Senior bishop calls for Justin Welby to resign over Church of England sex abuser

A senior bishop has called for Justin Welby to resign as the Archbishop of Canterbury following a damning report into a barrister who is thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church.

Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley described Dr Welby’s position as “untenable” and claimed that the Church was in danger of “losing complete credibility”.

“I think, rightly, people are asking the question ‘Can we really trust the Church of England to keep us safe?’ And I think the answer at the moment is ‘No,’” she told the BBC.

The Rt Rev Hartley, one of the 21 bishops who sit in the House of Lords as lords spiritual, added that Dr Welby’s resignation would amount to a “very clear indication that a line has been drawn, and that we must move towards independence of safeguarding”.

The bishop subsequently condemned the “coercive” language of a letter she released on social media on Monday, which she said had been sent to her by Dr Welby and the Archbishop of York just days before the report was published.

The letter – which appears to relate to her suspension of the former Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, from active ministry in the diocese of Newcastle over a previous Church safeguarding review – reads: “We would very much like to see a resolution to this situation which enables Sentamu to return to ministry.”

In her post on X, formerly Twitter, the Rt Rev Hartley criticised the letter, saying that it signifies “a wider and systemic dysfunction of how the hierarchy of the Church of England has dealt with matters of safeguarding and most particularly the impact of church-related abuse on victims and survivors”.

Following the publication of the Makin review last week, a petition by some members of the General Synod – the Church of England’s parliament – has gathered more than 5,000 signatures, urging Dr Welby to resign over the failure of the Church to alert authorities to the “abhorrent” abuse of children and young men by John Smyth QC, a Christian barrister.

Dr Welby has so far refused to step down, telling Channel 4 that he had thought about the issue for a long time and taken advice from senior colleagues before ultimately concluding that it was more appropriate for him to remain in position.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer declined to reveal whether he thinks the archbishop should resign, saying on Monday afternoon that it is a matter for the Church.

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The Makin report into the abuse concluded that Dr Welby had possessed at least “some knowledge of the concerns” about Smyth in the early 1980s, and had shown a “lack of curiosity” about the allegations when they surfaced in 2013.

The archbishop said he had had “no idea or suspicion of this abuse” before 2013, but acknowledged that the review had found that after its wider exposure that year he had “personally failed to ensure” that it was “energetically investigated”.

Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018, while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and so was “never brought to justice for the abuse”, the review said. He is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks across five decades, in three different countries, permanently marking their lives.

Dr Welby knew Smyth because of his attendance at Iwerne Christian camps in the 1970s, but the review said there was no evidence that he had “maintained any significant contact” with the barrister in later years.

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It said that while he knew Smyth and “did have reason to have some concern about him”, this was not the same as suspecting he had committed severe abuse. It concluded that it was “not possible to establish” whether Dr Welby had known of the severity of the abuse in the UK before 2013.

The report said Smyth “could and should have been formally reported to the police in the UK, and to authorities in South Africa (Church authorities and potentially the police) by Church officers, including a diocesan bishop and Justin Welby in 2013″.

It said that “had that been done, on the balance of probabilities” Smyth could have been brought to justice “at a much earlier point”.

The petition states: “Given [Dr Welby’s] role in allowing abuse to continue, we believe that his continuing as the Archbishop of Canterbury is no longer tenable. We must see change, for the sake of survivors, for the protection of the vulnerable, and for the good of the Church – and we share this determination across our traditions.

“With sadness we do not think there is any alternative to his immediate resignation if the process of change and healing is to start now.”

Giles Fraser, vicar of St Anne’s in Kew, west London, described it as a “terrible situation”. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There’s a petition going round now, which many people are signing, and this is from all parts of the Church. I’m afraid he’s really lost the confidence of his clergy, he’s lost the confidence of many of his bishops, and his position is completely untenable.”

Dr Joanne Grenfell, the Church of England’s lead safeguarding bishop, has refused to call for Dr Welby’s resignation. Speaking over the weekend, she welcomed his apology and praised his commitment to the Church.

“As I said, I really appreciate that the archbishop has wholeheartedly apologised for what he could’ve and should’ve done differently in 2013,” she said. “I also recognise his commitment, over the time of his tenure as archbishop, to really having tried to change safeguarding.

“I think there’s still an awful lot to do, but I do think that builds on some of the changes that we have seen over the last 10 years.”