On Saturday 24th February morning at 08:00am, members of the General Synod of the Church of England organised a live meeting in London to discuss the implications of the recent report by independent barrister Dr Sarah Wilkinson into the controversial closure last July of the Church's Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB) with less than 1 hour's notice.

Martin Sewell, Jane Rosam and Clive Billenness and about 30 Synod members in the meeting room were joined via Zoom by Gavin Drake and Jane Chevous to discuss the implications of the report by Dr Wilkinson and possibly also to think about the impact of the just-published report by Professor Alexis Jay on the future of church safeguarding. (Click here to open in a new tab)

At 08:45, the Fringe Meeting in London ended, but the online meeting continued up to approximately 09:30 am and we were joined by 3 special extra guests, Jasvinder Sanghera and Steve Reeves, former members of the ISB and Professor Martyn Percy, former Dean of Christ Church Oxford who successfully took legal action against his college after a long-running campaign him which ended up with him being totally exonerated.

This meeting was recorded so you can watch it now.

You can download a copy of Dr Wilkinson's Report on the ISB Closure from here (opens in new Tab)

You may also wish to watch this video "The Wilkinson Files" in which 2 members of General Synod analyse different aspects of this report. You can view it at:
https://youtu.be/ULKoqKxP0Sk