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Open Letters
Many survivors and our allies have written letters to successive Archbishops of Canterbury and other senior leaders. We cannot hope to include them all here; many are not in the public domain. We include those which have received significant media attention. They all advocate for justice for survivors and call for transformational change to the Church’s structures and cultures.
The entries below are listed in chronological order, to follow the timeline from the first correspondence (top) to last correspondence (bottom).
Open Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from sexual abuse survivor Gilo
Ekklesia
Archbishop of Canterbury urged to abandon Church insurers over ‘derisory’ settlements to abuse victims
Abuse survivor makes plea for changes to compensation
Safeguarding consultant calls C of E to account on abuse investigations
Ekklesia
Archbishop and sexual abuse survivor exchange letters
Thinking Anglicans
www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/7735-2/
Justin Welby under pressure to overhaul approach to church sex abuse survivors
Reply to Archbishop of Canterbury with comments from a range of survivors, Synod members, campaigners, and others
Survivors say Church hierarchy failing to lead on child abuse
Justin Welby ‘blocked’ payouts to abused pupils
Julian Whiting | The Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/justin-welby-blocked-payouts-to-abused-pupils-h3gb9sx59
Janet Fife Reply to Archbishops Pastoral Letter
Janet Fife | Surviving Church
http://survivingchurch.org/2018/03/25/survivors-reply-to-archbishops-pastoral-letter/
Sorry not enough, Archbishops’ letter says after IICSA – and a survivor agrees
Janet Fife’s Letter – some reflections
Janet Fife | Surviving Church
http://survivingchurch.org/2018/03/27/janet-fifes-letter-some-reflections/
“Neither here nor there” – Members from the Survivor Reference Group (SRG)
Surviving Church
http://survivingchurch.org/2020/08/02/neither-here-nor-there
An entirely different approach to survivors of abuse
Andrew Graystone | Thinking Anglicans | Also published in Letters to a Broken Church
www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/an-entirely-different-approach-to-survivors-of-abuse/Open Letter to Charity Commission December 2022
Surviving Church & Thinking Anglicans
51 signatories
The letter complains of “a highly dysfunctional church culture – one lacking in care, wisdom and responsibility – uniformly poor in responses to allegations of abuse”. The writers say that the Church has “no functional leadership in safeguarding” and that claims by the bishops that the church’s safeguarding is on a path of improvement are “insincere and inaccurate.”
http://survivingchurch.org/2022/12/15/open-letter-to-charity-commission-december-2022
https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/charity-commission-asked-to-investigate-church-of-england-safeguarding