Brave UK open letter on Makin Review into Church of England

We know the Church of England spent decades protecting a serial child abuser within its ranks.

This conspiracy of silence long predated Justin Welby’s time as Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Makin review into the crimes of John Smyth lays clear how senior members of the Church focussed for years on the perpetrator. It reveals he was counseled to “seek help” and false promises he made to cease abuse of boys and young men were accepted.

Despite a statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury stating that “survivors must come first,” they did not.

The review finds that “At no point were the victims consulted” about how the Church should act. They were never asked if Smyth should have been reported to the police or other authorities.

“Protection of reputations, individual and organizational” were at the heart of “A cover-up from at least 1982.”

Survivors of child sexual violence are all too familiar with such responses. Those abused are frequently ignored and left searching for healing and justice. At best, they are, eventually, treated as victims - the word used most commonly in the Makin review to describe them. They are denied agency.

We need a world centered around survivors, not perpetrators. Had the Church of England treated survivors as experts with lived experience, had they consulted survivors at any point, John Smyth’s abuse might have been stopped and he would have faced the justice he avoided throughout his life.

Whoever leads the Church in the future, it must work with survivors, rather than exclude them.

Brave Movement UK