The John Smyth affair in the Church of England has already claimed the scalp of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and may yet engulf Stephen Cottrell in York. Earlier this week, it became clear that its reverberations will go much further.
The Church has applied to arraign ten other clergy, including an ex-Bishop of Durham, under the Clergy Discipline Measure. It alleges that they knew or ought to have known about Smyth’s proclivity for brutally flagellating young men, indulged first at an evangelical camp at Iwerne Minster in Dorset and later in southern Africa after he was packed off there in 1984, and that they could have taken steps to stop him. If upheld, the proceedings could lead to their being banned from priestly functions for life.
If we now penalise holy foolishness, we shall get a joyless and unspiritual church
Many welcome this as a belated acceptance by the Church of its need to take safeguarding seriously.
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