By Madeleine Collins

The Rector of Adelaide’s oldest church expects evangelism to be much more difficult and said there is much work to be done in caring for survivors in the wake of an independent report into mishandling of child sex abuse.
The Rev Paul Harrington,  the evangelical rector of Holy Trinity, Adelaide, said the Diocese – which has developed a strategy to reach children, youth and families to combat declining attendance – now has to rebuild credibility by showing it cares for victims.
“It’s obviously damaged our reputation,” Mr Harrington told Southern Cross. “It’s made our job of doing evangelism that much harder. Every effort just needs to be made to try and care for the people who have been affected in any way or their families. We’ve handled it so badly in the past.”
Shockwaves continue to reverberate across the country following the resignation of the Archbishop of Adelaide, the Most Rev Dr Ian George, just eight weeks before he was due to retire.
The report was compiled by retired Supreme Court Judge Trevor Olsson and social work academic Donna Chung as part of a Board of Enquiry set up last year. Tabled in State Parliament on 31 May, it exposed hundreds of cases and 30 victims who have taken action against the Diocese.
The report criticised church leaders for their systemic failure to care for victims – who were considered ‘mischievous ’ and ‘troublemakers’. Rather, the Church’s priority seemed to be protecting its reputation at all costs, particularly to avoid legal and insurance problems. The report was also critical of the emphasis on forgiveness and concern for the accused at the expense of victims. The involvement of police was seen to be ‘abhorrent’.
Despite pressure from the South Australian Premier, the Australian Foreign Minister and senior church officials, Dr George says he was not forced to step down. It is claimed he helped shield alleged paedophile and former Anglican school chaplain John Mountford from police. Dr George denies the claims.
However, following his resignation the ABC exposed a letter written by Dr George, in which the former Archbishop said he had done everything he could to preserve Mr Mountford’s reputation. He admitted it was likely the former chaplain – who is believed to be in Cambodia – would be charged with an offence if he had returned to Australia.
Adelaide’s eight member Professional Standards Committee have also quit over a breach of confidentiality when an off-the- record conversation between a member of the committee and a journalist was published. All eight positions have been replaced.
Following a Synod session on June 19 the Diocese confirmed it will adopt nine out of the 11 recommendations in the report, but rejected a call for an Ombudsman’s enquiry. An apology ratified by Synod was read out in all parishes that Sunday.
At General Synod in October all 23 dioceses will be urged to adopt national standards in handling abuse complaints. Most are gradually putting uniform procedures in place.
Primate Archbishop Peter Carnley said he was saddened by Dr George’s departure and regretted the ‘lack of proper processes’ in the heat of controversy that led to it. Archdeacon John Collas has taken over as the interim head of the Diocese, but a new Archbishop is not expected to be elected until May 2005.
Two former Anglican ministers were among those arrested last month by a SA Police paedophile taskforce. They will face court later this year.
It was an Adelaide evangelical minister, the Rev Dr Don Owers, who teamed up with colleague Andrew King to expose the Church’s failure. Dr Owers, who admits he dislikes being called a whistleblower, is Rector of the parish of Magill, which received notoriety over former parishioner Robert Brandenburg, who committed suicide in 1999 over charges of child sexual assault.
Their calls for an independent enquiry were initially rejected.
Dr Owers said even though he believes it was appropriate for Dr George and the Professional Standards Committee to resign, the nation is still waiting for the Church to show a mature response. He said the resignations fuel the perception it ‘looks like it’s all chaos’.
“Organisations have this ability to appear to change and actually not quite do anything,” he told Southern Cross. “The key thing is the way we handle it. The temptation for me has been to just move out, just leave, but I just don’t think that’s faithful.”
Philip Gerber, Director of Sydney Diocese’s Professional Standards Unit, rejected calls for an independent national enquiry into sex abuse in the Church.
“I don’t think that’s going to achieve a lot,” he said. “Who’s going to pay for it? Quite clearly the government has indicated that they’re not going to. If it is paid for by the Church it would mean that there would be money going into lawyers’ pockets rather than being used for better purposes, in particular helping victims.”
Mr Gerber warned the scandal is far from over. “There’s more delving to be done into particular matters. There were real problems and they needed to be named and dealt with. Where you go from there is the next question.”