You will know from the news that in the past there have been horrific incidents of abuse in many institutions and walks of life and the church was not exempt, I have served on General Synod and been utterly heartbroken as I have had to read the details of these offences.

As a Church we are doing all that we can to listen to those who have experienced this and respond in the right way, part of this is reviewing the past to try to ensure anyone with those experiences knows they can speak out and will be heart, we have a Safeguarding team in the diocese who are available to anyone for this (they also support me in my daily work of keeping everyone safe).

The poster available to download below gives details of how they can be contacted, if you or anyone you know have any experience of this there is the opportunity to speak with them, we are focussing on past cases during 2021 so it does not matter how recent or long ago the incident happened. Please pass on the details to anyone who might need them.

I continue to pray that as a church we can keep everyone safe,

Alison Booker (Area Dean)