Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Diocese of Rochester's shameful silence over the drugging of girls in its care

I have just been watching the Newsnight report on the drugging of girls at Kendall house, a children's home in Gravesend, between the 1960s and 1980s. The story was also covered on the Today programme this morning.

The home was run by the Church of England. And what is the response of the Diocese of Rochester?

A statement quoted by the BBC says:
It would be inappropriate for the diocese to initiate any internal inquiries since we are not qualified to do this. In any event, it would be essential for any investigation to be conducted both professionally and impartially.
So they are perfectly qualified to lock children up and drug them, but not qualified to consider whether they were right to do this? This is simply nonsensical.

The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, is about to hand back his mirtre. Earlier this week he wrote in the Daily Telegraph that he had "watched the nation drift further and further away from its Christian moorings".

Judging by its behaviour over Kendall House, the diocese of Rochester has drifted further away than most.
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3 comments:

  1. Richard T08 April, 2009 08:54

    Presumably the Bishop of Rochester's christian values, which I take to include honesty and openness, have not quite permeated down his diocesan bureaucracy. Pity he's going before he has had time to sort it out.

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  2. JuliaM09 April, 2009 08:11

    Presumably, they don't want to prejudice the police enquiry. Why is this deemed something abnormal?

    It seems to me it'd be something you'd applaud if it was anyone other than the church doing this....

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  3. Jonathan Calder09 April, 2009 08:27

    This the first I have heard of a police "enquiry".

    The problems with Kendall Housse have been known since a television documentary in 1980. And there was even an adjournment debate about them in the Commons in 1994.

    If the police were going to show an interest, I suspect they would have done so long before now.

    But perhaps you can post the URL where you read about this police "enquiry"?

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