Independent safeguarding was once unthinkable, but today few observers think the Synod can afford to vote down the proposals. Given the revelations of the past few months, it would be approaching institutional suicide for the Church to reject the opportunity to rebuild trust and demonstrate its determination to stop abusers and keep vulnerable people safe.

But in the desperate rush to be seen to be doing something to stop the relentlessly critical headlines, few have considered what independence will not fix. The same people who investigated Perumbalath and concluded there was no evidence he was a safeguarding risk will still constitute the safeguarding team; they will just work for a different employer. Safeguarding cases will still be based on the often-conflicting accounts of the only two people in the room at the time of the alleged incident. There will still be cases that cannot be resolved in the way survivors and their increasingly vocal advocates would like. Who will listen to and support dissatisfied and wounded survivors, if not the Church? And what happens when the independent safeguarding authority clears someone the CofE hierarchy believes to be guilty?

Safeguarding independence will not be an end the Church’s state of permacrisis. In fact, the Synod vote will probably create as many new problems as it solves old ones. The weary vicars wondering when they can stop bracing for the next scandal cannot relax yet.

Read it all.

"If the Church of England was not in crisis before, it certainly is now."

Tim Wyatt: There is no solution to the Church of England permacrisis https://t.co/T7bXLQP72Y

— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) February 6, 2025

Edgar met Rita on LinkedIn. He worked for a Canadian software company, she was from Singapore and was with a large consultancy. They were just friends, but they chatted online all the time. One day Rita offered to teach him how to trade crypto. With her help, he made good money. So he raised his stake. However, after Edgar tried to cash out, it became clear that the crypto-trading site was a fake and that he had lost $78,000. Rita, it turned out, was a trafficked Filipina held prisoner in a compound in Myanmar.

In their different ways, Edgar and Rita were both victims of “pig-butchering”, the most lucrative scam in a global industry that steals over $500bn a year from victims all around the world. In “Scam Inc”, our eight-part podcast, The Economist investigates the crime, the criminals and the untold suffering they cause. “Scam Inc” is about the most significant change in transnational organised crime in decades.

Pig-butchering, or sha zhu pan, is Chinese criminal slang. First the scammers build a sty, with fake social-media profiles. Then they pick the pig, by identifying a target; raise the pig, by spending weeks or months building trust; cut the pig, by tempting them to invest; and butcher the pig by squeezing “every last drop of juice” from them, their family and friends.

The industry is growing fast….

Read it all.

Online scamming is a vast, sophisticated and fast-growing global enterprise that compares in size and scope to the illegal drug industry. Except that in many ways it is worse. As our investigation finds, nobody is safe from Scam Inc https://t.co/MMKm0TeOIW pic.twitter.com/QIUMvOCjDW

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) February 6, 2025

‘[UK head of counterterrorism Matt Jukes] suggested that social media should be restricted for children in a similar way to smoking.The senior policing figure said the UK could not afford to take the same amount of time to tackle the impact of social media as that of smoking.Jukes said: “If I give you a parallel with the harm caused by smoking, by 1950, it was clear that smoking was causing lung cancer and killing people’

Read it all (subscription).

The harm created by social media is similar to the “cancer” caused by smoking, Britain’s head of counterterrorism has claimed, as he called for a ban on its use by children ⬇️https://t.co/CUf5cfmmh6

— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) February 6, 2025

Rudenstrand, who is deputy general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, explained that “Örebro is a church-dense city”, and that it is encouraging to see that “many churches have opened for counseling and prayer. This is our task as the Body of Christ: to weep with, mourn with, and comfort those who suffer”.

“My prayer is that both those who were wounded and those who have lost loved ones will find comfort and strength during this difficult time”, he added. “That Jesus will make his presence felt to those who are grieving, especially those who have lost family members”. 

Asked what the attacker’s motives might be, Jacob Rudenstrand remarked that police have found no evidence of an ideological motivation for the attack so far. But “even if an investigation may provide some answers, many questions will not be satisfied”, he said.

In a time in which Sweden has “experienced a sharp increase in bombings in recent years, mainly related to conflicts between warring criminal gangs, this will leave a mark for a long time. Now is a time for mourning”.

Read it all.

Kommenterar attacken på min gamla gymnasieskola i @Evan_Focus:
”My prayer is that both those who were wounded and those who have lost loved ones will find comfort and strength during this difficult time.” https://t.co/f2zXwDOYY8

— Jacob Rudenstrand (@JRudenstrand) February 5, 2025

O God our Father, who art the source of strength to all thy saints, and who didst bring the holy martyrs of Japan through the suffering of the cross to the joys of life eternal: Grant that we, being encouraged by their example, may hold fast the faith that we profess, even unto death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Martyrdom of 23 Franciscan friars in Nagasaki #otd 5 February 1597, this image probably made for their beatification in 1627. (British Museum) pic.twitter.com/WmqmO3UReq

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) February 5, 2025

Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord our God, that in whatever dangers we are placed we may call upon thy name, and that when deliverance is given us from on high we may never cease from thy praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Good morning! 😀

Finally on 'Sunrise & sunset' week is a beautiful foggy sunrise over the rolling Dorset landscape near Bridport…

It's my fave photo of the week for the beautiful light – if you agree, please share the love with a repost! #dailyphotos #stormhour #Thursday pic.twitter.com/9Hb81G1k3K

— Gary Holpin | Photography (@GaryHolpin) February 6, 2025

“Seek the Lord while he may be found,
    call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
    and return not thither but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

–Isaiah 55:6-11

This beautiful wisteria-covered house in Sirmione, Italy. pic.twitter.com/O5NuYcj5kJ

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 6, 2025