A file image of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s tenure in office ends Monday (January 6, 2025), after an investigation found that he failed to tell police about serial abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Archbishop Welby, the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, will lay down his bishop’s crozier – a ceremonial long staff – in a symbolic act which marks the end of his ministry. Most of his official functions will be delegated to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell.

Archbishop Welby had announced in November that he would resign after an independent investigation into the late John Smyth, a prominent attorney who the report said sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 boys and young men in the United Kingdom and 85 in Africa from the 1970s until his death in 2018.

The 251-page report of the Makin Review concluded that Archbishop Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury. Had he done so, Smyth could have been stopped sooner.

Archbishop Welby’s initial refusal to step aside kindled anger about a lack of accountability at the highest reaches of the church.

Archbishop Welby’s resignation comes against the backdrop of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England. A 2022 report by the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse said a culture that gave more support to alleged perpetrators than their victims helped make the Church of England “a place where abusers could hide.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries. While each national church has its own leaders, the Archbishop of Canterbury is considered first among equals.

The Church of England faced pressure on Wednesday to ensure people are held to account for systematically covering up allegations of abuse, one day after the Archbishop of Canterbury resigned over a church abuse scandal.

Justin Welby quit on Tuesday as spiritual leader of the global Anglican Church, saying he had failed to ensure a proper investigation into allegations of abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps decades ago.

Welby resigned after coming under pressure over a report that found failings in the handling of the case of John Smyth, a barrister who abused at least 115 children and young men before his death.

The report has increased pressure on others to be held accountable for safeguarding failures.

“We … know that some people pretty systematically covered this up and that those people do need to be brought to account,” Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the second-most senior bishop in the Church of England, told BBC Radio.

Cottrell said there were lessons to be learned from the review, but that he was not referring to bishops.

“The church is a very, very large organisation and a very dispersed organisation. We’re a place where … thousands and thousands of people, anyone can be part of our church, so safeguarding such an organisation is a challenge.”

BISHOP FACES CALLS TO RESIGN

The Bishop of Lincoln, Stephen Conway, who was briefed about the abuse allegations against Smyth in 2013 – the same year as Welby – is facing calls to resign. The BBC quoted an unnamed victim of Smyth as saying that Conway did not do enough when he was informed of the abuse.

Conway apologised on Tuesday for not rigorously pursuing Lambeth Palace, Welby’s office, about the matter, saying he had done all in his authority as a bishop.

The review said Welby was ill-advised about the actions taken in Conway’s then diocese of Ely, adding that he was incorrectly informed that a referral had been made to the police.

“It was my understanding that this matter was reported to the police in Cambridgeshire (in eastern England) and duly passed on to the police in Hampshire where the abuse had occurred,” Conway said.

Asked about Welby’s omissions, Cottrell said: “There have been great steps taken in the safeguarding of the church under his watch, but on this case, perhaps he relied too much on others.”

Welby spent years trying to prevent the global Anglican communion from fracturing, often struggling to please liberals or conservatives as they fought over homosexual rights and women clergy.

But Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba, as the head of Uganda’s Anglican Church had been rebuked by Welby for supporting a strict anti-homosexuality law in Uganda, said on Wednesday that Welby had split the Anglican communion worldwide.

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