Anthony Pierce was Bishop of Swansea & Brecon between 1999 and 2008. He was jailed for four years in March last year after admitting separate sexual offences against a boy aged under 16, committed between 1985 and 1990, when he was a parish priest in the West Cross area of Swansea. The Church in Wales has published the findings of a detailed review into the way in which he was appointed to senior church roles in the 1990s despite senior clergy knowing of sexual abuse allegations against him.
There is a press release.
The full text of the review is here.
There was also a Disciplinary Tribunal: its Decision is available here.
There has been some coverage of this in the media:
BBC: Child sex abuse allegations covered up by Church in Wales for decades, report reveals
Church Times: Review confirms first episcopal deposition in Church in Wales
And the good news is? And the list of those Christians who cared?
Is the small size of the Church in Wales an advantage or a disadvantage when it comes to Safeguarding? Would reunion with the Church of England help it face challenges such as this?
The C of E is in no position to advise or help any other church with safeguarding. Our record and our culture militate against it.
You’re joking! The CofE has an equally lamentable record.
The Church in Wales cannot reunite with the Church of England. It is a church created in 1920 after the Church of England in Wales and Monmouthshire was disestablished and disendowed by Act of Parliament. It is – if you wish – an amputated limb of the CofE – amputated for political reasons. I suppose that if the so called ”Province” of Wales collapses, then Anglicanism might somehow continue in Wales under the aegis of the Church of England diocese of Europe. But I’m not sure whether even that arrangement would be legally possible. The Church of England in Wales… Read more »
The Body of Christ has a duty to prisoners, Matthew 25 couldn’t be any clearer. Pierce’s victims were ignored for many years and denied justice until relatively recently; they deserve our prayers. Pierce is facing a harsh regime but he had sown in the field of his lower nature and is now reaping the fruits from there. I can pray for his soul whilst at the same time having little or no sympathy for his predicament. Can you expand on what you mean by your use of the phrase ‘there but for the grace of God’? Are you suggesting that… Read more »
”There but for the grace of God go I”. People used to say that quite often when I was a boy, when England was a much more Christian country than it is now. The meaning is surely obvious. Jesus Himself put it with devastating clarity: ”Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”. And by the way – Paul says nothing about a ”lower nature”. He talks about the ”flesh” – and that doesn’t just mean sexual practices of which we disapprove. Remember that Christians believe that we will all face judgement. The one thing that will certainly… Read more »
Well yes…but in the specific context in which you used the phrase above, it did rather look as if you were saying we might all sexually abuse children, given the chance. ‘There, but for the grace of God, go I’ is usually used in circumstances where the speaker thinks s/he might easily find themself in the same plight, but for some (often minor) preventing factor.
Some of those reading these posts might indeed sexually abuse children, given the opportunity. Others might do other terrible things. Don’t we pray – all of us, I hope – that we may not be put to the test: ”lead us not into temptation”? One of the things I love about the Gospels is that they so clearly record that Peter denied his Lord three times – and that Jesus was betrayed by one of the Twelve. If that had happened in the modern church I fear that it would all have been hushed up, and we would perhaps have… Read more »
we might all sexually abuse children He didn’t say or imply that at all. He was talking about sin. We are all sinful, we have all fallen, we all fall short of what we could be. but for some (often minor) preventing factor No, it is by grace, which is not minor, and is often not preventing. How Fr Dean takes it to mean: God chooses some people to be child abusers and spares others is beyond my limited comprehension. Grace of God – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, for evangelicals. But for – without, not with. I remember a… Read more »
How Fr Dean takes it to mean: God chooses some people to be child abusers and spares others is beyond my limited comprehension. I can see where he is coming from. If we imply that it is by God’s grace (rather than our own feeble efforts) that we are more fortunate, more law-abiding and generally much nicer chaps than others, is the converse true? And – leaving behind theology and turning to sociology – we do know that people who are abused and sexualised as kids are more likely to become abusers themselves. Just as kids who grow up in… Read more »
It is the word ‘chooses’ that is the problem.
God pours his grace on all, some accept it.
Maybe we have completely different understandings of the word grace.
Calvinism is surely a distortion?
There are many, and no doubt better, discussions around grace, but a quick google found this:
https://www.hcu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Dr.-Michael-Jackson-Grace-in-the-book-of-Romans-.pdf
Is it your concept of grace?
