The Synod of Bishops has resolved that every parish in the Province should appoint safeguarding officials dedicated to keeping people safe from abuse, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has announced.
In a statement released after the February meeting of the Synod of Bishops, the Archbishop said: “The bishops unanimously approved a set of recommendations I made for immediate action to improve safeguarding in the church. Each bishop has also individually committed to take action in his or her diocese.
“Every congregation will appoint Safe Church Officers, whose names will be published in Sunday church service bulletins, or on church noticeboards in congregations which don’t produce leaflets.
“The bishops also adopted procedures aimed at preventing members accused of abuse from moving to other churches without the churches to which they move being warned. They also agreed that clergy licenses should be reviewed to ensure that the conditions under which they were granted met modern safeguarding standards.”
The Synod, which met in Gauteng, includes bishops from 25 dioceses in South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and the island of St Helena.
The Archbishop proposed a set of measures after a panel of inquiry comprising Justice Ian Farlam, formerly of the Supreme Court of Appeal, and Dr Mamphela Ramphele, the civil society activist and former university vice-chancellor, criticised the slow pace of efforts to improve keeping members safe from abuse.
The inquiry was appointed after the church’s failure to pass on a 2013 warning about the presence in Cape Town of John Smyth, a British expatriate who abused dozens of boys and young men in Britain and Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s.
The synod also supported a proposal that the liaison body for church schools, the Anglican Board of Education (ABESA), convene a meeting of the principals and councils of the schools to discuss the state of safeguarding at the schools.
“ABESA has already begun work on this,” Archbishop Makgoba said, “and has approached all the bishops asking for access to their schools and institutions.”
Judge Farlam and Dr Ramphele found that “over the years, including in the most recent time, instances of serious physical and sexual abuse involving learners have continued to present themselves” in schools.
One of the panel of inquiry’s major criticisms was the delay in appointing a Safe and Inclusive Church Commission, a body approved by Provincial Synod in 2019 which should include bishops, church lawyers and psychologists or specialists involved in counselling, spiritual guidance or support in cases of abuse.
The Archbishop reported to the bishops that the commission has now been formally established, although some members still need to be appointed.
“The team which has taken on safeguarding in the interim will provide advice, resources and training to the church-wide network of local safeguarding officers and the commission,” he said.
“The commission will provide training and guidance to local officers but will also have the capacity to receive complaints directly from those who do not wish to report abuse through local church officers.”
In an address to the synod, Dr Ramphele told the bishops that society was “in the grip of an epidemic of gender-based violence that affects the majority of families in every community.”
Citing the statistics on the prevalence of abuse, she noted that one in four women reported experiencing violence at the hands of an intimate partner.
She called for institutional change in the church, for clear policies regarding harassment and assault, whether sexual, racial or physical, and for the church to “clarify our role and responsibilities for the ministry related to Anglican Church schools.”
In another appeal, she urged: “We need to move beyond a ‘policing’ approach to a ‘caring’ approach to help guide the people of God on the complexity of multi-generational traumas and the healing journeys we all must undertake to enable us to become wounded healers.”
The recommendations proposed by the Archbishop, and endorsed by the Synod of Bishops, follow:
“Each Bishop should require every local parish in the church to nominate one or more members for training as Safe Church Officers;
“That the Safe and Inclusive Church Commission expands its programme of training sessions for Safe Church Officers;
“That the contact details of each Safe Church Officer should be listed in each congregation’s Sunday parish leaflet, or where leaflets are not published, they should be posted to the church noticeboard;
“That each Bishop should make inquiries in his or her Diocese as to (1) whether anyone previously accused of abuse, even before the Bishop took office, currently holds a licence in the Diocese, (2) whether the conditions under which they were granted a licence meet current standards of safeguarding, and (3) that each Bishop provide a full written report on each such case to the Provincial Executive Officer and the Safe Church Commission.
“That each Bishop should require each parish to report in writing to the Diocese, on a confidential basis, any concerns of abuse or conduct which potentially contravenes the Pastoral Standards; further that if someone suspected of such conduct is thought to have moved to another congregation, that details of that congregation should be included in the report. In addition, should the person of concern move to a congregation outside the Anglican Church, the parish should canvass with their Bishop whether the matter should be reported on an explicitly confidential basis to the appropriate authority in that other worshipping entity. These steps to be regarded as reporting protocols, to be followed in addition to any disciplinary or legal action taken to address abuse.
“That should such a concern be based on information reasonably indicating that abuse or impermissible conduct may have occurred, and not simply on mere rumour, the Bishop should lodge a written notification of the concern with the Provincial Executive Officer and the Safe Church Commission. Again, this step to be taken in addition to any disciplinary or legal action necessary.
“That all our parishes should ensure that the protocols requiring new members transferring from other Anglican parishes to provide letters of referral or commendation are fully implemented.
“That each Bishop give particular attention to ensuring proper filing and retrieval of information in their Diocesan office.
“In addition, I propose to request the Anglican Board of Education to convene a meeting of the Principals and Councils of Anglican chools to discuss the state of safeguarding at the schools, and to report on their discussions to the Synod of Bishops, the annual meeting of Provincial Standing Committee and Provincial Synod.”
