Bishop at centre of Jersey Dean scandal faces no confidence vote

Tuesday 25 May 2021

The Bishop at the centre of one of the biggest crises that the Anglican Church has faced in Jersey has withdrawn from duties after a threat was made to oust him.

Dr Tim Dakin, the Bishop of Winchester, has stepped back from work for six weeks after up to 30 senior priests and lay members said they would pass a vote of no confidence in his leadership at the next diocesan synod.

Bishop Dakin played a significant role in the severing of Jersey's 500-year-old relationship with the Diocese of Winchester.

In 2013, he suspended the then Dean of Jersey, the Very Reb Bob Key, after a report from the diocese concluded that had been safeguarding failures in relation to a complaint by a vulnerable adult in 2008.

The complaint concerned the alleged abusive behaviour of a churchwarden.

The suspension opened a deep schism between the island and diocese of Winchester, which Jersey and Guernsey had been part of since 1569.

Pictured: The former Dean, the Very Rev Bob Key, was suspended by the Bishop of Winchester but was later exonerated.

The Dean was reinstated a month later after he issued an apology for “mistakes made in safeguarding processes”, but this was far from the end of the matter.

After various investigations - including one by senior judge Dame Heather Steel, which exonerated the Dean - Rev Key received an official apology from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2016 for the “enormous personal stress, hurt and uncertainty” that he and his wife had suffered.

In 2000, the Channel Islands’ historic link with Winchester formally ended and the deaneries of Jersey and Guernsey were transferred to Salisbury.

Now the clergyman who first suspended Jersey’s Dean is fighting for his own professional survival.

In a report about Bishop Dakin stepping aside last week, the Church Times wrote: “Discontent about Dr Dakin’s management style and agenda has been growing in the diocese for several years. 

“He comes from an Evangelical background, having started his ministry in East Africa and then serving as general secretary of the Church Mission Society for 12 years before being consecrated to serve as Bishop of Winchester.

“Although he was an honorary curate during his time with the CMS, he has never worked in full-time parish ministry.

“Critics say that the issue goes beyond his church tradition and includes the lack of pastoral care for clergy and the imposition of a particular approach to the Church’s ministry. 

“It is said that the diocese has lost 22 clergy posts through pastoral reorganisation. It is, none the less, seeking to appoint a Church Planting Missioner, who will be given the task of planting 30 new churches by 2030; and a Church Growth Missioner to develop capacity for growth in the diocese.

“Another source said that Dr Dakin, who was awarded a PhD last year, had been largely invisible in the diocese.”

The newspaper reported that the Rt Rev Debbie Sellin, the Suffragan Bishop of Southampton, had stepped up to lead the diocese while Dr Dakin “stepped back to focus on discussions about future leadership and governance reform in the diocese.”