Martyn Lloyd-Jones of course has preached extensively on grace and Romans.
https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/book-of-romans/standing-in-grace/
It strikes me that the CinW is in a curious legal limbo. Like the Scottish Episcopal Church, it is disestablished; unlike the SEC, it must still follow some laws which apply to England. For instance, there is a strong desire in the CinW to offer same-sex marriage; but it cannot, as marriage in England and Wales are covered by one legal framework which forbids the CofE offering it. If the next CinW Governing Body meeting effectively decides that it wishes to offer same-sex marriage, would the Westminster Parliament be prepared to pass an Act or Amendment permitting this? (There is… Read more »
I forget the exact details, but some years ago, when Barry Morgan was Archbishop of Wales, he reported on amendments that had been made to an act of parliament before it was passed, which would permit same sex marriages to happen in the Church in Wales should the Church in Wales decide in favour of doing so, even in the event that the Church of England did not follow the same route.
Not so as far as marriage – Lord Rowe-Beddoe secured an amendment to the legislation that allows the Welsh Church to consent to Equal Marriage and for that then to be lawful without further ado… almost
You are correct: I didn’t know. See: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/30/section/8
See also: https://nation.cymru/news/ex-archbishop-of-wales-loses-right-to-officiate-at-church-services-following-abuse-report/
Another cover up. The names of the bishops and priests should have been published together with any action taken against them.
Exactly the same happened in Bangor, where the published reports were utterly bland and no disciplinary action was taken against Andrew John, Sion Rhys Evans or anyone else.
One detail that seems to remain buried in the report and has not been highlighted is that, after his election in 1999, Anthony Pierce made a full disclosure to the then-Archbishop of Wales. He offered, not only to decline the election, but to resign as well. The consequent response highlights not just his own offending, but the deep-rooted (and decades-long) insular dysfunction of a tone-deaf institution led, largely, by people who lack vision & leadership skills. In that sense, it is reassuring that the bishop who succeeded Anthony Pierce has had PTO withdrawn, presumably until his safeguarding training and awareness… Read more »
The National Register of Clergy for the Church of England came online c 2021 in response to safeguarding concerns as a quick way to establish whether a clergyperson has a licence or PTO. (I believe it was a recommendation of the Gibb Report on Peter Ball.) If someone is not in the Register, they ‘should not be carrying out any of the duties of a priest and may not take services or preside at the Eucharist’.
Does the Church in Wales have a similar National Register?
Not to my knowledge…
I wonder if there is any information on how effective this online resource is ..
I guess then Welsh, Scots and Irish clerics as well as any other cleric in communion with the Anglican Communion are not able to function in any way in the CofE…
Sounds deeply disturbing to me …
But perhaps par for this course
Clergy of the CinWales can only officiate in the CofE if they have PTO in an English diocese and thereby appear on the CofE National Register. To get that PTO they have to undergo CofE Safeguarding training. Wales does not have a National Register. Enquiry has to be made of the individual diocese (the bishop’s office) as to whether a cleric is authorised to officiate in that diocese.
Late yesterday, an independent report on governance in the Diocese of Bangor was published on their website. You can access it by going to http://www.bangor.eglwysyngnghymru.org.uk and clicking on the news section there.
Why are the Presbyerian Church of Ireland facing a police investigation and nothing in Wales?
Surely the indifference of Rowan Williams was as bad , if not worse than Justin Welby.
There seems to be a very indifferent police force..north and south in Wales.
I vividly recall the reaction of church going folk when Eryl Thomas, bishop of Llandaff and formerly at Monmouth, was convicted of gross indecency after being caught in a police sting in a public toilet. Betty, his secretary was overwhelmed by letters from people who had been baptised, confirmed, married and ordained by him during his time as priest and bishop in the two diocese. Very few had any sympathy for the disgraced cleric. .. so few she could easily name their authors, most were a mixture of revulsion, fear and hatred towards the man who had “touched” them and… Read more »
This really is damning about what happened at Bangor over the past five years or so – “weak financial controls” and “disempowering trustees” as the article puts it. Will the Archbshop of Wales, Representative Body/Trustees, anyone take any action? It’s one crisis after another and we, the loyal worshippers of the Church in Wales are kept in the dark, and asked to continue to cough up. (I had a letter asking me to do so only last week!) https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2026/13-march/news/uk/weak-financial-controls-and-disempowered-trustees-were-background-to-bangor-débâcle-review-says