Earlier this month we noted the reports on the visitation of Bangor Cathedral.
A supplementary statement was added to the original Church in Wales press release on Tuesday of this week (13 May); this is copied below the fold. Following the release of the statement these news reports have appeared.
Also of relevance are these reports from last week.
Supplementary statement on Bangor Cathedral
The Chapter, the Cathedral’s trustee body, met on Monday, a week after two reports were published which had been commissioned by the Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John, after several concerns had been brought to his attention.
In response to these concerns, the Archbishop commissioned a Visitation which was conducted by former Archdeacon Mike Komor and former Dean and Archdeacon Chris Potter, together with a safeguarding audit by the independent organisation thirtyone:eight, which specialises in safeguarding advice in church settings.
Summary reports of both reviews were published on May 4th and are available on the Bangor Cathedral, Diocese of Bangor and Church in Wales websites.
The reports set out a range of shortcomings and identified a number of necessary improvements. In response, the Archbishop has set up an Implementation Group to ensure that the recommendations are acted upon promptly and decisively. In addition, he has commissioned an externally-chaired Oversight Board to exercise overall supervision of the delivery process against a set timetable.
The Cathedral Chapter met on Monday to agree the terms of reference of the Implementation Group. These together with the terms of reference for the Oversight Board are now available on the Bangor Cathedral, Diocese of Bangor and Church in Wales websites. Each terms of reference document contains the names of those who will be members of these groups.
At its meeting on Monday, the Cathedral Chapter discussed financial record keeping and procedures. As a result of this discussion, it decided that a Serious Incident Report should be sent to the Charity Commission. This follows five Serious Incident Reports which were sent to the Charity Commission relating to Bangor Cathedral in 2024. Four of these related to safeguarding: three have been closed. The remaining report remains open as the commissioning and undertaking of the Visitation/safeguarding audit was one of the necessary responses. The Commission has been updated following the publication of the Report Summaries and we will update the Commission further on the implementation of the recommendations. The fifth report related to a financial matter and was closed in March this year.
A spokesperson for Bangor Cathedral said: “The Cathedral Chapter take their responsibilities for good governance very seriously and have decided that, given information which has come to their attention, the Charity Commission should be sent a Serious Incident Report. While we cannot provide ongoing commentary on the individual case, we will be working with the Charity Commission to ensure that the issue is resolved as quickly as possible and that any improvements which need to be made in our procedures are put into place without delay.”
The Archbishop of Wales said:
“I am grateful for the work the Chapter is carrying out to take the necessary steps to bring about lasting change. I want to thank those who have agreed to serve on the Implementation Group and the Oversight Board, and to express my appreciation of the support we have received from the Representative Body of the Church in Wales.
“It is already clear from the steps which have been taken so far that this will be a robust process which will involve detailed changes and which will be accountable to external scrutiny. All who are involved are committed to regular communication and updates so that the changes can be taken forward in a clear and positive way.”
The original item on this topic, dated 3 May, has lots of insightful, enlightening, often deservedly devastating and very relevant comments on this topic. Please still bear those in mind.
Empty pontificating words from a man whose leadership credibility has been devastatingly shattered, and who still tries to recast himself as some kind of great saviour – a picture nobody seems to believe as accurate. Still the man hangs on desperately and pathetically to his precious status. I find it almost impossible to understand beyond not being financially able to afford to go (I don’t know if that’s true in the Archbishop’s case). If I was being exposed in this way as an utter incompetent whose integrity is also being questioned, with so much evidence there to support those views,… Read more »
Bangor never wanted him in 2009. So Andy John rewarded those who made it possible for him to be elected Bishop. It quickly triggered the infamous ‘brain drain’ of pastorally and theologically able clergy to the CofE, whose leadership skills were clearly evident; not to mention the many ‘disappeared’ who simply left without a word being said about them. Archdeacons, Canons and parochial clergy among them. Since Andy John was elected, the DIocese of Bangor has been a car crash in slow motion. From what I am hearing very loudly, he is not loved by the Diocese (in the way… Read more »
Margaret Thatcher’s departure came when her senior colleagues, one by one, told her that her position was untenable. A similar process has worked before in the Church in Wales. The bishops will know that this is necessary when they recognise that being inescapably ashamed of a colleague – over a period of time -requires them to act for the good of the People of God. Silence in the face of the indefensible is complicity, albeit not intended. The culture of the church in Wales would then conjure up a satisfactory financial settlement to be hidden from view somewhere in the… Read more »
The dying days of the Welby regime were marked by a deafening silence from other bishops, with the exception of the Bishop of Newcastle. Are the other Welsh bishops now looking at their feet and hoping no-one asks for their view on these matters?
