The General Synod has decided to wait for the outcome of an existing investigation into Soul Survivor and Mike Pilavachi before considering commissioning its own.
On Sunday, members of the Church of England’s legislative body debated a new proposal calling on the Archbishop’s Council – the denomination’s executive body – to commission a King’s Council (KC) investigation into the abuse that took place at Soul Survivor under its founder, Mike Pilavachi.
Proposed by Rev Robert Thompson, the investigation would have examined “the wider cultural and systemic contexts that allowed this abuse to occur, to continue, and to go unchecked for nearly 40 years.”
In his Private Member’s Motion (PMM), the vicar of St Mary & St James in London argued this was needed because he believes the remits of both the National Safeguarding Team's report and the Fiona Scolding KC review “fail to comprehensively engage with the relationship of the various Soul Survivor organisations to the Diocese of St Alban’s” as well as integrate the “parochial and diocesan contexts”.
However, the proposals were amended after an hour-long discussion among Synod members. The amendment calls on the Archbishop’s Council to ensure that “learning from the review into allegations of abuse within the Soul Survivor network currently being undertaken…is considered in any recommendations relating to the Future of Church Safeguarding” instead.
It also urges the Council to engage “with relevant survivors to understand their perspective on the review’s conclusions".
Speaking after the debate, Rev Robert told Premier: “If my motion had been passed, it would have set a precedent going forward. The precedent would have been that you always have a report that looks into the wider cultural, systemic issues because abuse is never about an individual.
"As I said in my speech, abuse is not just about an apple; abuse is about an apple being in a tree that is not healthy. The reality is that the Scolding report doesn't look at the unhealthy tree. In any abuse case going forward, we need to look at the unhealthy tree as much as we need to look at the bad apple.”
The amendment was moved by the Bishop of Stepney and Lead Bishop for Safeguarding, Rt Rev Joanne Grenfell, who argued that although she understood and commended Rev Robert’s PMM, she couldn’t see “any benefit in a re-investigation of the actual events, with no guarantee that victims, survivors, and those involved in a variety of other ways, would be willing to put themselves through further potentially traumatising interviews.”
Bishop Joanne believes the church needs to "respect that [Scolding KC report] thorough and highly independent process."
"Her findings will be published and must be considered in any recommendations relating to the Future of Church Safeguarding," she continued.
The amendment, which essentially rewrote the original proposed plans, was a 'vote by houses', meaning it needed to pass in all three houses - the House of Bishops, Clergy and Laity - to be approved. It was narrowly passed in two of the three houses.
"I think the fact that the vote was so close shows that, actually, we're not happy as a Church in general on the way things are at the moment. And we do need to change," Rev Robert continued.
He added: “Victims and survivors know that another report, looking at the wider issues, is necessary at this point. And that's the difficulty. Secondly, the Archbishop's Council isn't trusted by survivors and victims. The fact that the vote was so close shows that it isn't trusted by quite a lot of clergy and laity as well.”
Overall, Rev Robert said it was “a really good debate” with “great contributions” that gathered support from “across theological traditions of Members of Synod".
To hear more on the allegations facing Soul Survivor and its founder, Mike Pilavachi, check out Premier's Soul Survivors podcast.