The head of the Church of England, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, is under pressure to resign after an investigation found he failed to inform the police as soon as he became aware of serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps.
Some members of the General Synod, the church’s national assembly, have launched a petition calling on Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to resign, saying he has “lost the trust of his clergy”. The petition had garnered more than 1,800 signatures on Change.org by late Monday morning London time.
Adding to the pressure, a senior clergywoman has joined those who believe he should resign. Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle, told the BBC that Mr Welby’s position was “untenable”.
Calls for Mr Welby to resign have grown since Thursday when the Church published the results of an independent investigation into John Smyth, who sexually, psychologically and physically abused around 30 boys and young men in the UK and 85 in Africa over five decades.
The 251-page report concludes that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, shortly after he became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Last week, Mr Welby took responsibility for failing to ensure the allegations were pursued as “vigorously” as they should have been after he became aware of the abuse but said he had no intention of resigning.
On Monday, his office issued a statement reiterating Mr Welby’s horror at the scale of John Smyth’s gross abuse.
“As he has said, he had no knowledge or suspicion of the allegations prior to being informed of them in 2013, and, upon reflection, he has no intention of resigning,” the statement said. “He hopes the Makin Review will support the ongoing work to build a safer church here and around the world.”
Church officials first became aware of the abuse in 1982, when they received the results of an internal investigation into Smyth. The recipients of that report “engaged in an active cover-up” to prevent the investigation’s findings from being revealed, the Makin report said.
Between 1984 and 2001, Smyth settled in Zimbabwe , and then South Africa . He continued to sexually assault boys and young men in Zimbabwe, and there is evidence that the abuse continued in South Africa until his death in August 2018.
Smyth’s abuse was not made public until a 2017 investigation by British television network Channel 4, which led to Hampshire police launching an investigation. Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and were preparing to extradite him.
The Makin report concluded that if Smyth had been reported to police in 2013 it could have helped uncover the truth, prevented further abuse and led to a possible criminal conviction.
“Indeed, three and a half years have been lost, time during which John Smyth could have been brought to justice and the abuses he was committing in South Africa could have been uncovered and stopped,” the study concluded.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England and is considered the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries. He is considered first among equals compared to other primates of the communion.