The other bishops face an unenviable task. All six of them have been close colleagues of the present Archbishop, some for a long time. Some may count themselves personal friends. At least two owe their episcopal elevation directly to him, as his present or former suffragan. (Time will reveal whether either of them has any uncomfortable questions to answer with regard to the expensive junketings referred to elsewhere.) In any event , if one, lone bishop stands up to be counted over this , he or she will immediately be accused of lusting for the job of Archbishop. But if… Read more »
There are two utterly damning letters from two members of Bangor cathedral congregation at the top of today’s letters page in the Church Times (p15). Whilst the writers do not claim to represent anyone other than themselves, it is widely believed that their sentiments appear to be held by others in the congregation. Surely, with such lack of confidence in Andy John’s leadership and all integrity seemingly gone, the time has now come for a formal letter (or, indeed, any number of formal, letters) to be submitted to the senior bishop to request that he initiate the process for a… Read more »
template : The Most Reverend Andrew John Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Bangor The Church in Wales Ty’r Esgob, Eglwys Gadeiriol Deiniol Sant, Bangor, LL57 1RL Your Grace, Subject: A Respectful Call for Resignation from Episcopal Office I write to you with great gravity and sorrow, compelled by a deep concern for the integrity of the Church in Wales, and in particular for the pastoral and spiritual wellbeing of Saint Deiniol’s Cathedral and the Diocese of Bangor. Over recent months, a series of troubling developments have unfolded following your appointment of Sion Rhys Evans to a position of significant… Read more »
it seems from what I am have been reading online today that there are similar calls for the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church to resign, due to safeguarding issues concerning the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, first the Archbishop of Canterbury, now the Archbishop of Wales and now also the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, some may ask what is going on in the Leadership of Anglican Provinces? Jonathan
Really? Where on line, please. A quick search revealed nothing new. Wanting facts is a bit old fashioned, but trying to be anchored when battered by on line noise seems sensible. That handling of Aberdeen has been a mess of various sorts I can agree.
See my article above about Aberdeen & Orkney.
Thank you. My search was clearly defective. Whether that is me or an algorithm or a tiresome mixture I have no idea. But dismal reading, now I’ve caught up with it .
Not a fan of howling mobs chanting “off with their heads” .. nor of Martin Shipton’s style of journalism. It does now seem as if the Archbishop of Wales is doomed and I am sorry for it – not least at how it is coming about. i can think of at least one former archbishop who ordained many against the recommendations of committees – some were amazing clerics – others … well… I wasnt recommended. I ask myself if being Christian should mean a different approach to these machinations, for it seems at times lifting the lowly can see the… Read more »
It is the culture of coverup that is the problem. Actually if +Andy John had declared these failings before and admitted some responsibility I think people would say, annoying but at least we can now learn.
Problem is we can not learn or move forward when we are being asked to build a new vision of honest and transparancy whilst the top contunues to cloak and dissemble to avoid what actually could have been quite a minor news story.
The failiure to admit mistakes is often worse than the mistake itself.
