At All Souls, we believe that being a safe, healthy church is foundational to all gospel ministry. We are committed to being a church that:
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Is safe for everyone
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Has a healthy culture where everyone flourishes
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Cares well for victims and survivors of abuse
We have been developing all three areas across the life of the church. This work remains ongoing. Here is where we have got to.
A Safe Church for Everyone
As a church, we work with a huge number of children and adults at risk in a variety of contexts, some where there is obvious vulnerability and others less so.
We are committed to All Souls Church being a safe place for everyone in every setting.
This commitment is a huge task as we have around 600 people regularly volunteering in many different roles, from sleep site visiting the homeless, outreach to sex workers in Westminster, youth and children’s work as well as fellowship group leading, stewarding, outreach events and more.
Over the last few years, we have been rolling out a new safer recruitment programme for our volunteers, where expectations around safeguarding and training requirements are set out for every role, where appropriate checks are made and proper support and oversight is in place.
With new volunteers starting all the time, this work will remain ongoing but we are encouraged that this programme has significantly increased awareness and understanding of safeguarding and safeguarding procedures across the life of the church.
Our hope is that safeguarding is a part of the regular conversation, whether we are training Life Group leaders on power dynamics or considering the implications of some Bible passages on survivors and victims.
In 2022, we organised a national conference, called “The Gospel and Abuse”. External speakers included survivor and campaigner Rachael Denhollander, Jacqui Wright from Church as a Refuge, and Dr Lisa Oakley, researcher and author. The purpose of the conference was to build our understanding and awareness of abuse and the role the church can take, as well as to provide a resource for churches across the country.
“This conference offered an opportunity to focus on safeguarding and safer cultures, as well as the role of churches in promoting and in being a safe space for everyone.”
Ellidh Cook, All Souls Minister and conference organiser
Parish Safeguarding Officer
In 2021, we moved from a part time volunteer parish safeguarding officer to a full time, paid role in recognition of both the importance and volume of work. Our Safeguarding Officer works closely with the Safeguarding Team at the Diocese of London, who provide advice, accountability and support. The Parish Safeguarding Officer works with the Rector, Charlie Skrine, who is the Ministry Team Safeguarding Lead, as well as with other ministers day to day.
The Safeguarding Committee of the Church Council provides further accountability to the safeguarding work as part of All Souls Church’s governance. The Safeguarding Committee reviews our safeguarding practices and policies and has recently begun regular “health checks” across ministry areas to ensure that policies are working effectively and to identify areas for development.
A Healthy Culture Where Everyone Flourishes
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
Revelation 7:9
“Whoever you are, wherever you are from, you are welcome here.”
Written on the doors outside All Souls Church
All Souls includes a vast diversity of people worshipping God together. A healthy church culture is essential to a community where everyone can flourish - from every background, nation, tribe, people and language. It is also foundational to effective safeguarding.
In 2021, All Souls Church began an in-depth piece of work to reflect on our church culture and consider how we could make it healthier and safer.
Our initial thinking was informed by a report written by an independent Christian charity called Thirtyone:Eight about another London church where there had been a problem of abusive leadership. We wanted to listen really well to the challenges that the report raised around the culture of Conservative Evangelical churches and to see what we could learn and apply.
To do that, we brought together a group of around a dozen people from across the church including survivors, safeguarding leads, those who had worked with survivors and those with no particular experience in the safeguarding space.
The group’s sessions included rich discussion on the wide range of issues and led to a series of recommendations to the Church Council, including:
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Regular communication with church family on safeguarding and safeguarding procedures
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Stronger safeguarding reporting and auditing processes
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A review of staff induction, training and appraisals to consider safeguarding
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A review of all All Souls Church policies to check that safeguarding considerations are fully included
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Further consideration of support and ministry to survivors
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Greater consideration of safeguarding in our relationships with our Mission Partners
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The recommendations also included the creation of a Healthy Church Culture Action Plan.
