Presbyterian officials have stayed tight-lipped on exactly what harm was at the core of the safeguarding crisis that sparked the resignation of the church’s top figure.
Moderator Rev Dr Trevor Gibben sensationally quit today after just five months in the role, after an internal review and report exposed what he described as “serious and significant failings” in safeguarding dating from 2009 to 2022.
As a result of the safeguarding failings, Rev Gribben said “people have been placed at risk”.
“We are aware of a number of people who have been harmed, and we believe there may well be others as yet unknown to us,” he said. “We apologise unreservedly for this."
During this evening’s press conference that saw his resignation, however, senior church officials wouldn’t go into detail about what specific harms and risks were at the heart of the safeguarding failures.
The church is appealing more people to come forward so they can find out the true scale of the problem; according to the Acting Clerk of the General Assembly, Rev Dr David Allen, they can’t give an exact number of people affected nor precisely define what harms may or not have been caused due to that appeal.
“[The appeal includes] people that we don’t know about, people that we want to help, people we want to say sorry to,” he said.
“The number of people we are aware of at present who have been directly affected by this is in the low single figures.”
He confirmed that statistic is people “affected by our failures”.
Rev Allen said officials are currently “reluctant to define” what counts as “harm” in the safeguarding crisis, as they’re worried doing so could stop more speaking up.
He said: “We want people who believe they have been harmed to come forward and tell us, and we will speak to them and address their needs individually.”
During the press conference, issues found were said to include:
* failing to refer cases to legal authorities when required
* failing to properly monitor offenders who join a congregation, despite being told about them by the authorities
* failing to address concerns reported by one member of a congregation about another
* failing to respond to people who asked for the church’s help after suffering harm.
According to the Convener of the General Council of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Rev Dr David Bruce, the person in charge of safeguarding from 2009 to 2022 is no longer in the job, and a new team is working both to follow up with people affected and improve arrangements and practice.
An official has confirmed to the News Letter that the church has no evidence any cases involve allegations against clergymen.
Anyone who thinks they may be affected is asked to contact the church via SAT@presbyterianireland.org or on 028 9041 7308.
Trevor Gribben was appointed to the position of Moderator in June, having previously served as General Secretary since 2014. He’s now to leave the post, the highest position in the church on the entire island of Ireland, at the end of this month and is also resigning as Clerk of the General Assembly.
Explaining his decision to quit, Rev Gribben said that although he wasn’t directly in charge of safeguarding during the problem years, “serious and significant failings” occurred partly during his tenure as General Secretary.