The Church That Failed Survivors Is Being Handed the Keys Again: Cronyism Is Alive and Well
Let’s stop pretending. The structures surrounding Soul Survivor Watford and St Andrew’s Chorleywood are exactly the kind of closed, self-protecting networks that allow abuse to flourish, accountability to evaporate, and insiders to land on their feet while survivors are left carrying lifelong damage.
And now, unbelievably, those same networks are being rewarded.
The Church Times has reported that the Diocese of St Albans is placing both faith and funding in Soul Survivor Watford as a so-called “missional engine” for church planting and revitalisation across the diocese.[1] While diocesan leaders are quick to insist that Soul Survivor Watford will not directly receive the £2.3 million Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board grant, that reassurance rings hollow. The reality is this: Soul Survivor Watford is being handed influence, authority, and credibility - once again positioned as a model for others to follow.
And that should outrage anyone who has listened to survivors for even five minutes.
This matters because although leadership reshuffles have taken place and safeguarding policies have been “strengthened” on paper, a far more basic moral question is being ducked. Is it not reasonable, in fact, essential, to expect that a church network responsible for so much harm, trauma and silence should not be used as a blueprint for future church leadership?
A movement that presided over abuse, minimised warning signs, and failed to protect the vulnerable is now being presented as a solution. That is not just insulting, it is absurd. Frankly, it would be laughable if it weren’t so devastating.
There is no rebuilding of trust in laundering a disgraced movement and sending it out to “advise” others. There is no repentance in restoring influence before truth and accountability. And there is certainly no honouring of survivors in asking them to watch the very system that failed them be rewarded - branded a “missional engine” in a £2.3 million church renewal project, trading on youth ministry success achieved while safeguarding failures under Mike Pilavachi were allowed to persist.
St Andrew’s Chorleywood: Still Listening - Still in Control
At the same time, the Diocese of St Albans has announced a safeguarding “listening exercise” into decades of abuse and harmful behaviour at St Andrew’s Chorleywood - the church that gave birth to both New Wine and Soul Survivor.[2]
Survivors have been calling for this for years. But context matters. When a listening exercise is launched while the same ecosystem is quietly elevated, funded and empowered, the contradiction is impossible to ignore. Survivors are invited to speak but the institution still controls the narrative, the pace, and the consequences.
Listening without consequence is not justice. It is containment.
Safeguarding or Self-Protection? The Case of Ali Martin
One of the most galling examples of this culture is the treatment of figures closely associated with Mike Pilavachi. Ali Martin was cleared by safeguarding teams of wrongdoing. But clearance is not the same as credibility.
She worked closely with Pilavachi for years. If she genuinely saw nothing, that represents a catastrophic failure of safeguarding oversight. If she did see warning signs and failed to act, that represents complicity. There is no comfortable third option.
And yet Ali Martin has been placed on curacy at St Andrew’s Chorleywood, since June 2025 - the same church where so much of this harm took root. That is not accountability. It is institutional self-preservation dressed up as reform.
PR Is Not Repentance
Add to this the continued refusal to provide survivors with meaningful platforms, transparent processes, or reparative justice. Survivors have repeatedly asked not just to be “heard”, but to see consequences, acknowledgment, and repair. Those calls have been consistently sidelined.
Yes, Soul Survivor Watford looks different now. The branding is gentler. The language is safer. The documents are longer. But appearances are cheap. Has the culture changed or has it simply learned how to survive scandal?
And would anyone, with full knowledge of the history, genuinely trust a church plant, leadership team or safeguarding structure that remains entangled, however indirectly, with the Soul Survivor network?
Mike Pilavachi himself has effectively vanished from public view, without any transparent process of accountability, acknowledgment of harm, or restorative justice for those he abused.
Disappearance is not responsibility. Silence is not repentance.
Resign, Relocate, Repeat
This pattern extends beyond Watford. Andy Croft resigned from his role following the Soul Survivor safeguarding scandal, only to re-emerge in a new associate leadership position at St Paul’s & St George’s Church, Edinburgh - a move reported openly and apparently without institutional discomfort.[3]
Is this now the template? Step aside quietly. Wait for the noise to die down. Reappear elsewhere with a new title, while survivors are left watching the Church protect its own, again.
Reward Without Reckoning
Let’s name this clearly: this is cronyism.
It is influence recycled. Authority restored without trust. Growth prioritised over justice. Survivors reduced to collateral damage in the Church’s obsession with momentum.
If this continues, trust will continue to collapse, not because people hate the Church, but because the Church keeps proving it cannot be trusted with power.
The message being sent is chillingly clear:
Harm does not disqualify you.
Silence is survivable.
Survivors are expected to move on quietly.
Call it what it is: cronyism dressed up as mission.
And no amount of funding, planting, or rebranding will redeem it.
References
[1] Church Times (22 January 2026)
“St Albans diocese plans to put faith and funding in Soul Survivor”
[2] Church Times (26 January 2026)
“Listening exercise launched to collect safeguarding data about St Andrew’s Chorleywood”
[3] Premier Christian News (24 April 2024)
“Former Soul Survivor pastor Andy Croft joins leadership team of Edinburgh church”