A letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury on his current public stance

26/06/2020 sent courtesy of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Personal Assistant. 

Dear Archbishop Justin Welby, 

This matter is put to you as mildly as possible.

As a former Anglican, one of many having to abandon the church as it falls, I have watched the ongoing situation of the Church of England in the news with puzzlement. I haven't always watched carefully, as the CofE seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in the spotlight even when their news isn't really worth headlines in the national news, and other more important articles usually take my attention, but I, along with others, are growing increasingly concerned with the situation relating to the Anglican Church and I felt that as I have started to join others take a stand in speaking out, I may as well contact you personally, although I hear that you and the church are having a bit of trouble responding to correspondence and concerns that are raised, and so I am not holding my breath for a response, but I hope that you will have the courtesy or humanity to listen.

I think the Church need to think about the one-way street in which they are communicating their business to the general public constantly through the media but are not able to employ staff who can respond to the general public's feedback; in this day and age, businesses are broken by such situations, and your Church as it is now, is effectively a business and not a Christian Body. During the recent crisis, the Church offered nothing to the UK, nothing spiritual or physical as the UK became the worst-hit country. The CofE stunts were prolonged complaints about closing their buildings when all religious and non-religious businesses had to close, in-house fighting about the closed churches, a terrible headline about putting their wealth in safekeeping rather than using it to help victims of the crisis, which should have been the purpose of the church, a lot of boasting about congregations growing through online church, and then since lockdown eased, the church have gone all-out in attention seeking, without pausing for breath or to let the UK breathe. The situation with the Dean of Oxford is typical of the church who have lost sight of any purpose related to Christianity. 

I would like to discuss the headlines. If the CofE have statues in their Cathedrals, they surely know the origins and would have prudently removed any inappropriate statues or monuments without a fuss some time ago? Why does there need to be a major headline in response to the recent BLM situation? Even now, the Church could have the integrity and humility to deal with any overlooked inappropriate statues with quietness and in privacy and shame, rather than trying to use the situation to gain acclaim. I am sorry to say that the overdone headlines, the many many headlines, are your trademark. What surprises me is that your former Archdeacon of Southwark has suffered a double bereavement to murder and the Church, while holding up many headlines for public attention in the last few weeks, have been very muted regarding that matter rather than saying more about their former Archdeacon and her family and the tragedy. 

On the subject of statues, when the 10 Commandments are clear about the worship of graven images, why are there statues to people in any Church or Cathedral? Is it as forgotten as Jesus' fury at the Church being used to make money, as the Cathedrals charge huge fees from visitors and treat the same places where worship is held as a money-making attraction? 

Recent headlines have been about clergy 'Taking the knee', a ridiculously complicated and romanticised way of saying 'kneeling'. When the correct term is ommitted, the rule of thumb is that the matter is without integrity and is a pretentious show. Now kneeling before God is good, but when you kneel before the press, posing for photos and to try to gain favour and to pretend to be what you're not, that isn't so good. Time spent trying to force the CofE to be what it isn't would be better spent on looking at what the CofE is, and starting to tackle those problems which are now the core of it, and this can be done in humility and quietness, as that would be what Jesus was asking when He spoke to and of the Pharisees and their proud and public ways. If the slave trade was still legal, the Anglican Church would still be major players in it as they were, and you can't call people to 'Repent' en Masse for things in the ancient past, that is ridiculous and indicates a little splinter away from reality. 

Regarding your news today of another effort to rebrand Jesus or decide what he would be, do, or say, I think you need to stop concerning yourself, you made an embarrassing faux pas along the same lines during the merrymaking after the installation of the current Bishop of Dover, but Jesus is not yours or mine to play with, especially not to try to use recent events to gain public admiration, the way He is depicted or what you try to make Him say, is not as important as how His Teachings are carried out, and your church are veering so swiftly from Jesus' teachings in that effort to get public favour that there is nearly no church left. You look desperate in your headlines, that is what stands out most, no amount of clever words put together for you by professionals who you employ or outsource to for the incessant press exhibition, can change the main message of your persistent headlines, you look desperate. 

