Church ‘needs to put its house in order’ over abuse claims

THE NEXT Archbishop of York said restoring faith in the Church in the wake of historic child abuse allegations would be his top priority in his new role, adding that it was important to hear “survivors’ voices”.

Bishop Stephen Cottrell said: “We need to put our house in order. We need to ensure that the

Church is a safe place for everyone. We are doing really good work in that area but I am not complacent and I know there’s still much to do.”

He also admitted that the Church must to more to embrace gender diversity, saying: “We must be a church for everyone and I do mean everyone. There is absolutely no place for homophobia in the Church and absolutely everyone regardless of their sexuality is welcome in our Church.”

The Church was currently in debate about how “to give expression” to that welcome, he added.

Promising to be “a particular voice for the North, where discrepancies of wealth and opportunity are most evident”, he acknowledged that few had been prepared for the scale of the Conservative election victory.

“There are constituencies in the North that have returned their first Conservative MP ever,” he said. “Boris Johnson has spoken about wanting to lead one nation, and that deserves our support.”

He insisted that the need for spiritual leadership remained alive within the country.

“I simply don’t find England to be a nation of atheists,” he said.

“There probably are a few more than there were in the past. And we’re obviously not a nation of churchgoers either. But we are a nation of people who are hungry for meaning, hungry for value, looking for a way to navigate their path through life.”

Bishop Cottrell also said it would be part of his new role to promote strategies for “learning how to live sustainably on the earth”, which he called “the greatest challenge of all”.

The bishop, who said he was awakened to Christianity by watching ITV’s 1977 series Jesus of Nazareth, has written more than 20 books, including an illustrated review of paintings by the artist Stanley Spencer.

A father of three, he also chairs the Board of Church Army, a social justice group in Sheffield.