Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Resigns over Poor Handling of Church Abuse Scandal

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday resigned from his position, days after a damning report into a prolific child abuser, John Smyth, associated with the Church of England.

In his resignation statement, Welby said the report exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of  Smyth, explaining that when he was told in 2013 that police had been notified, he believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.
 Smyth was not brought to justice before his death in South Africa in 2018, BBC said in one report.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is head of the Church of England but they also have a wider constitutional role.

Welby in his resignation letter said: “Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.

“The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth. When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.

“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and re-traumatising period between 2013 and 2024.

“It is my duty to honour my constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.

“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church.

“As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse. The last few days have renewed my long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England. For nearly 12 years I have struggled to introduce improvements. It is for others to judge what has been done.

“In the meantime, I will follow through on my commitment to meet victims. I will delegate all my other current responsibilities for safeguarding until the necessary risk assessment process is complete.

“I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honoured to serve.
“I pray that this decision points us back towards the love that Jesus Christ has for every one of us. For above all else, my deepest commitment is to the person of Jesus Christ, my saviour and my God; the bearer of the sins and burdens of the world, and the hope of every person.”

A nationwide consultation will be held asking people in and outside the Church of England what they want from the next archbishop. That is expected to take several months.

Church and government officials will summarise those views, along with feedback from the Church representatives in Canterbury – the area the archbishop technically oversees. That information will form the basis of creating a long list of suitable candidates invited for interview.
No one applies for the role. Those chosen for interview don’t have to be from the Church of England and they don’t have to be bishops, although they are likely to be.

The candidates will then be interviewed by a committee of 17 people. The chair is appointed by the prime minister and the members will include representatives from around the global Anglican Communion, the General Synod, or parliament, as well as at least one bishop.
At least two-thirds of the committee members must agree before a decision is made.

The Makin report – which was released last week said Welby and Smyth were together at multiple Christian holiday camps run by the Iwerne Trust, between Summer 1975 and August 1979.

“We have explored with Justin Welby his relationship at that time with John Smyth. He knew John Smyth from the Iwerne camps and was in John Smyth’s dormitory for two camps.

“He has described being ‘impressed’ by John Smyth and reacting to his apparent power of intellect and charismatic (in the lay sense) personality. He says that they were never close, however.

“Justin Welby says that he and John Smyth ‘exchanged Christmas cards’ for several years”, something Welby characterises as ‘usual for the time’, the report said.

The report also said that Welby  recalled “making donations” to John Smyth to help with his ministry in Zimbabwe, “but cannot remember the details of this, timing or amounts”.

Besides, Welby  said that he was unaware of the abuse allegations against Smyth until 2013, but admitted that he should have done more to make sure the allegations were properly investigated.

Former Anglican priest and bishop, Dr Gavin Ashenden, said he was relieved that  Welby had resigned.

“I’m relieved, mainly for the victims of sexual abuse but also for the institution itself,” he said.

The Makin report into the decades of abuse by John Smyth – a barrister associated with the Church of England – said Welby failed to act properly when he first heard about the abuse in 2013.

In the 1970s and 1980s, John Smyth physically abused boys at Christian camps in the UK and Africa, while in 1982, an investigation by the Iwerne Trust, which ran the camps, uncovered claims of abuse – but did not report it to police.

Besides in 2013, the Church of England knew “at the highest level” about the allegations, said Makin report.

 Smyth died in Cape Town, having not faced justice, even as an independent report was commissioned, led by Makin, to look into Church’s handling of the Smyth case.

Following Thursday’s publication of the Makin review into John Smyth – which was critical of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s handling of the case – Welby said he had given resignation “a lot of thought for actually quite a long time”.

According to the long-awaited report, Smyth’s abuse of more than 100 children and young men was covered up within the Church of England for decades.

Welby’s tenure covered a decade of major upheaval in which he was forced to navigate rows over homosexual rights and women clerics between liberal churches, mostly in North America and Britain, and their conservative counterparts, especially in Africa.

The Anglican churches in African countries such as Uganda and Nigeria are likely to welcome Welby’s resignation, after saying last year they no longer had confidence in him.

His successor’s main challenges will include holding together the increasingly fractious worldwide Anglican community and attempting to reverse a decline in church attendance, which is down a fifth in Britain since 2019.