You have other priorities that you are neglecting to criminal lengths. Your efforts to cover up the darker side of your church, and apparently yourself, has left a young woman homeless and in a severe state of harm and distress, you personally oversaw and enabled that harm, you covered up abusive, abhorrent and criminal actions in your church by subjecting a vulnerable woman to a barrage of false reports, assumptions and conflicted whitewashes, in public, in the media, you enabled every defendant in that case and their conflicted associates in the realms of law and governance to publicly crucify that woman and made her terrified reaction out to be madness, at no point did you or your senior clergy involved make any move to stop that public 'attempted murder' of a woman already utterly destroyed by the CofE's actions, she had no voice, no defence, no lawyers and disaster management firm to hide behind as you and the others involved did, you provided no defence and showed no mercy to this woman, and why? She was a victim of repeat abuses in the church, by known abusers, and one of your first attention headlines in the media was to launch untruths about her into the public domain without her knowledge or consent under the guise of 'safeguarding' although the gathered published 'evidence' was by a lay member of the church who worked not with the victim but with the defendants and never contacted the victim or got her consent for an insulting and untrue version of her life to be published. After years of intolerable public harm to an already very damaged woman, you tried to forcibly silence her with police brutality and detention as she went on begging for justice. In a similar case, you used a paedophile sympathiser to whitewash another case despite being made aware by members of the public that he was not a suitable or safe investigator, and you then 'apologised' to the victims for the distress caused at the same time as erecting a statue to the alleged abuser who you cleared in the same press release. The behaviour of the UK media in these matters has been intolerable, celebrities have been killed by press hatred and smears and obviously inflicting it on abuse victims is lethal, and why? For your PR spotlight. The last 7 years and ongoing is one of the biggest farces in the history of the UK press. 

There have been a number of PR cases like this, and it is very concerning that you seem to have no understanding of the serious impact on victims of your selection of unsuitable investigators and lack of care for victims and public misinformation on cases, while priorities such as investigations into Baroness Butler-Sloss's involvement with the IICSA and the Ecclesiastical Panel as well as the cases above, after she intervened in the Peter Ball case to cover for Bishop Ball, has still not been instigated. It is understood that the Ecclesiastical Panel are working hard to further cover some of the matters mentioned here, and this situation is unacceptable. The Church should be under regulation and not conflicting the government with figures who have escaped justice for serious matters. You have repeatedly used the removal of the disgraced George Carey for headlines, but with these other matters still unresolved and several vulnerable people seriously harmed, that isn't a matter steeped in integrity. 

It is deeply concerning that things continue this way and that your priority seems to be leaping onto current affairs and almost feeding off them in order to try to make your denomination remain relevant, rather than working in humility and silence to resolve the serious corruptions and flaws within the church, you can't preach until you practice. Do you not see how the constant headlines look to the general public, or even to the victims of abuse whose lives your church have ruined, including those above who are still waiting for sanity and reason to come upon the UK authorities and bring external regulation and investigation to the Church? The cases mentioned above were carried out in broad daylight and with the world looking on, and not a murmur, nor any opposition from the authorities, who actually seemed more than eager to facilitate the CofE. This is a dangerous and unsatisfactory situation which indicates that safeguarding of children and the vulnerable in the UK has a long way to go and in the C of E is non-existent. 

I believe that an investigation is still in waiting regarding the IICSA being chaired by two undeclared CofE heads, Baroness Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf, with Butler-Sloss still unpunished for her confliction of the Peter Ball and other case, and with both ladies aware of their confliction, not declaring it, and not being challenged, even though the seriousness of the fact that they were overseeing an investigation into their own church was borderline criminal. It is small wonder that many abuse victims lack confidence in the IICSA bringing true justice and exposing in full what has been going on. 

Is it possible for you to search within and find some remorse and shame, and rather than another 'show' apology, and  make sure those who have been employed to safeguarding yourself and the Church under the guise of 'national' or Diocesan safeguarding are removed and reported for their damaging and even criminal actions towards victims and replaced by independent regulation, and that you ensure outside intervention that investigates yourself and your fellow senior clergy? You have destroyed and nearly killed several people in your dangerous 'two way mirror' safeguarding games for the press, and you still find irrelevancies and public affairs a priority over facing that and restoring the life of the woman left homeless by you yet again two years ago. You think that forcibly shut down and with that victim condemned utterly for unexpectedly fighting the church for justice and a voice, it has all gone away, which indicates your lack of faith in God, Jesus, and Divine Justice as well as reflecting on your character and your lack of comprehension of humanity; the same goes for your fellow clergy, John Sentamu, Paul Butler, Peter Hancock and numerous others. Why does the Name of Jesus make you think you have licence to destroy, to lie, to boast about your every thought and whim as if it was fact and in the media as well? Please address your priorities, and if your unusual behaviours really are related to substance abuse as has been rumoured, seek help and get someone to sit with you when you want to release bizarre ideas into the press, until the urge passes. Bishop Butler could have done with someone sitting with him to stop him offending abuse victims after his part in whitewashing cases. 

I'm not normally one to ramble, I like to make my point and move on, but I am concerned regarding what I'm hearing about how your safeguarding representatives and your 'guards', Butler-Sloss, Bursell et al, have treated victims and I believe it is time for them to be investigated; I am concerned about how you have knowingly chosen and kept conflicted investigators and left victims silenced, I am concerned for your congregations who are being lost and thrown away, alienated by the public behaviour of you and your senior leaders and your unusual whims and fancies that do not take the welfare and faith of congregants into account, I am concerned about the scattered flock while you prioritise advertising almost daily in a selection of the press who can find space; the Mail, the Guardian, the Evening Standard, who specialise in advertising space and get advertising and news a bit confused. The BBC, from the same archaic place as the CofE, slobbering and piddling like an untrained labrador all over the constant news of nose picking and bowel movements by church leaders is another irritation to many and I guess the common denominator is that these outlets do not do journalism but buy from syndicates and get short of news so fillers from the Anglican round robins are necessary.

