Secret probes into ‘inappropriate sexual behaviour’ in Archbishop of Wales’ home diocese

Martin Shipton

Two parallel secret investigations were ordered four months ago into serious safeguarding matters involving staff working at the home cathedral of the Archbishop of Wales, we can reveal.

It has been suggested to us that the inquiries involve inappropriate sexual behaviour by a male towards a female, although we have been unable to verify that.

A private and confidential letter about the matter was sent by Archbishop Andy John to Canons (senior clerics) attached to Bangor Cathedral in October 2024. The letter, which has now been leaked to Nation.Cymru, states: “I am writing to you following concerns which have been raised with me about some safeguarding matters in relation to the Cathedral. I believe these to be serious and require urgent attention. You requested Archdeacon David Parry to chair Chapter meetings in the absence of a Dean. I have spoken to David about these matters and the course of action I am taking as a consequence.

“Firstly, that the Chapter resolves to counter-sign a serious incident referral to the Charity Commissioners that will be referred by the Provincial Safeguarding Team. I believe this discharges our duty to the Commissioners and allows us to cooperate with the provincial team to address these concerns.

“Secondly, I intend to invite some senior figures, both from within the province and outside it, to undertake a visitation on my behalf. The visitation will focus attention on the quality of life, faith, discipline, behaviour and culture of the Cathedral. I intend to convene this team as soon as possible and to require them to report to me within a month from the commencement of their work.

“I anticipate the team will wish to meet with you, either together or individually, and they will be in touch once commissioned to do their work.”

Visitation

The terms of reference for the visitation in St Deiniol’s Cathedral, Bangor state that the Church officials known as commissaries appointed to assist with the visitation are the Venerable Chris Potter, the Venerable Mike Komor and Dawn Watson. While cooperating with the visitation is not compulsory, those invited to meet the commissaries include Archbishop Andy John; the Bishop of Bardsey David Morris; the Chapter of the Cathedral (comprising its Canons); the Diocesan Finance team; the Cathedral Ministry team (clergy and licensed lay ministers); employees of the Cathedral; lay clerks and other members of the choir; parents of all choir members under the age of 18; the director of safeguarding and the safeguarding manager; and others who the commissaries would particularly like to meet.

The report on the visitation was due to be delivered to the Archbishop by no later than December 2 2024.

The full report is due to go to the Archbishop, the Bishop of Bardsey, the Archdeacon of Bangor, the Chair of the Provincial Safeguarding Committee, the Chair of the Standing Committee of the Governing Body, the Provincial Secretary, the General Counsel and Head of Legal Services; the Director of Safeguarding and the Safeguarding Manager.

The executive summary is to be published on the cathedral, diocesan and provincial websites. However, that has yet to happen.

There is speculation that the executive summary may be published at the same time as another safeguarding report commissioned from a specialist charity called thirtyone: eight, based at Swanley in Kent.

Safeguarding case review

An item on the charity’s website states: “An independent safeguarding case review gives an organisation an objective expert assessment of any risks, concerns or ways it can improve to better protect children and adults from harm.

“Case reviews can look at general safeguarding arrangements, a single case, or a collection of cases that have a common theme e.g. cases that involve a specific person or type of offence, or within a set time period.

“We work with the commissioning organisation to agree the parameters of the review (known as the scope) and the timeline, and any outputs and recommendations which are then included in a final report.

“All our work goes through a two-stage quality assurance process so that everyone involved in the process can have complete confidence in the outcome and recommendations of the review.”

We have been told that ordinary members of the cathedral congregation have not been officially informed of the inquiries, although some have heard of them “on the grapevine”, as it was put to us.

Recently a senior cleric and Church in Wales official in the same diocese who had been seen as a protégé of Archbishop Andy John left his posts with no thanks after being on gardening leave for 10 months.

Judgement 

Nation.Cymru reported in June 2024 how questions had been raised about the judgement of the Archbishop after the emergence of concerns relating to potential financial irregularities in his home diocese of Bangor.

Several Church in Wales sources had contacted us independently to criticise the Archbishop for creating a situation where one cleric – the Rev Canon Siôn ap Rhys-Evans – was effectively running both the diocese of Bangor and its cathedral.

We were told that the Archbishop’s decision to let Canon Rhys-Evans be both the Sub-Dean of Bangor and the Diocesan Secretary simultaneously created a conflict of interest, with large sums of money being spent in potential breach of their charitable purpose.

A Church in Wales source told us when we first reported the concerns: “It is unusual and perhaps inadvisable for one individual to hold both posts. It raises governance concerns. Both the diocese and the cathedral are registered charities and therefore regulated by the Charity Commission.

“Concerns have been raised about the use of charity money to make major purchases for the cathedral, including a new set of pews at a cost of around £235,000. The suggestion is that the correct procedures may not have been followed when decisions were made about spending the money, and that pots of money were accessed which perhaps shouldn’t have been.

“The governance arrangements are clearly compromised by having one person wearing two hats, and the Archbishop should be open about why he thought that was a good idea.”

A source in the Bangor Diocese told us at the time: “As in other situations, the Church has been very secretive about this matter from the time he went on gardening leave. People who attend services in the Diocese and make donations to the Church ought to be told what has gone on.”