To take forward the Healthy Church Culture Action Plan, we established a Culture Review Committee in Summer 2022, chaired by our newly appointed Head of People and Culture, Natasha Rayan.
“We long to be a church that brings God glory and commends the gospel”
Natasha Rayan All Souls Church Head of People and Culture
Defining what we mean by church culture is not easy. The Culture Committee developed a working definition to guide us, which is that:
A culture is a way of life of a group of people - the behaviours, beliefs, values and heritage that are accepted and/or inherited (sometimes without thinking about them) - in relation to the four themes identified by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), and that are passed along by communication and imitation.
The CEEC’s four themes are:
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Character and Accountability
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Diversity and Difference
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Safeguarding and Protection
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Power and Decision Making
The Work of the Culture Review Committee
As part of its work to develop a Healthy Church Culture Action Plan, the Culture Review Committee drew on resources created by the Church of England’s Evangelical Council (CEEC) aimed at supporting churches to have a safer and healthier culture. As part of the committee’s work, we launched an all church survey in early 2023, called All Souls Listens.
The survey used CEEC's four themes of Character and Accountability, Diversity and Difference, Safeguarding and Protection, and Power and Decision Making, as well as asking some more general questions about the church population.
Among the many findings of the survey, we were really thankful to see in numbers what we experience weekly: the immense ethnic and national diversity that we have within our church family. Around half of our church attendees completed the questionnaire; those who responded represented over 60 nationalities and 30+ ethnicities. This diversity is part of what makes All Souls an incredibly special community to be a part of. We want to fully celebrate and enjoy the fullness of being Christ’s body together.
Based on the findings of the survey, the committee recommended to the Church Council that All Souls should adopt eight focus areas for the next five years where we seek further growth towards being:
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A church with leaders who are growing in Christlikeness
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A church that responds well when things go wrong
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A church where all are safe
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A church where I can access care
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A church that disagrees well
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A church where everyone belongs and has the opportunity to be included
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A church with clarity and transparency in decision making
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A church which listens and communicates well in decision making
Specific actions sit under each focus area and work has already begun on each. We continue to work on them - and to pray - with the hope that we grow and respond well as a church in each of these areas.
We are very aware that this is a continuous project - it will never be complete.
We want to listen well, seek out the voices who are often overlooked or harder to hear and accept challenge and criticism without being defensive. This side of the New Creation, as a body of believers, we are - and will continue to be - a work in progress. But our hope and prayer is that these focus areas will help us to identify our blind spots and become a community that is more Christlike and better reflects the awesome vision of the church as a Bride in Revelation.
Deeper listening
The Culture Review Committee also identified some areas where they felt that ongoing, deeper listening would be helpful.
This work kicked off with sessions in 2023 to which the whole church family was invited. The focus was Diversity, Difference and Belonging. We heard from church family members from a range of backgrounds their experience of being part of All Souls, which included both encouragement and challenge. It was an opportunity to gain awareness of how different cultural values can play out, and ways we can love and serve each other better.
A Church That Cares Well for Victims and Survivors of Abuse
“They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 21:3-4
We want to be a church that not only has good safeguarding, but also one which survivors recognise as somewhere where they will be listened to and where it is a safe place to say they are a survivor.
To be that kind of church, we recognise the importance of what we say and do in everyday church life, as well as seeking to provide events which are particularly helpful to survivors.
Among the strategies we try to follow, we:
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Regularly signpost church family on how to report a safeguarding concern, including how to go directly to the Diocese Safeguarding Team or the Police
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Include content warnings in services ahead of Bible readings or sermons which touch on abuse
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Include application for Bible teaching that considers those in or from abuse situations
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Train Life Group leaders and others on how to listen well to a disclosure of abuse as well as report safeguarding concerns appropriately
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Provide church family with access to counselling services
We know these are small offerings. But our hope and prayer is that, alongside other specialist services, we can offer safe fellowship and community to anyone who has or is experiencing abuse.
As well as our day-to-day approach, we also hold specific events from time to time which seek to speak more directly to survivors and those looking to care for them.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch.