There are so many things I'd like to be preaching about, but the one thing I don't want to talk about has to be the subject of my sermon.

In a week when the Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned, it would be weird to ignore what's been going on. I've been talking to people about this all week. If you've been on a silent retreat, or your own life has been particularly busy, you may be one of the few people who doesn't know that the Church of England has been rocked by yet another scandal of appalling abuse. There's no silver lining to this - the institutional church has dismally failed survivors and victims in three countries.

I have read the Makin report, the report that came out this week, and I felt physically ill reading it. I'm used to this stuff - I worked in a prison for five years - but even so it was difficult to read, and the sense of betrayal that runs through it is so deep-seated that I don't think the Archbishop had any alternative but to resign. I doubt he did anything deliberately to cover it up, but as the head of an institution which failed people so comprehensively, he had to take corporate responsibility. I hope it doesn't stop there - one resignation is not enough. We need a deep-seated change to the culture and structures of the Church of England. In my view, we should have independent oversight of safeguarding, and national policies and procedures, and we should get to that stage as quickly as we can. Independent safeguarding was a recommendation of the Jay report which came out in February, and it's been repeated in the Makin report, and surely now is the time to accept that the Church of England cannot mark its own homework. At the very least, we need a national helpline to which people can speak to, rather than having to approach someone in the very institution which has failed them.

It wasn't just the Church of England which failed. The police don't come out of this covered in glory, and some of the supposedly best schools in the land dismally failed to keep children safe over a long period. One of the lines of this report that made me shiver was where it states that one victim-turned-abuser had gone on to become the headteacher at a prep school, and remained in that post for three years after he was first investigated, the third teacher to be implicated in serious abuse at that school.

Today, with exquisite timing, is Safeguarding Sunday, a Sunday when we are supposed to put the positive side of safeguarding. We do have good things to say. We have a deeply dedicated Parish Safeguarding Officer in Georgina, and anyone who has concerns can raise them to her, or to myself, or to Robin, our churchwarden.

We don't apologise for taking safeguarding seriously. We want this to be a positive message - a church should be a safe space, a refuge from the storm. Safeguarding is my responsibility. It's Georgina's responsibility. It's the PCC's responsibility. But it doesn't stop there. Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.

Everyone who is a church officer needs to do at least basic safeguarding training. It's not something to worry about, it's something we should not be worried about because we are confident in our procedures and policies. The more we engage with safeguarding, the less worried we become.

There is a spiritual dimension to all this. Different types of churches face different problems. Traditional catholic churches have a culture of deference rather than assertive questioning, which is one very strong argument for independent safeguarding. Conservative evangelical churches may have a culture of toxic masculinity, and it's notable that Smyth flourished in an environment where there were very few women, and those women were relegated to servant roles. That's an elephant in the room which the church really doesn't want to address, but those male-dominated, homophobic churches which have cults of personality around their leaders have massive problems. Add to that rigid, paternalistic belief systems that discourage questioning and doubt, and you have a recipe for disaster, as several scandals demonstrate.

Too often we prioritise the reputation of the church over the people in the church, as though the work of God is dependent on the Anglican church, or the Roman Catholic church, or even, ludicrously, the establishment public schools. We do not need to protect the institution. Almighty God does not need the Church of England. The Church of England needs Almighty God.

Here at the Ascension we are neither conservative nor traditional catholic. So I will stop finger pointing and ask what are the safeguarding problems our specific culture might cause us? Well, one issue is that we are small, and it's difficult to have the right number of volunteers to keep things going. And we're a small church, and we think we know each other, but it's wrong to think we should only take care with new people.  We do take safeguarding seriously in this church, and sometimes that is onerous. Why do we need to take up references on people we've known for years, just because they are taking on a new role? But knowing someone, or liking someone, is no guarantee of anything. Liking someone, or knowing that someone is talented, means even less. Many of the people who vouched for Smyth had known him for years as a brilliant and charismatic person. Some of his victims continued to return to him as adults, because they were so conditioned by his personality and his message. I'm not saying that knowing someone for a while isn't helpful - in fact it's a good sign - but it is just part of the safeguarding jigsaw.

Our other problem is one we share with all churches. We believe in forgiveness, and its counterpart, rehabilitation. One of the reasons Smyth was able to continue his abuse was a misused belief in forgiveness. Rehabilitation is necessary, but requires oversight and monitoring, and not leading people into temptation, or giving them an opportunity to reoffend.

But the distinctive temptation for ourselves is that we are a liberal, inclusive church that allows space for dialogue. We're not dogmatic. We have a gentle faith with space for a wide spectrum of beliefs. You don't have to believe that the world was created in seven days to worship here. You don't have to have an antiquated worldview to worship here. And I think part of moving away from that antiquated, dogmatic space is that we talk more about love than sin, more about mercy than justice.

Our next hymn is a well-known modern hymn which is controversial because it includes the line 'the wrath of God was satisfied'. We don't like talking about God being angry. Ours is a gentle, loving God. When I read the Makin report, there were times when I shook with fury. How much more must there be anger in heaven? The wrath of God is a righteous wrath, and we should seek forgiveness, as a church, in fear and trembling.

The message of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, is that the wrath of God is indeed satisfied. Our central story is that Jesus died, beaten, tortured and killed by men of power, and yet he defeated that death. In that story it is very clear that Christ sits alongside the victim, not the abuser.

Light shines into darkness, and darkness will not defeat it. We are a people of hope, and a people of resurrection. But it is incumbent on the Church of England - and that's not just the bishops and the powerful people at the top, it's every single one of us - it is incumbent on us to keep this church safe and secure for every one of God's children who walks through these doors.

Amen.