The Forced Resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury: Challenging Times for the Church of England
Having anointed, and then crowned King Charles III, Supreme Governor of the Church England, on 6 May 2023, the Most Revd. Justin Welby, 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, was censured, and then resigned, on 12 November 2024- with the King’s permission- even as some believed he should have been dismissed instead for his apparently unforgivable lapses of judgement. The remorseful Archbishop admitted “historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England” and a “long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.”
The Archbishop’s resignation was hastened by the publication on 7 November 2024 of ‘Independent Learning Lessons Review: John Smyth QC’, dated 18 October 2024. This independent review into the Church’s handling of allegations of serious abuse by John Smyth, commissioned in 2019 and originally meant to last nine months, was undertaken by Keith Makin, a former social services director. Smyth, the “conservative evangelical” at the heart of the scandal, was a barrister and a Church of England lay reader, who led Iwerne Trust evangelical summer holiday camps for boys during the 1970s and early 1980s. Of note, the Church’s “most prolific serial abuser” served as barrister for Mary Whitehouse, a prominent upholder of the nation’s morality, during the 1970s and 1980s. According to the Makin Review, Smyth subjected his victims to “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks”. It emerged that “Church officers and others were made aware of the abuse in the form of a key report prepared in 1982 by the Reverend Mark Ruston.” An “active cover-up”, however, meant that the report was suppressed and senior clergy failed to take matters to a logical conclusion, even after adopting formal safeguarding policies from 1995. Smyth is believed to have abused as many as 130 boys and young men in three countries over five decades before his death in Cape Town in August 2018, aged 75. He escaped justice in his homeland by relocating to Zimbabwe in 1984, and then to South Africa in 2001, after he was barred from re-entering Zimbabwe. The Church’s response to an investigative 30-minute Channel 4 documentary by Cathy Newman on 2 February 2017, reported by Cathy Newman and produced and directed by Tom Stone and the Channel 4 News Investigations Unit, was considered by Makin to be “poor in terms of speed, professionalism, intensity and curiosity.” Following the documentary, Welby confirmed his knowledge of the abuse since 2013 in an interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC Radio.
Justin Welby, although not directly implicated in any malfeasance, is reported to have met Smyth in the 1970s and attended some of his summer camps. A few months after his inauguration as Archbishop on 21 March 2013 at Canterbury Cathedral, Welby was presented with details of abuse from one of Smyth’s victim, relayed by the Bishop of Ely’s safeguarding adviser to his personal chaplain in July 2013. By his account, subsequently discounted, he sought solace in the understanding that the matter had been passed on to the police for investigation. It took until April 2021 for Welby to meet with surviving victims of Smyth.
Meanwhile, the Archbishop continued to gain in stature, being made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order early this year, in recognition of his duties at the King’s Coronation. At the same time, dissent was brewing within the Church, which reached a fever pitch after the publication of the Makin Review. In the run-up to his resignation, Church of England abuse victims, the Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley (Bishop of Newcastle), and several members of the General Synod, the Church of England’s governing body, deemed his position “untenable” and called for Welby’s resignation-a first for an Archbishop of Canterbury. By the time he resigned, a petition started by the General Synod had gathered more than 12,000 signatures.
The Makin Review has come up with 27 “specific” recommendations, some of which are unlikely to be implemented in full, given the number. The key message, however, is that safeguarding needs to be prioritised, given the Church’s somewhat lax governance in respect of this matter.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is “first among equals.” He (there has never been a female Archbishop) is the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion (with 85 million members), Primate of All England, Metropolitan for the Southern Province of the Church of England (the Northern Province belongs to the Archbishop of York), Diocesan Bishop of Canterbury, ex-officio chair of the Church Commissioners for England, and a senior member of the House of Lords, meaning that he has several issues to ponder and then decide upon. Despite the many distractions of such an impressive workload, there seems little justification for any further delay in addressing historic abuses by the Church and its officials in a more decisive manner. At a time when church membership and Sunday attendance are declining, and when several other members of the senior clergy are in the firing line, the latest events may only serve to further distance the Church from Britain’s laity, who increasingly resent its many powers and privileges, including the fact that 26 bishops serve as ‘Lords Spiritual’ in the House of Lords and can hence influence the parliamentary agenda. How the 106th Archbishop, senior clergy, and the General Synod choose to address this latest scandal is thus of the utmost importance for the future and wellbeing of the Anglican Church.
Ashis Banerjee