An independent review into the links between Mike Pilavachi and New Wine has found that senior leaders at New Wine failed to ensure that Pilavachi was fit for youth ministry. Premier’s Kelly Valencia speaks to Rt Rev Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster and chair of trustees of New Wine, about the findings
In September 2023, the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team concluded that Soul Survivor leader, Mike Pilavachi, used his spiritual authority to “control” people, and this led to inappropriate relationships, including “massaging of young male interns”.
A statement made by New Wine in the days following the news was criticised for appearing to minimise the connection between New Wine and Soul Survivor. This led New Wine to apologise, and announce their own independent investigation.
Fiona Scolding KC – who also conducted the independent investigation for Soul Survivor Watford - was instructed to explore “the nature and extent” of New Wine’s relationship with Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor, and “to ascertain if there were allegations about his conduct at any New Wine events.”
This week the report concluded that Soul Survivor was effectively borne out of the youth work at New Wine, which Pilavachi ran, and there was therefore a “parent-child” relationship between the two organisations. Even after they became separate legal entities, Soul Survivor and New Wine shared financial resources, staff and trustees.
The review also concluded that “more consideration should have been given to discerning whether Mr Pilavachi truly was the best person to lead Soul Survivor” and also highlighted the absence of an accessible mechanism for raising “low-level concerns” about Pilavachi’s close relationships, which were also noted at New Wine.
Kelly Valencia spoke to Rt Rev Bishop Jill Duff, chair of trustees at New Wine, about the report.
The review into Mike Pilavachi and his links with New Wine has now been published. Are you satisfied with the results?
I’m very thankful to Fiona Scolding KC and the team for a very thorough independent review with very helpful recommendations, which are exactly the sort of things we need to put in place. They were thorough, careful and survivor focused.
As the Church of England, we need to lament and repent seriously
One of the things that the review recognises is the link between Soul Survivor and New Wine. That comes with the recognition that many people who were attending New Wine were also attending Soul Survivor, and vice versa. Do you think that more could have been done to stand with abuse survivors when allegations first came to light?
We made a statement that was not correct, and we apologised for that at the time. I think there’s always more we can do. Making sure that we are survivor focused, and hear those voices, is a journey I’m pleased we’re on.
We’re yet to hear an apology from Mike Pilavachi. Do you think that he should issue one?
I think he should apologise. But I have no connections directly with him at all, and didn’t know him personally.
Repentance is an important key to the Kingdom of God, and it releases people in ways that can’t be imagined. So the fact that there’s not been an acknowledgement that his behaviour wasn’t acceptable; I’m really sad there hasn’t been an apology.
As well as implementing the recommendations from the review, you’ve said you want to “lower the threshold of our feedback” – could you explain what that means?
We are endeavouring to enable a culture where we welcome darkness coming to light. I have taken that shamelessly from the Youthscape report and their reflections on Soul Survivor, because I found that was really helpful.
As leaders, we need to lower the threshold of our feedback, so it’s not such a big deal for somebody to say to me - or anybody in a position of leadership – “Actually, do you realise this is how you come across?” Because sometimes in church culture, leaders are put on a pedestal, and when you’re on a pedestal, it can become a lot harder for people to feed back.
We’re looking at ways in which people can feedback on their experience at New Wine, for good and bad – even when it’s as simple as “We found the toilet queue was too long”. If we are in a posture where we easily hear feedback, rather than being defensive towards it, that’s a way of us growing - and a way of darkness coming to light.
Making sure that we are survivor focused, and hear those voices, is a journey I’m pleased we’re on
I’m conscious that people who have suffered abuse have to dig so deep to feed back anything. The cost of doing that - you can see it’s re-traumatising people. So if we can lower that barrier, and people can come forward more easily and bring things into the light, that’s got to be a good thing.
At the end of the day, the Lord wants us to be humble. A scripture I’m living at the moment is 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
My big prayer is for revival in our nation and beyond. I’d love not just New Wine, but churches across the nation to be carriers of his fire. And I think the Lord is strengthening us to carry his fire in this season, but a key blockage is always that step to repentance.
Many people have been hurt because a church or Christian festival wasn’t a safe space for them. How do we rebuild the trust that has been lost?
As the Church of England, we need to lament and repent seriously, not just point fingers, because there’s darkness in all of us, really. I would love to see acts of corporate repentance. Bishops have arranged a rota to pray and fast until Easter. And I think we need to humble ourselves.
I would say that, as the established church, our most presenting sin is the sin of pride. And pride is a gateway drug to all sorts of other sins, but also very resistant to the work of the Holy Spirit. I think the Lord is shaking his Church awake.
This time last year in Synod, I found myself arriving early to pray in the chamber around Acts 16, praying for an earthquake. In Acts 16, [when Paul and Silas are inprisoned and] there is an earthquake, the walls of the prison stand upright, but the chains are shaken and people are released. And I just wonder if, despite all the chaos and the pain, God is releasing people - and I think repentance and lament is a way into that.
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