Bishop Philip North said: “I’m just devastated, really, that this mess that we’re seeing unfolding since the publication of the Makin review undermines good work.
“Tremendous, heroic work was going on at ground level with parish safeguarding officers and clergy going to tremendous lengths and taking safeguarding seriously.
“I can totally get why trust in bishops is at such a low ebb. It really is at a low ebb. And there are reasons for that. We’ve seen poor judgment. We’ve seen, quite possibly, poor behaviour. We felt trapped, I think quite often, by systems and structures.
“I can’t deny there’s huge reputational damage done to the church at a national level, to the standing of bishops and to the perception of the church and the Church of England, and we feel still to be very much on the back foot, very much on the defensive”.
Asked whether the bishops’ moral authority had gone after the scandals, he said most people had a knowledge of the Church of England through the parish church. Nationally, reputation needed to be restored.
College of Bishops ‘very, very deeply shaken’ by recent events in the diocese of Liverpool, media briefing hears https://t.co/g8xWYE4UZP
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 5, 2025
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