A Church of England bishop has revealed he is a survivor of alleged
abuse by John Smyth, the man at the centre of multiple claims about
incidents at Christian summer camps in the 1970s. The Bishop of Guildford said he was only targeted once – but endured a "violent, excruciating and shocking" beating at the hands of Mr Smyth.
His revelation follows allegations in a television news report in the UK that a number of young men attending the holiday camp were severely beaten with a cane by John Smyth between 1978 and 1982.
In a statement on the Diocese of Guildford website, Bishop Andrew Watson said: "I am one of the survivors of John Smyth's appalling activities in the late 1970s and early '80s. I am also one of the bishops in the Church of England. This has placed me in a unique and challenging position when it comes to the events of the past few days” he said.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, offered the following response to Bishop Watson’s statement: "I applaud today’s moving, honest and courageous statement by Andrew Watson, the Bishop of Guildford, by making public his experience of abuse at the hands of John Smyth. The traumatic experience he and others went through is utterly appalling and punishment of this kind is wrong. In meetings with survivors of abuse, I have listened to them, prayed for them and wept with them, and am deeply conscious of their suffering. My continued prayers are with Andrew and all the victims of abuse."
The trust that ran the camps discovered the abuse in 1982 when one of the young men attempted to commit suicide. The trust did not report the abuse to the police. In 2013, the allegations resurfaced when a survivor complained to the church.
Bishop Watson expressed a “heartfelt desire” that lessons might be learnt:
"I am grateful to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his apology to survivors on behalf of the Church, and don't begin to believe that he knew anything of Smyth's violent activities until his office was informed in 2013. I would also like to express the concern of myself and some of my fellow survivors that we are seen as people and not used as pawns in some political or religious game” he said. "Abusers espouse all theologies and none; and absolutely nothing that happened in the Smyth shed was the natural fruit of any Christian theology that I've come across before or since. It was abuse perpetrated by a misguided, manipulative and dangerous man, tragically playing on the longing of his young victims to live godly lives."