The Charity Commission is deciding whether to intervene after an internal review found that the Methodist Church was “not seen as a safe place” by some female members.
The Methodist Church, a charity that oversees the church’s work across the country, admitted that its work with victims of sexism “needs to improve”.
Methodist leaders commissioned the review to understand whether it provided appropriate support to women who reported abuse and misogyny in the church, according to The Times newspaper.
The review found that some women faced comments from colleagues on what they were wearing as well as “inappropriate touching, lewd remarks and demeaning asides”, The Times said.
Senior leaders sometimes failed to respond to concerns when they were raised, it added.
A spokesperson for the Charity Commission told Third Sector: “A charity should be a safe and trusted environment for all.
“We are assessing concerns recently raised in the media to determine if there is a role for the commission.
“We welcome the decision taken by the Methodist Church to carry out an internal review.”
A Methodist Church spokesperson said: “We recognise that there are reported incidents of sexism and misogyny within our church and properly listening and responding to those who have been abused still needs to improve.
“The report was commissioned so we can better understand how our processes affect those involved in them, particularly how we have failed those who have not been heard when they have complained and how we can address this behaviour when it happens.
“We will continue to work to make sure everyone understands abuse of any kind is not acceptable in our churches.
“As part of this report we spoke to many survivors, and we are grateful that they were willing to describe their experiences as this will better inform our work in the future.”
The church said that, alongside this safeguarding work, it had also developed new anti-bullying policies and started analysing data “that will help us identify patterns of abuse”.
The spokesperson said: “We will study the recommendations of this report carefully and use them as we continue our work to improve our response to survivors of abuse.”