The Church of England has been urged to “consider undertaking regular governance health checks” of its churches following an investigation into the inappropriate actions and behaviours of charity founder Mike Pilavachi.
Last year, Pilavachi, founder of Soul Survivor Watford, resigned from his role and stepped back from the Church of England after being accused of taking part in “inappropriate massages”.
In light of this, the Church of England’s national safeguarding team (NST) investigated Pilavachi, looking at his conduct in leadership and ministry before and after his ordination in 2012.
NST’s investigation revealed that the concerns were “substantiated” and that Pilavachi had “used his spiritual authority to control people”.
Soul Survivor subsequently commissioned barrister Fiona Scolding to lead a full, independent review to understand why Pilavachi had been allowed to abuse his power, what he did with it and why and how it had happened.
Her review, which was published last week, finds several failings by Soul Survivor and the Church of England that failed to prevent Pilavachi’s “abusive behaviours” and calls for both organisations to make culture, leadership and governance changes.
Soul Survivor’s trustees said that they were committed to implementing the report’s recommendations “in all respects” while the Church of England said the findings “will now be taken forward”.
‘Inadequate performance management and oversight’
Scolding’s report says that Pilavachi “manipulated and controlled others, bullied and sought to abuse his power over those whom he worked alongside in the church and those who came to learn alongside him”.
It cites several examples of his behaviours including “inappropriately intense relationships with young men and ghosting”, “massage and inappropriate physical contact” and “poor safeguarding practices”.
On the massages, it concludes that “it’s almost impossible that nobody in church leadership at the time knew that Pilavachi was massaging young men in the manner described [in the report].
“More generally (and in any event), the intense nature of the relationships that Pilavachi developed with certain young men would have been apparent (including to trustees) and we feel that someone should have taken responsibility for ensuring that these relationships did not transgress appropriate boundaries in the first place regardless of whether they knew about the massages or not.
“This would have protected Pilavachi and the young people concerned. Moreover, if nobody did know (which we think is almost impossible), it’s a sad indictment on the culture of the church and the ministries that nobody felt able to report these massages to people in positions of leadership.”
The report highlights several reasons why Pilavachi’s behaviours were not addressed, including a lack of adequate “speaking up” or whistleblowing procedures and failure of Soul Survivor’s trustees to deal with complaints and safeguarding issues.
It also finds inadequate performance management and oversight from the trustees and Church of England.
“It seems to us that Soul Survivor wanted to demonstrate it was part of the Church of England but also wanted to manage and have control [over] its own affairs: that isn’t a situation unique to Soul Survivor but it’s an issue that the Church of England needs to grapple with,” it reads.
“Given the above, for nearly 20 years, the church which probably had the largest congregation in the Diocese of St Alban’s had no accountability to that diocese in any formal legal sense.”
Soul Survivor: ‘We’re profoundly sorry’
The report makes a series of recommendations for Soul Survivor, including a cultural change and setting fixed terms for trustees, alongside broader recommendations for the Church of England such as ensuring a “minimum level of training” for people who are ordained.
It says: “The Church of England should also consider undertaking regular ‘governance health checks’ of churches, particularly in respect of large churches since these have often been associated with more high-profile failures of governance.”
In response, the trustees of Soul Survivor said: “We fully accept the review’s findings and acknowledge that failings of governance and leadership have contributed to the significant pain and harm suffered by the individuals involved, the Soul Survivor community and the wider church. We also commit to implementing the recommendations in all respects.
“To all those victims who have been deeply impacted, and continue to be, we’re profoundly sorry.”
The trustees accepted that over the years, “there were people in positions of leadership and governance of the ministries of Soul Survivor, who knew or were made aware of Pilavachi’s behaviour”.
“This includes inappropriate relationships with young men, ‘ghosting’, inappropriate physical conduct, wrestling, and massages, as well as his coercive, bullying and controlling behaviour,” their statement reads.
“We also accept that those in a position of leadership and governance who knew about Pilavachi’s behaviour should have taken steps to report it at the time, leading to an investigation into his behaviour.
“Moreover, we also agree that a series of governance failures to provide proper management, accountability, and oversight of Pilavachi facilitated a culture that gave him the licence to operate as he did.
“Throughout Soul Survivor’s history, there has been an overemphasis on Pilavachi’s gifts and success, which contributed to the blindness towards his behaviour. Again, we’re sorry, particularly to those who tried to raise concerns and weren’t listened to.”
The trustees added that they are “fully committed to the ongoing process of changing the culture, restoring trust and bringing healing” and have already made “significant changes” in the culture, leadership and governance of Soul Survivor over the last 18 months.
Church of England: ‘Lessons must be learnt’
The Church of England welcomed Scolding’s report, saying that the lessons identified about culture, practice, governance, oversight and safeguarding arrangements must be learnt “at both local and national levels”.
Lead safeguarding bishop Joanne Grenfell said: “The conclusions and recommendations point to the need for the whole church to work harder at identifying, building and supporting positive cultures in which unhealthy leadership and power dynamics can better be challenged.
“This must include fostering stronger scrutiny and accountability through training, supervision, and governance structures. We welcome the report’s analysis of the dangers of clericalism and what Scolding rightly calls the ‘misuse of clergy authority’.
“The report’s recommendations and findings will now be taken forward. Where appropriate, they’ll be incorporated into work already underway.
“This will include the ongoing process of revision of the clergy discipline measure, as recommended by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
“Scolding clearly sets out the many limitations of the current CDM process for safeguarding matters, and we’ll draw on her observations as we take this work forward.”
Grenfell said that the Church of England will also look at how it ensures that “such a shocking abuse of power, perpetrated over many years, isn’t repeated”.
“We’ll explore what further work needs to be done, including a specific focus in relation to the governance and scrutiny of new worshipping communities across all traditions in the Church of England,” she said.
Related articles
