Three people are known to have been harmed by “serious and significant failings” around safeguarding by the Presbyterian Church.
But the church believes an unknown larger number were impacted due to the “basic failure” of the church to follow its own guidelines on the safeguarding of individuals who made contact across more than a decade.
Moderator Rev Trevor Gribben, who was only formally installed as the church’s leader in June, announced his resignation at a press conference on Wednesday following an internal investigation.
The church would not reveal any details of allegations made by those who made contact over the years, including by the three, where it is known they suffered harm due to the failings.
It would only say the allegations are “historic” but could not be described as “clerical abuse”.
The church would not say whether they were related to the abuse of children.
Safeguarding teams are charged with trying to prevent abuse and harm and protecting individuals, particularly children or at-risk adults, including the elderly and those with disabilities.
However, the failings identified by an internal investigation included not making referrals to statutory agencies, not responding adequately to concerns expressed about members of the congregation and situations where offenders returning to worship in the church were “inadequately monitored”.
Rev Gribben said an “internal investigation and report” revealed “serious and significant failings” in the central safeguarding functions of the church from 2009 and 2022.
“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 failings happened partly during his tenure as general secretary of the church and that was the reason for him deciding to stand down.
Rev Griffin, who will stand down at the end of this month, took no questions and immediately left the room after making his statement at the church’s Assembly Rooms headquarters in Belfast. Other senior church officials fielded questions.
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has around 180,000 members belonging to more than 500 congregations across 19 regional presbyteries on the island.
It is appealing for people across the island to make contact if they believe there were impacted by the safeguarding failures.
While no details were revealed on the substance of the allegations, they do not include what “may be described as clerical abuse”, said Rev David Allen, the acting clerk of the church’s General Assembly.
Rev Allen also revealed the “disclosures” were not necessarily linked to members, with some related to family and others completely separate from the church.
Some of those who made contact were also not members but approached the church because they were involved in a connected organisation.
Church Convenor Rev David Bruce said issues had emerged “which will be of concern to many”.
He said: “Our current safeguarding team has 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.
“In most instances, this involved a basic failure to follow our own ‘taking care’ guidance.
“These failings were magnified by major gaps in necessary record-keeping, so it is inevitable that we have not identified all situations where practice was unacceptable.”
Rev Bruce added: “The person with lead responsibility for this work during these years is no longer in post.”
The church said it has taken steps to address the failings, including liaising with statutory bodies and the PSNI “in relation to both the overall failings we have identified and individual poorly handled situations”, Rev Bruce said.
In addition, all situations where “offenders requiring supervision” when worshipping “have been reviewed and appropriate arrangements have been put in place”.
