before Jersey.

Long before Jersey I had to listen to some stuffy, arrogant old man rambling about nothing at a dinner party in his honour because he was from the 'Walk of a thousand men'.
Not a lot to do with God, I decided at the time, more to do with ego, old windbag going on about himself but with nothing to say.

I met another of these 'men', at a BBQ, he was called Jeffrey and he waffled and windbagged too. He told me that he would ' always know when I needed help and would pray for me then', ok, so the 'Walk of a thousand men is about clairvoyance as well as male ego and arrogance and showing off.

So, long before I met this arrogance in Jersey, I knew what these 'Thousand Men' were, arrogant, empty male chauvenists with high opinions of themselves and chrystal balls (haha).
I could feel the emptiness of them, and how their God was arrogance and showing off and the buzz they got from using their version of God to access people and manipulate their emotions.

I remember in Jersey how they did a 'Men's breakfast', I think if only men matter to these empty people, they should go and live in the third world, where life is still that narrow and arrogant.

Anyway, this guy, Dan Cozens, was going on about how he was made a member of some 'order' 'because the church wanted to keep him as priest', well, firstly, Jesus didn't preach anything about 'orders', that is more of a pharasee thing, and such boasting has no place in Christianity.
If the church want to keep arrogant and empty men as priests, and give them an 'order' to boast about, then  they are lost. Thinking of that empty boastful man, I am reminded very strongly of Peter Ould, it all seems to be about extending what is between their legs rather than anything to do with God.

it reminds me of the sermon 'What is Church all about? What word shall I preach on today that has three letters, is the foundation of the church and has three letters including G and O?
EGO.

Anyway, they ran this exclusive mission in Jersey, where they went round forcing themselves on people by cold calling at people's houses, my abuser was very much leading this, even though he was supposed to be supervised, in fact during the mission week, he had a lot of access to vulnerable people, but, when I asked to help with the mission, I was excluded, it's not for the poor and disabled, it is selective.

The Churchwarden was always going on about this man, Dan Cozens, in the same way as he went on about the Dean, as if he was a superstar, as if every word he said was true, which is how false Gods and idols are created. But apparently this same man, Dan Cozens, and his organization, allowed the churchwarden to access vulnerable young women on 'Walk Cumbria' and talk to them about sex, this was despite the fact that he should have been aware of the churchwarden's history, especially as he was closely allied with the churchwarden's church and did a previous mission in Jersey with the churchwarden championing it.

I feel sorry for anyone duped by these falsehood walks and their false God. EGO and GOD are not the same thing. There is nothing in the God that they force on vulnerable people, no love, no safeguarding, just emptiness, as in the cult churches in Jersey, it's a buzz, it's a kick and it does draw in people who are vulnerable or going through bad times, because of that, but in the centre is emptiness, no genuine care, and blaming of people who are 'not good enough' in one way or another for this cult movement.

So, again the abuser was given access to vulnerable people, at this cult mission that I was unwelcome at, and I didn't really like church being invaded by this cult movement, 'the walk of a thousand men', because that church was already full of cult and chauvenism, why magnify it and dupe people that this was to do with God?

It was on the 'advice of one of these empty-hearted cult men, who had never met me, that the churchwarden tried to 'put guidelines on me' after discussing me detrimentally with the churchwarden and Vicar behind my back.
The empty hearted cult man from the 'walk of a thousand men' was Dan Cozen's right hand man, Jonathan Mortimer, I don't think he had a soul, he was so empty.

I made it clear to the churchwarden just as I did to Fisher and Scott-Joynt later, that you cannot put guidelines on someone for their reaction to what you are doing to hurt them. You have to take responsibility for yourself first.

This is when I first really spoke up about the abuse, and no one contacted me about it, instead they 'advised' the churchwarden and his wife.

In every way, as well as being arrogant, empty, chavenistic and a cult, 'The Walk of a Thousand Men' doesn't just ignore safegaurding it has repeatedly upheld and enabled an abuser to access vulnerable people, in the case of the churchwarden, and who knows how many other cases similar.

Pray that we may be rescued from weird and wicked people - 2 Thessalonians 3:2