The Church of England appears set to tighten its rules to prevent safeguarding failures after the Soul Survivor scandal.
Fiona Scolding KC’s review, published in September 2024, found “credible and consistent evidence” of inappropriate behaviour by former Soul Survivor pastor Mike Pilavachi over a 30-year period before they came to public attention in 2023.
This resulted in recommendations for the Greycaine Road, Watford, church to improve its culture and practices, as well as recommendations for the Church of England more broadly.
Legislative changes to the code of practice for mission initiatives like Soul Survivor, incorporating recommendations made by the Scolding Review, are set to go before the wider church's General Synod for approval in February.
These aim to ensure structures are put in place which allow for safeguarding concerns to be raised and acted upon, leaders are made accountable, and there is a more structured approach overall.
Proposal documents highlight the risk of “unhealthy patterns of power, personality cult, and unaccountability” due to the “entrepreneurial nature of leadership” in a mission initiative.
Premier Christian News reports that leadership training using a Soul Survivor case study, new guidance, additional oversight for internship and discipleship schemes, and mandatory psychological wellbeing assessments have also come out of the review.
The report team came to the recommendations after speaking with around 70 people and collecting evidence from "a wide range of sources”.
Alleged behaviours included inappropriately intense relationships with young men and “ghosting”, controlling behaviour and emotional manipulations, wrestling, massage and inappropriate physical contact, and poor safeguarding practice.
According to the report, Mr Pilavachi does not deny that wrestling happened in private or that he massaged young men.
Two people told the review they believed the massages – during which young men would sometimes be wearing only their underwear – were sexually motivated, which Mr Pilavachi denies “vehemently”.
The Scolding review apparently could “reach no view as to the veracity of these allegations” and also said it was “not clear whether there was any homoerotic subtext” to intensive wrestling in private.
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“Mr Pilavachi denies that there was but accepts that it could be perceived in that way,” it added. “Some of the young men who were subject to this behaviour perceived that there was something sexual or erotic in the encounter, but others did not.”
Many of those spoken to said they sought professional counselling and some “have had their lives uprooted”.
Soul Survivor has apologised to those affected and acknowledged a series of governance failures in multiple statements since the allegations came to light.
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