Resetting the Balance: Listening to Testimonies of Harm in the Mike Pilavachi Case

Nina Kurlberg

Jonas Kurlberg

Mike Higton

In this project, undertaken in the 2024/25 academic year, the researchers listened to the experiences of victims and survivors who reported being harmed by Mike Pilavachi, a former leader of the Soul Survivor movement.

An internal Church of England investigation into safeguarding concerns raised about Pilavachi concluded in 2023 that he had engaged in ‘an abuse of power relating to his ministry’, and that he had ‘used his spiritual authority to control people and his coercive and controlling behaviour led to inappropriate relationships, the physical wrestling of youths and massaging of young male interns’.

Various processes were set in motion by the Church of England and Soul Survivor Watford after this investigation, but the Durham research team judged that none of them had given a central place to the voices and perspectives of those harmed. Their report aims to address this gap, and to identify lessons about safeguarding that the church still needs to learn.

View or download the full report here: Resetting the balance report