Compare the pair: Rico tice, leader of the Christianity Explored course used by evangelicals around the world and former associate minister of All Souls Langham Place in central London, and pastor Barbara Taylor, who ministers at the rather less well-known Emmanuel Christian Family Church in Plumpton, Western Sydney.
Both knew of terrible abuse, but it is worth examining how they responded to it.
Barbara Taylor is the aunt of Brett Sengstock, a victim/survivor of Pastor Frank Houston’s abuse. Against Brett Sengstock’s wishes, his mother, Rose Hardingham, told his aunt, Pastor Taylor, following a crusade led by travelling evangelist Kevin “Mad Dog” Mudford at Taylor’s church. That was in October 1998. Taylor and Mudford decided over Sengstock’s objections that the matter had to be taken further, first by trying to get the church to act. Taylor named the abuser to John MacMartin, the NSW President of the Assemblies of God (now Australian Christian Churches), in September 1999, and Mudford told the then business manager of the Hills Christian Life Centre, George Aghajanian, in October 1999. Aghajanian quickly told Brian Houston. Brian Houston confronted his father when he returned from overseas in November and suspended his father, Frank Houston’s, ministerial credential. (Brian Houston was then the National President of the Assemblies of God and had the power to suspend or withdraw a minister’s credential, much like an Anglican Archbishop can remove a license.) Barbara Taylor laid a formidable paper trail in her pursuit of church authorities, and her notes featured prominently in the trial that followed.
Brian Houston was found not guilty of a charge of “Conceal serious indictable offence of another person” for failing to report his father’s crimes to the police in August 2023. Sengstock’s opposition was raised in the three-week trial. An amendment to the Crimes Act, passed between the time of the alleged offending by Brian Houston and the time of the trial, specifying that an adult survivor’s wishes not to inform the police could be taken into account, was weighed as representing a community attitude in the judgment.
Rico Tice has now set out a timeline of his knowledge of John Smyth’s abuse. “As a university student in the spring of 1987, I was told that people from Iwerne camps had been beaten by Smyth. At that time, I was not aware of the dreadful severity of those beatings, certainly not that they amounted to criminal assault. However, I could see that it was profoundly wrong, and so I made my concerns known soon afterwards. [The Makin report says, “Reverend Rico Tice (prior to his ordination) was told of the abuse by Peter Krakenberger in 1987, when he came to see him at his flat, with four to five flatmates present. Peter Krakenberger said that he wanted the abuse “out” and known, and he went into some detail about the scale and the nature of the abuse.” The report is clear Krakenberger had detailed knowledge of Smths abuse]
“The Makin report refers only to the information I gave to Church of England authorities in 1991, as a 24-year-old going forward for ordination, which I stand by. However, prior to this, I had reported what I knew to senior people in the Iwerne camp hierarchy more than once. In 2017, when the Channel 4 documentary about John Smyth aired, I contacted the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office to repeat again what I knew.
“I recognise the need for the safeguarding process the Church of England is now running, and will be praying for those who have the responsibility of investigating. My Permission to Officiate has been removed by the Bishop of London in the meantime. I believe the Church of England has removed PTOs from all those named in the Makin review while it is doing this.”
The Anglican Unscripted (AU) podcast has reported that Tice’s reports were verbal. He did not set a paper trail. “Every time the situation came up Rico reported it orally to his superiors, whether it was the rector or his bishop,” said AU host George Conger. “Rico was never in a position to do anything other than to pass on his knowledge, which he did orally. But he never filed a complaint. He never sought to act upon it. Now I got to tell you, I feel badly for Rico now, Rico’s handling it well, he’s already withdrawn from the Church of England and is worshipping at an independent church in the suburbs now that he’s retired. But I feel bad for Rico because if I look at my own life, people write to me about abuse cases and I pass the information on and is that enough? Is it enough for me to write a letter to a bishop?”
Both Rico Tice and Barbara Taylor were bit players in a large denomination. Yet the nonagenarian Taylor seems to have done much better in partnership with a church maverick, Kevin Mudford. She was relentless in pursuing action – although misguided in a belief that the church could set things right. This story should be seen as having a go at the bit player Rico Tice (as a uni student in particular) but admiration for Barbara Taylor. Alone among the witnesses at the Brian Houston trial, she did not ask the court for protection against self-incrimination. She is an example of how someone in an obscure position in a church denomination could take on the powerful. She did, but so many of the people in the Makin report did not.
Rico Tice stands for the many Church of England evangelicals who knew of the Smyth abuse. It remained covered up for decades. The Church of England could have done with a Barbara Taylor.
Image: John Smyth. Image Credit: Channel Four screenshot