It is unlikely the Presbyterian Church will enjoy a happy new year or a happy period for quite some time to come. The sudden resignation in November of former Moderator, Rev Dr Trevor Gribben, over safeguarding issues made headlines. It has pitched this often-secretive church into the kind of widespread scrutiny it is ill-equipped to handle.
The trigger for this was the revelation last May that a former voluntary youth worker in a Belfast Presbyterian church had been sentenced for offences against children.
Only a month later, Dr Gribben was installed as moderator. However, his November resignation at a car-crash press conference in Belfast sent shockwaves across the church.
This was the first moderatorial resignation in its 185-year history and it was shortly followed by the announcement of a police investigation into safeguarding at the church by the PSNI.
READ MORE
A Special General Assembly, featuring predictable hand-wringing, was held in Belfast a week before Christmas. Members undertook to establish a new safeguarding department and, with time, “a full, independent external review of safeguarding.”
Despite all the publicity, rank-and-file Presbyterians seem none the wiser. There is surprise, sadness, bewilderment and also anger. Some of the faithful have dissociated themselves from the church’s plea that members should atone for their failings. They point out the current crisis has been caused by a theologically hardline group of men. These men, they say, were obsessed by strict discipline on same-sex and other issues and have forced their views on the rest of the church.
The favoured expression from Church House in Belfast has been the need for “a settled position” on all major issues. In other words, if people in the pulpits and pews don’t toe the party line, they will be in trouble. Sadly, any dissent is discouraged in a once-broad and proud old church which itself was based on dissent.
The once independent-minded Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) has often shown this dissent. It did so spectacularly in withdrawing from the World Council of Churches and severing links with its mother church – the more liberal Scottish Presbyterians – in 2018 over same-sex issues.
Church observers claim this hollow victory by the hardliners has led to the present crisis, evidenced by its secrecy, tight control and intolerance of dissent. There is also the glaring injustice of failing to appoint a female moderator during its long history and, in some quarters, the attempt to pursue a policy where women are seen as “complementary” to the men in church service.
This suggests that women, the backbone of the church, are best at minding children and making the tea, but really are not fit to be ministers or elders. Such theological nonsense is demeaning to women in general and to the PCI itself which had, in recent years, been steadily reshaping a church fit for the 17th century but not for the 21st century in which we live.
There were other issues which were known to reporters covering church affairs, not least the existence of a dossier compiled by Lord Alderdice, a former Presbyterian elder, and Roy Simpson, a former minister.
It alleged widespread abuses to Presbyterian clerics and laity, and was handed to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland three years ago. The Commission announced last month that it is launching a statutory inquiry into the PCI and all its component elements. Some people are questioning why the Commission took so long to do so.
As if all of this was not worrying enough for the dwindling band of Presbyterian liberals, revelations about the church’s lack of adherence to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults is deeply disturbing. “How can this have happened?” ask many people inside and outside a church that seems not to have learned from the transgressions of the Irish Catholic Church, and other churches, on these issues.
The situation appears to be so bad that Ian Elliott, a respected expert on safeguarding and himself a Presbyterian, has called for a public inquiry into the way in which the PCI has handled, or not handled, the protection of those in their midst.
In a recent television interview with the BBC’s Spotlight programme, he hinted this could be a major problem for the Presbyterians on the level of the appalling abuse scandal in the Catholic Church for so many years.
Until the PSNI complete their investigations into the PCI, there are unlikely to be further major developments, as the church continues to stonewall media questions while the police scrutiny continues.
However, it is worth remembering that Gribben’s resignation took everyone by surprise, so it would be unwise at this stage to rule out any other unexpected developments.
Meanwhile, ordinary Presbyterians will continue to carry on as best they can. It should be emphasised that many are doing good work, while there are congregations who are obeying the rules of safeguarding.
Unfortunately, there are many who have not done so. The situation remains very worrying. Perhaps the greatest condemnation of the PCI‘s collective leadership has been its obsession with sexual morality, without bothering about the lack of morality in leaving some of its children and vulnerable adults open to abuse. That stigma and shadow will hang over the PCI for a very long time to come.
Alf McCreary is a former Religion Correspondent with the Belfast Telegraph. His latest book `Keeping the Faith’ is published by Messenger.
