The moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has resigned over a failure to deal adequately with child protection issues.
Rev Dr Trevor Gribben took office as moderator (the Church’s chief public representative) last June and had been general secretary of the Church (or Clerk) since 2014, before which he was deputy clerk since 2008.
A report by the Church’s safeguarding team, published this afternoon, identified a “number of situations between 2009 and 2021, with one as late as 2022, where we have failed to deliver an adequate safeguarding service”.
Rev Dr Gribben said it is “clear” there have been “serious and significant failings in the central safeguarding functions of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland from the period 2009 to 2022″.
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“As a result of this, people have been placed at risk. We are aware of a number of people who have been harmed, and we believe there may well be others as yet unknown to us. We apologise unreservedly for this,” he said.
The report was launched at the press conference in Belfast by David Bruce, convener of the general council of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
At the same press conference Rev Dr Gribben, who as moderator attended the inauguration of President Catherine Connolly in Dublin Castle on Tuesday, announced his resignation.
He said: “Although not directly responsible for the professional delivery of safeguarding within the Church, nonetheless serious and significant failings in our central safeguarding functions occurred partly during my tenure as General Secretary. In light of this, I have decided it would be best at this time for me to step aside from my current role as Moderator of the General Assembly.”
He would stand down “at the end of this month, thus giving time to make arrangements for these duties to be fulfilled by others”, he said, adding he will also retire from his employed role as clerk of the assembly and general secretary.
The Church’s “first and greatest concern about this is for those people who have suffered harm, and those who have been put at risk”, he said.
“The Presbyterian Church in Ireland profoundly regrets this, is deeply grieved, and will offer all possible support to those affected,” he said.
The report outlined failures by the Church “to make referrals to statutory authorities when these were required” in abuse cases, as well as not responding “adequately to concerns expressed to us about individuals in congregations” with failure “to respond to people who, having suffered harm, have sought our help.”
There were also “situations where some offenders returning to worship in Church, following referrals to us by statutory bodies, were inadequately monitored.”
Dr Bruce said the person in the Church “with lead responsibility for this work during these years is no longer in post”.
He said “our failure in doing what you have charged us with doing, is without excuse”. He prayed “that those who have been harmed might find healing in the time ahead, and that together, we might recover the qualities of caring compassion, which lie in our heart as a people, but which through these evident failings have been so seriously compromised.”
