Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, brings credit on the Church of England, but Bishop Peter Hancock, who has criticised his being allowed to preach and give communion, does not.
Twenty-six years ago Carey failed to act upon complaints about Bishop Peter Ball, who was eventually sentenced to 15 months for indecent assaults and 32 months for misconduct in a public office. His victims were young men of 18 to 20. The Crown Prosecution Service did not pursue more serious allegations of abuse against two children.
Carey stepped down last year as an honorary assistant bishop, but the Bishop of Oxford has now reinstated his “permission to officiate” in his diocese. Peter Hancock, the CofE’s leading safeguarding bishop, said the move was regrettable and caused further distress to abuse survivors.
The archbishop has admitted his fault and says it causes him shame. In short he has acknowledged and repented of his sins of 26 years ago. But a bishop of a Christian church apparently thinks forgiveness inappropriate.
Carey was far from being the only one to be deceived by Ball. There was not then the alertness that there is now towards safeguarding, and his church was in chaos with the schism over the ordination of women and a royal divorce. None of that is any excuse but it might provide some explanation.
We may all be grateful that the likes of Bishop Hancock were not running the early Church. Embrace St Paul? Never! Not after what he did to all those Christians. The relatives of St Stephen would never understand. Peter? Heavens, no! A man who denied Christ not once but three times and in that foul-mouthed fashion? Whatever sort of example is that?
Yet Saints Peter and Paul, those great lions of God, were in action on the Church’s behalf within weeks of their sins, never mind 26 years later. The reason was simple enough: Christ died for all of us. And that includes Peter, Paul and George Carey. It also includes Bishop Hancock, who appears to pass judgment so readily.
Of course the prohibition against judging does not apply to the law and nor does it apply to employers assessing suitability, but it isn’t even as if the former archbishop is being asked to fulfil an administrative role, where his judgment might be called into question. He is merely preaching the word of God and consecrating bread and wine. How can Bishop Hancock object to that 26 years on? How could he have objected 26 days on? Who is so virtuous that he must not be preached to by a sinner or receive sacraments from the hands of an imperfect human being?
Bishop Hancock says Peter Ball’s victims don’t understand why Carey is allowed to preach. If so then they don’t understand basic Christian teaching but a bishop really ought to. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. Presumably Bishop Hancock does lead his congregation in the Lord’s Prayer.
Christ uttered some terrible words about judging others. “For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Doesn’t Bishop Hancock tremble when he reads that?
Presumably not. Yet he must surely have preached redemption every Easter throughout his priesthood and is unlikely to have said that Christ was a bit hasty to forgive the penitent thief on the spot.
I have no doubt that Bishop Hancock would say that he is merely trying to lower the temperature in a difficult and emotional situation, but I have a feeling that Saints Peter and Paul would have lit a very cauldron rather than put up with the rejection of penitents and of the purpose for which Christ came on earth.
I myself took serious issue with the then Archbishop of Canterbury in 1992, when I left the CofE over the ordination of women and took refuge in Rome. Carey called me and those who thought like me heretics, so I am not exactly an uncritical admirer. That does not mean, however, that I write off all his work or that I would not listen to his sermons. Indeed, he and I joined forces in opposing gay marriage.
I wrote in almost these exact terms in The Catholic Times in 1994 when Michael Turnbull was appointed Bishop of Durham and it emerged that he had a conviction for gross indecency, the crime involving a frolic with a consenting adult in a public loo.
That also had occurred 26 years earlier and Turnbull acknowledged the crime with repentance. The forgiving Archbishop of Canterbury who appointed him was none other than George Carey.
It is time to extend the same mercy to Carey as he did to others and as Christ does daily to all who repent and trust in His salvation. Meanwhile, I am glad that when the time comes He will be my judge and not Bishop Hancock.
Ann Widdecombe is a novelist, broadcaster and former prisons minister
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