All smiles and sporting trainers of a snazziness you would not expect from a Church of England bishop, Helen-Ann Hartley makes for an unlikely rebel.
Those who have met Helen-Ann during her 18 months as Bishop of Newcastle, or perhaps heard her contributions to BBC radio or in the House of Lords, could testify to an enthusiastic person determined to both represent the North East on the national stage and to make the Church relevant to its community.
But her profile was raised significantly last month when she became the most senior figure in the Church to call for the resignation of its leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, after a damning review into a prolific abuser associated with the Church.
Though that call was successful, Bishop Helen-Ann has remained – to her great disappointment – the only bishop to publicly speak out. Undeterred, she has also criticised the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell – soon to take over as the most senior figure in the Church of England – over his own failures on sexual abuse within the Church.
Her public stances have earned both support and criticism, as well as cold shoulders from many of her fellow bishops, but she has remained steadfast in taking on her boss, her soon-to-be-acting boss and the other bishops who have allowed a crisis to grip the Church.
That crisis began in November when a review by former social work director Keith Makin found that the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England might have been brought to justice had the Archbishop of Canterbury formally reported it to police a decade ago.
John Smyth’s “abhorrent” abuse of more than 100 children and young men was covered up within the Church of England for years, the Makin review found, and Archbishop Welby “could and should” have formally reported the abuse to authorities in 2013.
The publication of the review came at a time when safeguarding, and problems with the Church’s hierarchies, were very much on Bishop Helen-Ann’s mind.
Just a few days earlier, she had received a letter from the two Archbishops calling for her to reconsider a decision to bar former Archbishop of York John Sentamu from an active role in the Newcastle diocese after a separate report found that he too had failed to act on a sexual abuse disclosure.
Feeling that their letter showed both “coercive language” and “a complete lack of awareness of how power dynamics operate in the life of the Church”, she soon after found herself having a regular meeting with a journalist.
She said: “Putting all of these bits of the jigsaw together – the letter I’d had, the Makin review – I thought the fact that the Church has been sitting on this for seven years, the Archbishop had been sitting on this for seven years, if I’m asked the question should the Archbishop of Canterbury resign, I’m going to have to say yes.
“I didn’t wake up one morning and decide I’m going to do this, but the circumstances presented themselves.
“For me, the letter spoke volumes about power, privilege and control.
“That was part of the landscape of Makin so I knew that when I was asked the question, I’d have to answer it clearly and I did, thinking that other colleagues might come on board.
“I knew, from speaking to some of them, that there was a feeling among some of my episcopal colleagues, that the Archbishop had to go.
“I had spoken to two other bishops and I thought someone else was going to say: ‘We agree with the Bishop of Newcastle’.
“When there was absolute silence I was looking around going: ‘OK, I guess it’s just me’.” That sense of disappointment and isolation was offset by a deluge of support from people within the church, many of them in the North East, as well as abuse survivors. (When her PA’s laptop broke, they joked that it was due to the volume of emails they were receiving.)
“A few weeks later, when it later emerged that the Archbishop of York had also failed to act upon abuse by a priest in his former diocese, Bishop Helen-Ann spoke out again.
“What continues to this day, actually, is the support,” she said. “The contrast to that is silence from my bishop colleagues.
“There’s been a few nudges of people saying ‘I’m praying for you’ but nobody coming out to support the intervention I’d made.
“It made me feel isolated, definitely, and it still feels that way because not a lot has changed. It’s six weeks since Makin came out.
“I’ve had one productive, substantive discussion with a bishop colleague face-to-face, and I appreciated that.
“But other than that, just a few messages about having a cup of tea.”
January will see Archbishop Welby formally stand down and a successor will then be appointed, as well as measures coming to the Church of England’s General Synod that aim to improve safeguarding procedures.
With both support and criticism continuing to come her way, Bishop Helen-Ann hopes that the current crisis the Church finds itself in will prove the catalyst for real change.
What has sustained her through the last few weeks, she said, has been local support from within and outside of the church.
“The things that have encouraged me in the last few weeks, when I’ve felt despairing, not at all hopeful, are the people and places of this diocese of Newcastle that I oversee because the response, locally and regionally, has been extraordinary.
“I’ve had letters from all over the country and further afield, but as Bishop of Newcastle I’ve drawn huge strength from people of all walks of life in the North East. It’s been remarkable.”
And looking back over her time as Bishop, she said: “It’s been brilliant, I love it: to serve in a region that I grew up in and a region that really roots and grounds me in all sorts of ways, as well as challenging and inspiring me.
“The people and places and the churches, everything that goes into what this region is – despite its huge challenges, to be a voice for that is a huge privilege and a great joy.”