The Makin Review (also known as the John Smyth Review) is an independent lessons learnt review into the Church of England's handling of allegations of abuse committed by John SmythQC, a barrister who had been involved in Christian children's ministry through the conservative evangelicalIwerne camps.[1] After protracted delays, it was published in November 2024, and resulted in the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.[2]
John Smyth had attended a camp whilst he was at university in the 1960s, and subsequently took a leading role in their organisation.[3] He also gained access to a Christian group at Winchester College, near where he lived.[4]
On 2 February 2017, Channel 4 News broadcast a report from Cathy Newman alleging Smyth had violently assaulted boys and young men in England and Africa.[5] In England, Smyth had contacted the victims through his involvement in Winchester College and the camps, and, after a period of "grooming" that could last several years, subjected them to prolonged beatings with a cane in his garden shed, assisted by a former Winchester pupil, Simon Doggart.[5] After Smyth moved to Africa in 1984, he continued to run holiday camps and abuse a large number of victims.[5]
Smyth died of a suspected heart attack on 11 August 2018 at his home in Cape Town.[6]
Commissioning
Although the camps were not an official Church of England activity, many of the organisers and speakers were ordained Church of England clergymen.[3] There were claims that these people had first discovered Smyth's abuse in 1982, covered it up, and facilitated Smyth's move to Africa.[3]
In August 2019, the National Safeguarding Team of the Church of England announced that it had appointed Keith Makin, a former director of social services, to carry out a "lessons-learnt" review of the handling of allegations of abuse against Smyth.[7] The review was planned to start in August 2019 and finish by May 2020.[8] It actually commenced in November 2019, but completion was significantly delayed.[8]
Authors
The report was authored by Keith Makin and Sarah Lawrence, both of whom have experience in abuse inquiries and cases.[1]
Publication
In October 2024, the Church of England announced that the review would be published on 13 November 2024.[9]
However, it was actually published on 7 November 2024.[10] It amounted to 253 pages plus 245 pages of appendices.[3][11] In an interview with Times Radio on 15 November 2024, Cathy Newman stated that the review had been leaked to Channel 4, which prompted the Church to publish it earlier than initially announced.[12]
John Smyth was an appalling abuser of children and young men. His abuse was prolific, brutal and horrific. His victims were subjected to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks. The impact of that abuse is impossible to overstate and has permanently marked the lives of his victims. John Smyth's own family are victims of his abuse.[3]:1
Smyth was described as "arguably, the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England". He was found to have abused between 115 and 130 boys and young men, and was active from the mid-1970s until close to his death in 2018.[3]:226
The review criticised the response to initial reports of Smyth's behaviour, finding that there was an "active cover-up" to conceal the abuse:
John Smyth's activities were identified in the 1980s... the steps taken by the Church of England and other organisations and individuals were ineffective and neither fully exposed nor prevented further abuse by him.
Church officers and others were made aware of the abuse in the form of a key report in 1982 prepared by the Reverend Mark Ruston. The recipients of that report participated in an active cover-up to prevent that report and its findings – including that crimes had been committed – coming to light. There is no excuse or good explanation that justifies that decision.[3]:1
On 7 November 2024, following publication of the review, a number of Smyth's victims released a public statement through Andrew Graystone.[17]
On the same day, Cathy Newman interviewed Justin Welby on Channel 4 News. Welby apologised for the church's failings and indicated that he had considered resigning, but would not be doing so.[18][19]
On 9 November 2024, a petition was launched on Change.org calling for Welby's resignation. The petition was started by three members of the house of clergy in General Synod: Rev Robert Thompson, Rev Ian Paul, and Rev Marcus Walker. They noted that the Makin Review had concluded that Welby bore responsibility for the failures of the Church of England relating to Smyth.[20] The petition received widespread coverage, including by the BBC,[21] Channel 4,[22] and The Guardian.[23]
On 11 November 2024, Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle, also called for the resignation of Justin Welby. She felt that the Church's response to the Makin Review had been disappointing, that its leadership was failing, and that the Archbishop's position was untenable.[20]
Welby announced his resignation on 12 November 2024. His resignation letter referenced the Makin Review and accepted that he needed to take "personal and institutional responsibility" for the failures identified by the review.[2] Rev Ian Paul, writing in Evangelicals Now, noted that the resignation was unprecedented, as no previous Archbishop of Canterbury has ever resigned.[24]
On 20 November 2024, Keith Makin gave his first interview since the publication of his review. Makin said he was pleased with the review's impact and indicated that he had heard from a number of Smyth's victims, who felt that Welby's resignation was the right outcome.[25]
Related reviews and publications
Scripture Union commissioned an independent case review into its role in the camps. It published the executive summary in March 2021.[26]
The Titus Trust, the successor to the Iwerne Trust which had financed and effectively run the camps at which Smyth contacted many victims, released a document in August 2021 detailing its role and actions.[27]
Andrew Graystone, a theologian and journalist, wrote a book, Bleeding For Jesus: John Smyth and the cult of the Iwerne Camps, which was published in August 2021.[28]
Winchester College commissioned an independent review into the abuse committed by John Smyth, which was published in January 2022.[4]
Related Research Articles
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. Justin Welby was enthroned as archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. In late 2024, he announced his resignation, to take effect on 6 January 2025. Welby is the 105th person to hold the position, as part of a line of succession going back to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", who was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great and arrived in 597.
