New Wine has issued the following statement taking responsibility and apologising to the Rev Dr Tanner-Ihm for “what can only be described as conversion therapy”.

New Wine Statement, August 2025

In March last year, New Wine were contacted by a vicar in the Church of England who shared his experience as a participant on the 2013/14 New Wine Discipleship Year. He explained that during his placement at a church, he encountered racism, homophobia, and what can only be described as conversion therapy. We are horrified by this.

The church where Rev Dr Augustine Tanner-Ihm spent his Discipleship Year placement has conducted its own investigation and made a full apology to him. New Wine also take responsibility and apologise to Rev. Dr. Tanner-Ihm. We are deeply sorry for what he experienced during that time, for the failures in our systems, governance and culture that allowed it to happen, and for the ways in which we failed to respond adequately to his disclosure in the years that followed. New Wine also acknowledge that part of what Augustine experienced was shaped by unconscious bias and racial prejudice.

New Wine leadership had the privilege to meet with Augustine to discuss these matters directly, and express deep respect for him and his ministry. Specifically, New Wine apologise for the following:

• That we did not carry out a sufficiently robust vetting process for the church in which Augustine was placed. We failed in our responsibility to ensure the placement was safe, supportive, and aligned with our values.
• That our complaints systems at the time were inadequate. Augustine did not have a clear or trusted way to raise concerns within New Wine. He was unable to access the right support when he needed it most.
• That our response to Augustine’s disclosures over nearly a decade was inadequate. We did not listen well, and we did not act.

In response, and informed by an independent lessons learned review into Augustine’s experiences, we have made substantial changes over the last two years. These include strengthened safeguarding policies and processes, improved procedures for selecting Discipleship Year placement churches, and enhanced practices for safer recruitment into leadership roles.

Over the coming year, New Wine will continue to prioritise improvements in governance, safeguarding and organisational culture. New Wine is committed to being safe and inclusive, ensuring concerns and complaints can be brought to us with confidence and that they will be responded to appropriately.

We are deeply grateful to Augustine for his courage in bringing this matter to us. His voice has been instrumental in driving significant change within New Wine. We remain committed to ongoing learning, accountability and continuous improvement in this area.

Comment

Commenting on ‘X’/Twitter on 4 August 2025, Augustine Tanner-Ihm noted “In August 2025, New Wine formally apologized, acknowledging systemic failures, racial bias, and harm done”, adding “One of the scariest things is I told leaders, clergy and my TEI Principal and no one took me seriously. Over all about ten people”. There is further background in Madeleine Davies’ article in the Church Times New Wine apologises to curate subjected to conversion therapy.

On 12 February 2025, the Independent Review into New Wine by Fiona Scolding KC, Alasdair Henderson, and Ben Fullbrook of Landmark Chambers was published. Extracts from the Executive Summary and Recommendations of the 54-page document are here.

Updated: 7 August 2025 at 07:00.