”The archbishop of Wales is doomed”. Perhaps, but he’s got form for simply ignoring reality. The membership statistics of the Church in Wales were too embarassing, and so for some years now they have been kept secret. The Church in Wales website still proclaims that the archbishop is a Welsh speaker. That can only mean a native speaker, or a learner who has achieved fluency. Anyone who does speak Welsh and has heard him try to speak the language will know that he is neither of these, and his claim is an insult to those clergy from a non-Welsh speaking… Read more »
It is fascinating how the leaders of organisations with an avowedly moral ethos, like the church or charities, can manage to run off the rails & spend other people’s money like drunken sailors on a run ashore. £20,000 for some recce trips to Rome & Dublin, and £52,000 on a post ordination party in London, is simply mind-blowing. Jolly Jack & Jill would be ‘off caps’ in front of their Captain for far less startling extravagance. Perhaps it was thought that holding the ordination knees-up in far away London would ensure that none of the laity in Bangor would ever… Read more »
These numbers are astonishing. What exactly was the money spent on and what was the business justification for these trips?
Anyone who spent their employers money on things like this would expect instant dismissal and quite possibly a criminal investigation.
I’m finding it utterly impossible to understand how any ordained person can find £52k for an ordination party remotely justifiable. It is obscene, and makes a mockery of any vocation to ordained ministry. For this, if nothing else, those in oversight right to the top should face disciplinary action, in my view.
Where is the evidence of £52k?
That’s what’s being reported.
A fair question. £52000 is the figure that has been reported quite widely. In the absence of openness and transparency over the entire Bangor debacle from, primarily it would seem, Andy John, this figure is being bandied about and has never been denied or challenged by the hierarchy or any others possibly involved. It surely demonstrates why complete disclosure on the facts at Bangor is really needed, otherwise, speculation will continue to be symptomatic and rumour rampant. If the detail of any amounts are still subject to a full investigation/audit and possible further action, then something li ke “a significant… Read more »
I notice that the Vicar of St Paul’s Knightsbridge was made a Canon of Bangor Cathedral in 2021. Might this appointment have been a gracious and grateful acknowledgement of assistance with organising the festivities to celebrate the former Sub-Dean’s ordination to the diaconate?
There have been a few appointments to Honorary Canonries there over recent years that are ‘curious’ to say the least. But then, I could also say that of a few English Cathedrals I know, where the connection, meritorious service and/or usefulness to the Cathedral/Diocese seems to be nothing more than ‘chum of the Bishop and/or Dean’.
I spotted that, too. The details lodged with the Charity Commission show that the Vicar of St Paul’s Knightsbridge has been a trustee of the charity listed as The Dean and Chapter of Bangor Cathedral, registration no 1158340, since 26 September 2021. The entry also shows that Canon Naomi Starkey (aka Mrs Andy John) has been a trustee since 1 October 2023. With all the talk of conflict of interest between the two separate charities in Bangor – cathedral and diocese – it must be fair to ask first, whether any trustee with possible conflict should both declare it and,… Read more »
I’m pretty late to this story but have now caught up in general terms. I make no comments on any of the detail or the pressures against the bishop and cathedral chapter, but this is as bad as it gets in the context of cathedral governance, structurally, financially, and in behavioural terms, quite apart from its impact on the mission of the Church. The lessons learned are manifold. Every cathedral chapter in the Church of England, Church in Wales, Scottish Episcopal Church, and Church of Ireland, must engage with this. Could it happen here? The answer is hopefully (and I would like to think) no. But… Read more »
This is well said , Anthony, but it misses the specifically Welsh dimension and one or two other possible causative factors. The Church in Wales seems to foster ann Episcopal culture that is largely devoid of accountability in a way that is hardly credible in England. That said, recent notable exceptions in England have been brought to book by growing disquiet and by senior colleagues who have called out monarchical episcopacy. In Wales it is such a repeated phenomenon as to be almost normal and almost never called out. Bishops remain largely unaccountable and unchecked. Poor behaviour of one bishop… Read more »
I have worshipped in the Church in Wales since I joined the choir of my local church in 1956 at the age of four. Over the years, I have seen various crises befall the church, but none as serious as the current one, centred, though not solely, on the Diocese of Banger and its cathedral. Because of my general interest in church matters, I would like to hope that I am at least an ‘interested’ Anglican – interested in what is going on. What has become clear to me, over some years now, is, first that the constitution of the… Read more »
I think you may be right. I’m no fan of disciplinary processes where close colleagues ‘mark each other’s homework’, but where enough genuinely interested parties are all saying the same thing, issues become harder to ignore or dismiss, especially when those considering them have an eye on their own need to survive in challenging circumstances.