Winchester College is an English public school with some provision for day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 as a feeder school for New College, Oxford, and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the nine schools considered by the Clarendon Commission. The school has begun a transition to become co-educational, and has accepted male and female day pupils from September 2022, having previously been a boys' boarding school for over 600 years.
George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Edward Michael Bankes Green was a British theologian, Anglican priest, Christian apologist and author of more than 50 books.
The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York.
George Hubert Graham Doggart was an English sports administrator, first-class cricketer and schoolmaster.
The Romans in Britain is a 1980 stage play by Howard Brenton that comments upon imperialism and the abuse of power. It was the subject of an unsuccessful private prosecution for gross indecency brought by the conservative moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse.
Simon Jonathon Graham Doggart was an English first-class cricketer and headmaster, and a co-abuser in the Church of England John Smyth sado-masochistic abuse of young men scandal.
Clayesmore School is a co-educational private school for pupils aged 8–18 years, in the village of Iwerne Minster, Dorset, England. It is both a day and boarding school and is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC).
The Church Times is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper based in London and published in the United Kingdom on Fridays.
Justin Portal Welby is an Anglican bishop who will have served as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 2013 until his resignation on 6 January 2025.
Peter Ball CGA was a British bishop in the Church of England and convicted sex offender. In 1960 he and his twin brother established a monastic community, the Community of the Glorious Ascension, through which Ball came into contact with many boys and young men.
Roger Matthew Combes is a retired Archdeacon of Horsham.
Timothy John Dakin is a retired Anglican bishop. He was the general secretary of the Church Mission Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society (SAMS) prior to his consecration. He was appointed as Bishop of Winchester in 2011, and, as such became an ex officio member of the House of Lords. From 2013 he served as the Bishop for Higher and Further Education.
Catherine Elizabeth Newman is an English journalist, and presenter of Channel 4 News. She began her career as a newspaper journalist, and had spells at Media Week, The Independent, the Financial Times and The Washington Post. She has worked on Channel 4 News since 2006, initially as a correspondent and, since 2011, as a presenter. Newman also presents a programme on Times Radio.
Helen-Ann Macleod Hartley is a British Anglican bishop, Lord Spiritual, and academic. Since 2023, she has served as Bishop of Newcastle in the Church of England. She previously served as Bishop of Waikato in New Zealand from 2014 to 2017, and area Bishop of Ripon in the Diocese of Leeds from 2018 to 2023. She was the first woman to have trained as a priest in the Church of England to join the episcopate, and the third woman to become a bishop of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
John Jackson Smyth QC was a Canadian-born British barrister and serial child abuser who was actively involved in Christian ministry for children as chairman of the Iwerne Trust which raised funds for, and in practice ran, the influential conservative evangelical Iwerne camps. He acted as lawyer for Mary Whitehouse, a Christian morality campaigner.
The Titus Trust is a registered charity in the UK, and is the successor organisation to the Iwerne Trust.
The Iwerne camps were British evangelical Christian holiday camps aimed at children from UK public schools. They were officially the Varsity and Public Schools (VPS) holidays and later Iwerne and Forres Holidays, and were commonly known as Bash camps.
The Channel Islands Measure 2020 is a Church of England measure passed by the General Synod of the Church of England transferring the Deanery of Guernsey and Deanery of Jersey from Diocese of Winchester to the Diocese of Salisbury.
Graystone, Andrew (2021). Bleeding for Jesus: John Smyth and the Cult of the Iwerne Camps. Darton, Longman, and Todd. ISBN978-1913657123.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
