Chris Speight he/him

Thank you to @BBCNWT for the chance to discuss where we are on sexual abuse & why it’s important to keep pushing ourselves so that there are fewer abusers & more perpetrators are brought to justice - whomever they are It’s a battle we must keep fighting

Could the ⁦@churchofengland⁩ be heading for the biggest shakeup since the Reformation? I’ve been asking leading people in the Church what next for an institution in crisis. 👀 my piece in ⁦@thetimes⁩ today: thetimes.com/article/7ea274…

A new generation heralds change in approach for Jesuits in naming probable abusers irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/0…

The #JesuitOrder has named a further 15 deceased Jesuits who have been the subject of #ChildSexualAbuse #CSA complaints, seven of whom first became the subject of complaint after their deaths. rte.ie/news/ireland/2… colemanlegalpartners.ie/abuse-complain…

Therefore, safeguarding in the CofE is still about 'them' and not the victims. The safeguarding fiasco will continue.......@cathynewman your job is not done!

The @CSS_Aus National Conference in Sydney next month will bring together Catholic religious leaders, academics, practitioners and advocates from across Australia under the theme “Hope in Action”. cathnews.com/2025/02/11/con…

'If we're apologising which we should, we also need to take action' says @bishopSarahM in a frank interview with Trevor Philips, seeming to go for Option 4 (?) before @synod this week. Many @dioceseoflondon like myself are v grateful for Sarah’s commitment to strengthening the safeguarding culture of the diocese. Her personal admission here of her own mistakes also contrasts with many in the CofE and her call for real accountability m is one to be welcomed. But many will also wish that she actually specifically named some of those mistakes, rather than simply generically referring to them, because some of those are ongoing and still affect people in the diocese and their ministries in very tangible ways. Many individuals may well feel that they deserve a personal and individual rather than a generic media apology. The worst most recent safeguarding crisis @churchofengland which led to the death of a retired priest happened because of the actions of senior leaders @dioceseoflondon in her time. Yet no one was held to any real accountability or took any meaningful Christian responsibility for that death. No one was sacked. No one resigned. Lessons may or may not have been learned. But apology and lesson learning is no longer good enough and is precisely one of the responses that we need now collectively to move beyond. Nor is it clear to many of us in the diocese that those of us who are #LGBTQIA+ are in anyway safe in the churches that come under Sarah’s care. The lack of consistent public commitment to the safety of people like me in London is one that continues to put the wellbeing of queer people and our very lives at risk in many contexts here. Sarah very rightly appeals to her experience in the NHS and the Civil Service as being contexts from which we can learn in the church. Yet as someone who has also worked in the NHS and with continuing local authority experience, the diocese as well as the wider church, still has a long way to catch up. Let’s hope that this week some of that catching up may occur. youtu.be/2ejf8ZLrLyg?si… via @YouTube

Helen-Ann Hartley @BishopNewcastle courageous and clear sighted on the Church of England safeguarding crisis on R4 Today just now. The fact that she remains isolated and shunned by colleagues in the House of Bishops is all too telling.

"I do not think it's appropriate for the Archbishop of York to be in post." The Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle, tells #R4Today she does not think Stephen Cottrell should 'be leading change that the Church needs at this time'.