Church of England must do more to recognise dangers of spiritual authority

Researchers listened to the experiences of victims and survivors who reported being harmed by former leader of the Soul Survivor movement, Mike Pilavachi.

Church of England investigation

An internal Church of England investigation into safeguarding concerns raised about Pilavachi concluded in 2023 that he had engaged in ‘an abuse of power relating to his ministry’.

He had ‘used his spiritual authority to control people and his coercive and controlling behaviour led to inappropriate relationships, the physical wrestling of youths and massaging of young male interns’.

Abuse of power

Based on interviews with victims and survivors, and public testimonies, the key findings from the Durham University report, ‘Resetting the Balance’, are:

• The Church needs to make sure everyone in the church community knows what good and bad use of power looks like and what safeguards are needed to ensure power is handled safely. They conclude that the more powerful somebody’s ministry seems to be, the more attention needs to be paid to how that power is used.  
• The Church needs to be much more aware of the many ways in which people can be susceptible to the misuse of power within this specific context.
• The Church needs to develop a culture where the identification of God’s work is seen as a shared endeavour in which everyone’s voice matters. The authors stress that however confident one may be that God is at work through some person’s ministry, that cannot and must not lift that person above scrutiny and criticism.
• Those in positions of responsibility within the Church need to have a better understanding of how their responses to abuse can either cause further harm or bring healing. Remaining silent, or minimising the ways in which they have wittingly or unwittingly enabled the abuse, only compounds the harm done. 

While various processes were set in motion by the Church of England and Soul Survivor Watford after this investigation, the Durham research team felt none of these had given a central place to the voices and perspectives of those harmed.

The purpose of this latest work was to address this gap and it calls on the Church to listen to such voices and learn from them.

Find out more

• If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, support is available from Safe Spaces on 0300 303 1056 or visit safespacesenglandandwales.org.uk.
• The full report, Resetting the Balance. Listening to testimonies of harm in the Mike Pilavachi case, is available to read. 
• The research was conducted by Dr Nina Kurlberg, Dr Jonas Kurlberg and Professor Mike Higton from our Department of Theology and Religion, independently from the Church of England and Soul Survivor.
• Read more about the internal Church of England investigation.
• Our Department of Theology and Religion is ranked sixth in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025. Visit our Theology and Religion webpages for more information on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.