CAMPAIGNERS welcomed a “first step on a long road to redemption” today after the Church of England made a long-awaited apology for historical forced adoptions.

But some warned against possible words without action, demanding the Church’s statements result in “real and tangible support” for survivors and bereaved.

Support must include access to unredacted records, trauma-informed counselling and mental health support, they said.

Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally said the Church of England is “profoundly sorry for the pain, trauma and stigma experienced – and still carried – by many people because of historical adoption practices in homes” linked to the Church.

Dame Sarah committed the Church “to listen, to lament and to learn – to acknowledge this history and respond with openness, reflection and learning, and to ensure that this leads to change.”

Campaigning for separated mothers and babies, the Movement for an Adoption Apology (MAA) said this “is an opportunity for the Church to hang its head in shame and fully accept responsibility for a degree of cruelty and suffering that was and is utterly wrong.”

Survivors “will draw comfort in knowing that their suffering has at long last been acknowledged,” the MAA said, adding that this should be “the first step in a much longer and more detailed process.”

“What matters most is what comes next. An apology without corrective action is meaningless,” it said.

“For this apology to carry weight and be meaningful, it must be bolstered by measures which will help all survivors of the atrocities committed.”

Campaigners with the Adult Adoptee Movement (AAM) branded the Archbishop’s words “not a meaningful apology,” explaining that they did not include “recognition of the specific harms.”

AAM accused the Church’s engagement process on these historic failures as “distressing and retraumatising.”