 Other denominations in the UK still focus on God, on Jesus, on worship, rather than the feather-preening wannabe celebs of the Anglican church, where is coverage of their views? Do you think you are film stars?

It would be a lovely gift from the CofE to the UK who they are becoming so distanced from, if the Church could have a 'holiday' from the almost daily current press releases about the senior leader's every whim and thought, and if you could use that time to genuinely reflect on the Church's validity and place in the UK, and what the Church should believe and stand for, either you are for Jesus, for God, or you have to make a stand and explain why you are deviating from those and what you are aiming for and standing for, and a rebrand without 'church' in any context would be advisable. 

The Bishop of London spends her time indicating gleefully why victims of all kinds, from Chancel Liability Tax to Sexual Abuse, have nowhere at all to turn, as she shows herself leading services for lawyers, judges, the NHS, the Police, Social Care etc, and highlights again how the CofE's unhealthy relationship with the authorities means that the church has a friend in every camp and there is no regulation or integrity to protect victims in need of help from confliction and the silencing that the victims mentioned earlier have faced. Your church relies on power within government and authorities to protect you from consequences of wrongdoing and to avoid any regulation or highlighting of the confliction that the church is dependent on. 

 You also rely on power over schools to survive, which in light of decades of abuse and the current serious safeguarding situation, which is clear despite the false press releases claiming to the contrary, should not be ongoing. It appears that the government drops the burden of schools and services on you in return for protecting the church's unsustainable position in England. 

The Bishops of London and Dover were a fine PR triumph for the Church, but not, unfortunately a triumph against the rapid deterioration of the Church's morals and behaviours as the Church's domination of the press becomes stifling. What is particularly galling for the Church's victims and those who have been driven from the congregation by the deterioration, is the careless and overdone use of words such as 'forgiveness', 'Justice', 'sorrow' and similar, when the Church do not apply those words genuinely to the outstanding cases of senior leaders' wrongdoing. Does it make sense to tell you that 'people see and people know' despite the displays in the press? It is interesting to see that the Bishop of London is represented by a disaster management firm 24 hours a day as well as making frequent irrelevant but charismatic press releases, it doesn't reflect well on her or the Church that the main industry appears to be public image and not worship, it leaves the CofE without a foundation. Put it this way, the leaders appear to be gagging for attention rather than kneeling in humility, and it is an ugly image and cannot continue indefinitely. John Sentamu's vanity leaving stunts after years of 'retiring' are marred by the damage he did to certain victims of clergy rape, and yet those victims had to suffer seeing that man preen himself publicly for weeks over the swan song of his retirement after he denied them justice and was not made accountable; such things belong in the old days of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, where an illegitimate child was rejected from burial and funeral in the Church.

The CofE are outdated and trying to seek public favour and attention while not changing their archaic ways. Either the Church is for Jesus, Who had compassion, kindness and morals and profound teaching, or the Church needs to swap to another industry where their wannabe celebrity status and craving for attention can be satisfied. 

Your headlines, whatever they say, read 'lost, desperate, out of touch, disintegrated, huge ego, purposeless; in fact everything but Christian Leadership, so what are you trying to be, as you look to change Jesus to try to get support that you won't get? The Anglican church reflects the failed governance and despair in the UK, a Western Country that in some ways is performing worse than a Third World Country. 

What is more important than ending your 7 years of false apology and shame to people who your church openly despise, and actually doing something about your dangerous prejudiced church situation? Do you know of the story of the lost sheep? The woman who you have destroyed and left homeless because you and those involved want to escape punishment for serious misconduct and criminal acts is still waiting for you to repent and restore her life, and suffering the decades of abuse and harm culminating in your violent destruction of her as she waits for you to bring justice and give her a voice and life, and you think that ignoring it and trying to change the colour of Jesus' skin will help, the disillusioned congregations who have turned away and are waiting to see if the Anglican Church can be saved are waiting. Those who have witnessed it all and spoken up and been ignored or not dared to speak up are waiting. 

Do you know the story of the Emperor's New Clothes? People see you and the Church as you keep this facade up, people see and know and suffer, so please find the humility to stop now and turn around. You aren't a believer, neither are your fellow high clergy, but if we speak in terms of humanity instead, please find heart and soul among your money, property, power and interests and have mercy on the tens of thousands who you are affecting and on your victims, and make this a turning point. Thank you. 

Kind regards, 

Mr John I. Carter