31st October 2011

LETTER NO 2 To all current superintendents, presbyters and deacons in Wales and Leeds Districts. (except those on long term sickness absence)

Dear colleague

Methodist Church Review of Past Safeguarding Cases – for action by 28 days from receipt of this letter.

This letter asks you to complete the attached pro-forma in relation to any safeguarding concern that you have been aware of since 1950 onwards.

The Conference this year supported the plan for this review. You can read the Conference report on-line on the Methodist Church website or by asking us for a paper copy by post. We are first running a pilot review with all leaders, churches, ministers and safeguarding workers in two Districts (Leeds and Wales).

This letter comes to you now as part of the pilot. Apart from exceptions due to frail health etc of which we are aware, it is being sent to all deacons, presbyters and superintendents in the two pilot Districts. As such, you are part of the sample of people in the Methodist Church to be approached during this pilot phase. As part of the pilot, a separate, similar letter is going to a sample of the Presidents of Conference, Vice Presidents, leaders of the Connexional team, and all previous and current Chairs of the two Districts. Please note: we ask you for information about all relevant matters of which you have had knowledge, and not just matters relating to Wales or Leeds. This is important as otherwise we would be having to seek repetitive disclosures of information from you.

Please also can superintendent ministers pass a copy of this letter and the leaflet to any supernumeraries living in your circuit – unless this is not possible due to the supernumerary’s frail health etc.

The Methodist Church historically has not held files for presbyters and deacons. There are Complaints and Discipline files held either at Connexion or at District level. There are files relating to lay employment. There may well be files stored in your local church, circuit or District about particular incidents. We hope to gather in all relevant matters from these resources. Notwithstanding this written documentation, by far the most significant amount of information about the people called Methodists is stored within the memory banks of people like you. That is why we are contacting you to ask for this information to be shared with us.

Do’s and Don’ts

There are some important rules here:

-  Do take care of yourself in this process. If you have any queries, or would appreciate a pastoral conversation or support because of difficult memories that have been stirred up, then do not hesitate to contact me and arrangements will be put in place.

-  Don’t withhold anything because you assume someone else is better placed to tell us about it. We would rather be told many times than none.

-  Do share all material which is possibly relevant even if you are unsure. That way we can sift through centrally and achieve some consistency, rather than each recipient of this letter making individual judgements.

-  Don’t be deterred because of anxieties about confidentiality. Great care has been taken to ensure that this process respects confidentiality and complies with all Data Protection requirements about the safe storage and proper use of information.

-  Don’t fear any ‘witch hunt’ about past decisions made according to different processes and widely different standards. We recognise that the past was often a very different country. The process will not identify any individual, church, circuit or district.

-  Do tackle this very difficult subject quickly rather than hoping your memory will become clearer at a later date! We do recognise just how hard it is to be asked to recall such hard matters en bloc – but you will appreciate the importance of the task.

-  Do ensure you tell us all you can but don’t be deterred because of missing details. All safeguarding work is a jigsaw of information collected from a variety of places. Please just contribute your part of the jigsaw.

So what are we asking?

The first two steps have also been asked of all past Presidents and other church leaders. The later steps are for you specifically, as the current leaders of local church communities.

1. Please use the accompanying template to tell us about any safeguarding cases of which you have been aware, dating back as far as 1950 if possible. Please return the attached form whether or not you have information to share.

2. The independent consultant who has been commissioned to assess this information may need to speak with you by telephone.

3. Please ensure that you check any place where information of this kind might be stored (safes, cabinets or computers in homes or in church, circuit of district offices ) and seek help from the people you know to be important in this process locally.

4. Also ensure that this review is publicised somehow in all churches. Please see the attached leaflet for help in this communication. The deadline for responses to be included within the pilot is four weeks from receipt of this letter - but there is no general deadline for the sharing of this information.

We repeat – this is not an easy or a light request. It is being made because we need to ensure that past concerns have been resolved safely, and that we have learned the good and the bad lessons from the past to make our response now as good as it can be. The Catholic church leads the way in the courage of the response of some church leaders to these difficulties and we end this letter with a quotation:

A Church which becomes a restorative community will be one where the care of each one of the most vulnerable and most wounded will truly become the dominant concern of the ninety-nine others, who will learn to abandon their own security and try to represent Christ who still seeks out the abandoned and heals the troubled.”

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (April 2011) Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland

Should you have any questions or comment, please contact Mya Rahisi, the Past Cases Review administrator, via the Helpdesk at Methodist Church House Tel: 020 7486 5502. Maya will pass your query on to the appropriate person.

Alternatively if you want to contact someone within the District, the relevant safeguarding coordinators are Revd Susan McIvor (Wales Synod) and Hilary Murden (Leeds District representative).

With many thanks for your help

Elizabeth |Hall

On behalf of the Past Cases Review Oversight Group

Peter ACKERLEY (Policing / Major Investigations + Wales Synod)

Jane ALLIN (Methodist Council)

Sarah CHADWICK (Safeguarding Advisory Panel)

Revd. Eileen SANDERSON (Methodist Council)

Revd Alison MCDONALD (Joint Safeguarding Liaison Group)

Stephen BARBER Church of England (Oxford Diocese Safeguarding Adviser)

Officers:

Elizabeth HALL (Connexional Safeguarding Adviser)

Bahya RAHISI (Administrator)

Kate WOOD (consultant assessor)

The Methodist Church Registered charity no. 1132208