United Kingdom: official findings that Soul Survivor's founder used spiritual authority to coerce youths
Request a correction or replyRecord class
Core record
Evidence status
Official finding
Authority role
founder and figurehead of a national youth ministry
Organization
Soul Survivor, Diocese of St Albans
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
Both investigations named his spiritual authority over the young people as the coercive mechanism — the criterion in the findings' own words.
- Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
- Threatened spiritual consequence
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2024-09-01 · official ecclesiastical and independent-review findings; NO criminal charge
Church of England National Safeguarding Team; independent review (Fiona Scolding KC-led, published 2024). The Church of England's National Safeguarding Team and an independent review both substantiated that Mike Pilavachi, founder of the Soul Survivor youth ministry, used his spiritual authority and celebrity status over four decades to draw young interns and attendees into coerced massages and physical wrestling. No criminal charges were brought; he resigned and surrendered his licence to minister.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- spiritual authority and celebrity status over interns and young attendees
- coerced massages and physical 'wrestling'
Cited record
Sources
- official church safeguarding finding official finding Church of England National Safeguarding Team statement and independent review findings on Mike Pilavachi (2024).
The substantiated findings and the surrender of his licence.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.churchofengland.org/safeguarding Corpus classification: official-church-safeguarding-finding; evidentiary role: official-finding. SHA-256 c5aeeda990d937c1f630ae3e8bc94b69723420d16a9f0b32b8f86f980e75b6d1
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Named in this record? Request a correction, report a changed disposition, or submit a response.
Related record
Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts
- 2018 · Harrisburg, PA, USA PA grand jury: 301 priests, 1,000+ child victims documented ('weaponized' faith)
- 2009 · Dublin, Ireland Ryan Commission: abuse 'endemic' in Catholic-run institutions (state inquiry)
- 2021 · Paris, France CIASE/Sauvé Report: est. 216,000 abused by French clergy since 1950
- 2019 · Vatican City McCarrick: ex-cardinal found guilty by Vatican canonical process, laicized
- 2010 · Oregon City, OR, USA Beagley faith-healing death: parents convicted (criminally negligent homicide)
- 2014 · Philadelphia, PA, USA Schaible: 3rd-degree murder, second child dead of untreated pneumonia
- 2001 · London, UK Victoria Climbié: murder convictions; possession belief; Laming Inquiry followed
- 2012 · London, UK Kristy Bamu: kindoki 'deliverance' murder convictions (30/25-yr minimums)