Reverend Rose Luxford told victims the church wanted to honour survivors. Photo / RNZ, Felix Walton
By Felix Walton of RNZ
The Presbyterian Church has apologised to victims who suffered abuse while in its care.
The public apology was delivered both in Auckland, on Saturday, and in Dunedin the week before (September 27). The dates fall more than a year after the national Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care published its report.
Survivors were emotional as they read poetry to open the ceremony on Saturday, which was purposefully held away from church grounds at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau.
Moderator of the general assembly, Reverend Rose Luxford, said the church and people in it had caused pain, and extended a “sincere and unreserved apology”.
“It was our responsibility to care for you,” she said. “We failed. Abuse happened in our care, because we failed to provide protection and we didn’t act when alarms were raised. Such a breach of trust is unjustifiable.”
Though some survivors were on hand for the apology, Luxford noted others had decided not to participate.
“To those people, we acknowledge we’ve lost your trust,” she said. “We must build a culture here where speaking up is welcomed and acted on, and - critically - where abuse cannot occur.”
In response to controversy surrounding the Government’s redress scheme, Luxford said the church was designing its own approach.
“The Presbyterian Church is launching its own survivor-designed holistic redress system,” she said. “Holistic redress could include financial payments, personal apologies and acknowledgements, ongoing wellbeing support and accountability.”
Council of Assembly convenor Katerina Solomona said the church hoped to go above and beyond.
“When we have paid for compensation for survivors previously, we have done this at the high end of the range or often beyond the range, and we encourage the government to relook at its own frameworks for survivor redress payments,” she told survivors. “I would also like to note we will pay for survivor’s legal fees.”
After the event, Solomona told RNZ the church had planned to apologise last year, but decided to consult with survivors first.
“After the government’s apology, we thought that we could do the apology in November, but survivors advised us that, without a survivor voice in the room, our apology is actually hollow, and therefore we needed to pause and to reflect on that,” she said.
“We need to stop and we need to reflect, and we cannot weaponise religion anymore,” she said. “It’s time for us to actually make meaningful changes and we must change.”
State-abuse survivor Eugene Ryder said the apology impressed him, but noted that actions spoke louder than words.
“Words are just that - they’re words,” he said. “Some of us worked with the Government in their apology and there’s a lot of things that they didn’t say, so I’m very impressed with the way that the Presbyterian Church has welcomed our advice.
“I think there’s a huge difference from a Government response versus a church’s response. I think it’s been a long time coming and I’m hopeful that the way that the Presbyterian Church has responded in this space will be seen by the Government as a way of moving forward.”
Ryder said he had already forgiven the church, but many others had not and may never do so.
“I have already forgiven,” he said. “I have already forgiven those that have abused, [but] I will never forget, never ever.
“I also acknowledge that some survivors will not forgive, and that is their choice. The church has accepted that and that is amazing. That’s amazing for anyone to accept that, that they may not be forgiven.”
– RNZ