How do I make a claim to the Anglican Church?

Who do I make a claim to?

Making a claim can bring up a range of emotions. We have some suggestions on help and support you can access for this process. 

The Anglican Church has three main parts:

• the core part of the Church
• connected organisations that are governed by the Church, such as dioceses or amorangai
• connected entities that are independent of the Church, such as schools and charitable trusts.

Apart from the Anglican Trust for Women and Children (ATWC) and Dilworth School, we do not have much information about what form of redress (making things right) might be offered to you.  

Depending on who you request redress from, you might be offered an apology and / or financial payments as compensation.

Learn about redress and what it means to make a claim.

You may want to have a lawyer represent you in your claim, but it is not essential. If you cannot afford a lawyer, you may be eligible for legal aid. You can learn more about getting a lawyer and other legal advice.

Contact the Anglican Trust for Women and Children, if your claim is about a place they ran

If you experienced abuse at a place run by the Anglican Trust for Women and Children (ATWC), you can contact the ATWC to make a claim.  

For example, the ATWC ran Stoddard House, Brett Home and St Mary's Home for unwed mothers.

The ATWC provides some redress for survivors, including:

• an apology and / or
• support to aid your ongoing healing.

The ATWC will often also pay your reasonable legal costs, or a contribution towards those costs. 

Making complaints about other Anglican Church-affiliated organisations

For other Anglican Church-affiliated organisations, you can make a complaint to:

• the Ministry Standards Commission or
• the relevant diocese (for example, if the abuse happened at a local church event). You can find the contact details of dioceses in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesiaopen_in_new.

How to make a complaint to their Ministry Standards Commission

If your claim is about a place run by another Anglican-affiliated organisation (or you are not sure which organisation ran it), you can contact the Ministry Standards Commission.

Unfortunately, the Ministry Standards Commission approaches complaints as a disciplinary process. This means that they focus on disciplining the abuser rather than making things right for the survivor (redress).  

Unfortunately, we have no information about what forms of redress, if any, will be offered to survivors who make a claim to the Ministry Standards Commission.