The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care has been made public. This report highlights some shocking and saddening incidences of abuse towards those most vulnerable in our community.
We as a Church want to be able to respond to people’s pain with care and compassion. We want to treat people with dignity and enable them to find the resources they need to heal.
To do this with integrity we need to first recognise the harm that we have caused.
Even when we have not been responsible for the harm caused, we as members of the Church need to apologise for what has occurred in our community, and do everything possible to make sure such harm never occurs again.
The reason that I am saying, I am sorry, rather than we are sorry, is because when I say I, it makes me personally responsible for ensuring that this does not happen again, and because for many the Church has become faceless in the presence of others pain.
I also wish to say I am sorry because there are so many of you who long to hear those words and never will. To you I wish you all peace and healing and this is why I am sorry:
I am sorry that the Anglican Church has abused children and adults in New Zealand.
I am sorry for the abuse in our churches, schools, Sunday schools, youth groups and care facilities. I am sorry for the broken trust, the broken lives, the broken faith.
I am sorry that survivors were disbelieved, ignored, accused and marginalised. I am sorry that some didn’t survive.
I am sorry that leaders in the church sought to protect the “good name” of clergy and church members, and to protect the reputation of the church, rather than pursue justice. I am sorry that those suffering were further abused by being called to forgive (and forget).
I am sorry that church leaders and members ignored their suspicions, ignored evidence, ignored spoken and unspoken cries for help, and behaved as if it wasn’t their business. I am sorry church members felt ill-equipped to respond to the needs around them, didn’t know what to do, nor whether they could trust “the system.”
I am sorry that Māori, Pacific, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people were disproportionately affected by physical, sexual, psychological and racial abuse in the “care” systems that failed them.
After six years work, the final report of the NZ Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care (1950-1999) is public this week. In its wake, agencies will come under renewed scrutiny, and churches and faith-based institutions possibly more strongly than State agencies. That is understandable. There is a visceral abhorrence to hypocrisy and betrayal by spiritual leaders.
I fully expect that more stories of abuse will emerge, historic and current, more perpetrators will be identified, and more failings by the church will become known. I am not sorry that today’s church has to face “the sins of the fathers” - the church must be answerable to the demands of justice.
I also acknowledge the reality of the potential for abuse today, and the responsibility of every church leader and member to prevent it.
We claim to follow Jesus Christ, who embraced the marginalised, treasured children, healed the wounded, challenged injustice and abhorred the abuse of power. Jesus calls his Church to do the same.
So today I am sorry to all your families and friends who have been wounded.
But to you who we have hurt, today I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry.
(Some words adapted from Rev Indrea Alexander.)
