Please note: The following includes references to historical adoption practices, including the separation of mothers and babies, stigma, and experiences of trauma and lasting emotional harm. Details of support services are also included below.
The Church of England has today (18 June) apologised for its role in historical adoption practices, particularly in mother and baby homes.
Mothers and adoptees who came into contact with these homes have described the profound and lasting impact of these experiences.
Published alongside new research into these homes, the apology recognises the impact on people affected and sets out the Church’s commitment to listening, learning and responding with honesty and compassion.
Giving the apology on behalf of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said: "We are profoundly sorry for the pain, trauma and stigma experienced - and still carried - by many people because of historical adoption practices in homes affiliated to the Church of England. We have heard first hand the accounts of mothers who were separated from their babies in circumstances where they had very few meaningful choices. We know that many women and girls were at times made to carry out menial and manual work as a form of ‘correction’. We also recognise where prejudice - including on the grounds of race and disability - shaped and defined experiences and outcomes. We are listening to the voices of people affected. They have told us about the pain, shame and indignity experienced both then and now. Today, we say to each of you: the shame you were made to feel was wrong. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Rather, we are deeply ashamed that this happened to people in the care of Christian communities."
The sentiments have been echoed in Suffolk by the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Rt Revd Dr Joanne Woolway Grenfell.
She is chair of the Church of England’s Working Group on historical adoption practices and has been working closely with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishop Joanne said: "Reading the accounts of young women, who were lonely and vulnerable and had nowhere to turn to and realising that they had to make decisions in the middle of that about the future of their unborn baby or eventually their baby when born, brought home to me their incredible loneliness. We understand that the Church of England partly shaped social attitudes and was partly shaped by them. In the work that we've done to look at the material in our archives and the work that we've done talking to those with lived experience, we've really tried to understand the combination of those factors. We are apologising for our role in the harm that was caused".
She added: "We know that society was cruel to those who had children outside of marriage, and particularly to young women who were in a really vulnerable situation. We know that in many cases some care was given. But we also know that, and we see this in the research that's happened in our own archives, that some of the attitudes that were shown were cruel and harsh and even punitive at times. Looking back, it seems to me so very wrong that people were treated without the dignity and care and compassion that they deserved."
Bishop Joanne highlighted the legacy of the suffering endured by the women – "One of the things that I've heard when I've spoken to the women involved has been the ongoing sense of shame, of loss of identity and loss of dignity that their experiences entailed. I have heard the pain and the legacy of shame, the indignity of being treated in a way that felt like it was a punishment, not care."
She said the Church of England was committed to apologising, "This is our shame to bear. We need to hear those with lived experience, look at what we got wrong, say sorry, and pledge to do better. We've been working with those with lived experience to help us respond well. We want to make sure that people get the kindest, most professional, practical response that they deserve if they make contact now with the Church of England, which they can do via their local parish church, and through the website: www.churchofengland.org/adoption".
Full local support and further resources are available here: Post-war historical adoption practices - Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich