When Will Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor Get Their Reckoning?

With the announcement from Buckingham Palace and King Charles that Andrew Windsor Mountbatten (formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York) will lose his royal styles and title and be moved out of his royal residence into Sandringham - a private family home, not funded by the taxpayer - one thing feels clearer than ever: when institutions choose to act, they can.

If the King can strip his own brother of royal privilege in recognition of the harm caused and in honour of victims, then why, after everything that has been exposed, does Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor still refuse to meaningfully face their own reckoning?

Because for those of us who lived through the Soul Survivor and Mike Pilavachi scandal, this isn’t just history. It’s our story. It’s our trauma. And we are still waiting for accountability.

When I read the announcement about Andrew Windsor Mountbatten, I felt my old anger ignite again. Because it shows that power can be confronted, even in the highest of institutions. And yet, within the Church of England and Soul Survivor, the silence remains deafening. The Church has said all the right things on paper, but for victims of Soul Survivor and Mike Pilavachi’s 30-plus years of ministry and prior to that, his time as a youth leader at St Andrew’s Church, Chorleywood (where there also appears to have been major safeguarding failures) words have never and will never be enough.

MBE

Let’s not forget: Mike Pilavachi was awarded an MBE in 2020 “for services to young people” through his work at Soul Survivor. That title, that honour, came despite decades of whispers, testimonies, and signs that something was profoundly wrong. I and others have campaigned for months for his MBE to be rescinded, and I’m relieved it finally has been. But what does it say about the Church of England and about British institutions more broadly, that this step took public outrage, not moral courage, to achieve?

So far, Mike Pilavachi has lost his MBE. But has he been fully defrocked by the Church of England? Has he had other awards or official privileges removed? Has there been transparency about whether he received any form of retirement payment or pension from Soul Survivor? These are not small details, they matter to those of us still waiting for justice.

Because here’s what we know: Mike Pilavachi spent over thirty years building an empire around himself - a cult of personality cloaked in the language of worship. He was allowed to profit, preach, and perform spiritual intimacy while destroying lives behind the scenes. Young men and women, including his closest friends and confidants like Matt Redman, Tim & Pete Hughes and Andy Croft, to name a few, were drawn into a web of manipulation, humiliation, and shame.

And now? He gets to simply disappear. To quietly retire. To allegedly live abroad, in Greece, from what I’ve heard, still visited and supported by influential evangelical figures like
J. John. The audacity of that silence is staggering.

True Accountability

This is why the news from Buckingham Palace hits so hard. Because it reminds us that true accountability means loss, not just of titles, but of status, access, and power. And Soul Survivor, as both a church and an ongoing organisation, has done everything possible to avoid that loss.

Soul Survivor Watford continues to operate as if the scandal was just an unfortunate footnote, a PR crisis neatly filed away. But it wasn’t. It was systemic abuse, sanctioned by culture, ignored by leadership, and enabled by silence.

How can Soul Survivor still exist as a functioning church - baptising, preaching, fundraising - when so many of its victims are still waiting to feel seen, heard, and believed?

This entire situation is a mockery of the Christian faith it claims to uphold. It’s an insult to those of us who trusted, served, donated, and gave years of our lives believing in a vision that turned out to be rotten at its core.

A King’s Decision

If the King can take decisive action against his own brother, stripping him of titles and royal privileges in response to serious allegations of sexual exploitation, then it’s fair to ask: when will the Church of England, and Soul Survivor, do the same for the victims of Mike Pilavachi?

When will they demonstrate that justice and compassion aren’t just sermons, but lived values?

Because until that reckoning comes, until the truth is fully uncovered, no matter how uncomfortable, no matter how painful, I, and many others, will not stop asking these questions.

The truth is not healed by silence. It is buried by it. And I refuse to let that burial stand.

When will Mike Pilavachi get his reckoning?

And when will Soul Survivor finally get theirs?