That’s a very interesting analysis and widening of the Welsh picture more generally. Something that intrigues me is that there are only 6 bishops (plus one suffragan), a very small group. Of the two women, I remember from earlier posts on here that +Monmouth was felt to be a breath of fresh air after the unfortunate business around her predecessor; and that the current +Llandaff has just been appointed to the CNC for Canterbury. So if either of them are ‘tarred with the same brush’ as the other four, the appointment to CNC is unfortunate, to say the least; and… Read more »
Thanks, Peter. Three of the diocesan bishops are new since I left Monmouth diocese. I overlapped with Cherry for only about six months but have known her since she was a deacon in Manchester diocese. I hold her in the highest regard and was completely delighted when she was nominated. For the avoidance of doubt, I also know the bishop of St Davids and the bishop of Swansea and Brecon to be deeply committed, honourable men in the best tradition of Anglican pastoral bishops. Welsh bishops are often much loved in their dioceses and I firmly believe this to be… Read more »
The Church in Wales has rather less full-time priests than the 600 suggested by Lister Tongue above, although he may, of course, have been counting NSM/House for duty etc. I did a little delving last year for some work I was doing and the results of that digging, with some explanatory notes, are set out below. I also went on to look for comparable statistics relating to the RC Church in Wales (plus Herefordshire as explained) and append those. Church in Wales: Total number of full-time priests 367; Number of archdeacons 17 (plus 1, see below); Bishops 7, (including the Archbishop of… Read more »
Church in Wales attendance will now be a lot less than 26,000. The most recent statistics showed a decline of c.1,000 per year, which would imply a current attendance of <20,000, and that does not take account the effects of COVID. The fact that the statistics are no longer published implies they are extremely low.
I fear that the truth about the alleged events in Bangor Cathedral in recent years will never be wholly revealed, just as (as far as I know or predict) the full truth about Martyn Percy’s time in Christ Church, Bishop Pain’s final year in Monmouth, Bishop Mason’s treatment in Liverpool, and possibly Bishop Dyer’s episcopate in Aberdeen and Orkney will also never be revealed. I am sure that if a new Dean is appointed in Bangor – I hope that he or she is fluent in written Welsh, which is much more challenging than fluency in spoken Welsh – the… Read more »
I’m afraid there’s yet more bad news from Bangor, as reported on the BBC here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czj401ldyemo
With this background, and no resolution in sight, I cannot imagine good candidates rushing to submit their applications for the post of Dean of Bangor. The current recruitment process would seem to be futile and a further waste of money for St Deiniol’s Cathedral.
Corrected URL
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czj401ldyemo
Thanks for correcting my error. There is also a quite superb letter in today’s Church Times. I feel that neither the CinW Bench of Bishops, nor Andrew John himself, can ignore the situation any longer and they now have to act.
Some ten days or so ago, I asked in a post on this website, whether it was time for individual letters of concern to press for an investigation into the ongoing problems in Bangor Diocese and Cathedral to be submitted to the senior bishop of the Church in Wales, Gregory Cameron of St Asaph. The well argued, reasoned and thoroughly cogent case put forward in the letter in the Church Times this week from two experienced and respected priests who are members of the College of Priests at St Deiniol’s Cathedral, for a full and independent inquiry into the ongoing… Read more »
The drip-drip of embarrassing stories about Bangor just keep coming. Two have appeared this evening; one, from Gwyn Loader at BBC Cymru, led the main news bulletin on S4C this evening; the other, from Martin Shipton, is on Nation Cymru, the online newspaper. There are links to them both below.
As Martin notes, Sion Rhys Evans is apparently no longer in his post as Bursar and General Manager at Westminster College, Cambridge.
https://nation.cymru/news/priests-call-for-probe-into-running-of-archbishop-of-wales-home-diocese/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3q2gjyydyo