Resigning matters

The Most Rev Justin Welby’s position as Archbishop of Canterbury looks increasingly untenable as pressure for his resignation mounts within the Anglican church over his alleged failure to deal properly with a child abuse scandal.

The Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle, joined a growing clamour for the Archbishop to step down in response to a critical report into the handling of the case. She feared the Church was in danger of “losing complete credibility” if action was not taken. Certainly, the Archbishop risks forfeiting his moral authority if he stays on in Lambeth Palace.

The Archbishop says he was unaware of the activities of John Smyth, a serial child abuser, before taking over in 2013. But as the Telegraph disclosed, he knew of the rumours many years earlier. The report confirmed this, stating “it is most probable that he would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.”

Smyth, a barrister who ran Christian youth camps, abused at least 115 children and young men over five decades before his death in August 2018. The inquiry concluded that his “prolific, brutal and horrific” activities were covered up by “powerful evangelical clergy”.

Even if the Archbishop was not given a detailed account of Smyth’s abuse until 2013 he failed to report it to the police or alert the authorities in South Africa where Smyth had fled to carry on his abuse. The Archbishop was also critical of the way the BBC handled the Jimmy Savile scandal, which makes his own protestations on ignorance hard to sustain.

The Archbishop said he had considered resigning but decided not to. He needs to think again.