In the final day of a public hearing into how Anglican institutions have responded to child sexual abuse, Archbishop Davies acknowledged that not all the country's 23 dioceses had rigorous mechanisms in place.

"There has been a failure of the national church to have consistency across the board but it shouldn't be forgotten that there are a number of robust systems in place in most dioceses," he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness, SC, asked: "I take it there are some that don't have robust systems?"

"That would be true," he replied.

Anglican primate and Archbishop of Melbourne Philip Freier??? told the commission church leaders would discuss nationally consistent standards for child protection at its general synod.

"I will expend my best energy between now and the general synod seeking to gather the support for ... uniform child protection," he said.

General secretary of the general synod Anne Hywood??? told the commission: "When it comes to child protection, we can work as one."

Analysis released by the commission shows almost 1100 people alleged they were abused as children in Anglican institutions, according to complaints data from 1980 to 2015.

Of the identified alleged perpetrators, 247 were ordained clergy, 285 were lay people.

Archbishop Davies told the commission lay people took advantage of inadequate safety measures in the past.

"A lay person would enter the safety of a church environment, become a leader of a youth group ... and then regrettably and ashamedly use the opportunities that they had to engage in terrible conduct," he said.

"Perpetrators or potential perpetrators seek a safe haven where their activities will not be monitored; where inadequate screening of our lay people in past years allowed people with corrupt motives to abuse young boys, in particular, but also young girls."

He used the commission to offer a public apology to Marion Fortescue, whose son, Wayne Guthrie, was abused in the Anglican youth group, the Church of England Boys' Society (CEBS) in the 1980s.

Mr Guthrie, 47, died a month before the commission's hearing into the society, which it found enabled a "network of sexual predators" to abuse young boys.

"It was a betrayal of trust that where you allowed your son to come to a CEBS group in one of our churches," Archbishop Davies said, "you should have expected a safe environment and that was not provided."

The Sydney diocese has adopted a protocol named after Mr Guthrie which will support families of abuse victims who have died prematurely.

The hearing before Justice Peter McClellan has adjourned.

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