“Anyone who wants to be the Archbishop of Canterbury absolutely needs their head reading”
Further fall-out from the Makin Review
Last week, we noted that Sir Jamie Colman and the Revd Sue Colman had been asked to “step back” from their church activities following the publication of the Makin Review into the abuse by John Smyth. On Friday, the Religion Media Centre reported that the Diocese of London had announced that three priests named in the Makin Review have had their Permission to Officiate withdrawn pending investigation. One of the three has also had his PTO withdrawn by the Diocese of Gloucester.
Writing in the Church Times, Madeleine Davies comments on how Conservative Evangelicals in the Church of England are “reckoning with the legacy of John Smyth’s abuse and its cover-up”. She notes that the Makin Review lists clergy who knew of the abuse coming from “many of the powerhouses of the conservative evangelical constituency in England”. She also notes that the Church of England Evangelical Council indicated that “culture-changing action” is required within the evangelical constituency. Dr Elly Hanson, the clinical psychologist whose psychological analysis of Smyth forms Appendix 4 of the Makin Review, has suggested that “the beliefs and values of the Conservative Evangelical community in which John Smyth operated are critical to understanding how he manipulated his victims into it, how it went on for so long, and how he evaded justice.”
Preventing lawful burial
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