Anglican leader resigns in wake of abuse report

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has resigned in the wake of a report on the Church of England's handling of allegations of sexual abuse.

Archbishop Welby, who has been the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion since 2013, said in a November 12 statement that it was "very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility."

The news came five days after publication of a report on the Church of England's response to abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, a British barrister and senior member of a Christian charity.

Smyth had been accused of abusing more than 100 children and young men that he met at Christian summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s. According to the report, published last Thursday, Smyth's abuse was covered up within the Church of England for decades.

"The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth,” Archbishop Welby said in his statement. "When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.”

Welby noted that he had first sought permission from King Charles III before resigning. The sovereign is Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Archbishop Welby himself was not accused of abuse, but as the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said in a separate statement, the Archbishop of Canterbury decided to “take his share of responsibility for the failures identified by the Makin review.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior bishop of the Church of England and has oversight for the ministry and mission in the southern two-thirds of England. He also serves as spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church in the United States. The second most senior bishop is the Archbishop of York and has oversight for the ministry and mission in the northern third of England. Together they lead the vision and direction of the Church of England.

Bishop Joanne Grenfell, who is Lead Bishop for Safeguarding for the Church of England, said in a statement that Welby helped the Church of England “to achieve much in relation to safeguarding during his tenure.” 

"I have worked closely with Archbishop Justin since I took on this role and have greatly valued his personal commitment to good safeguarding and his desire to see the whole Church make this a priority," Bishop Grenfell said.

Welby has shared commitments with Pope Francis, who began his ministry as Bishop of Rome the same year Welby began as Archbishop of Canterbury. The two have collaborated on several initiatives, often with other religious leaders, regarding the environment, the war in South Sudan, and slavery.

In 2021, Welby, Francis, and Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, issued a joint declaration to address together the urgency of environmental sustainability. 

Archbishop Welby joined with Pope Francis and leaders of other faiths in a joint declaration that they would work together aiming to end modern slavery by 2020.

In 2023, the Archbishop of Canterbury made a joint visit to South Sudan with the Pope and Church of Scotland Moderator.

The Church of England now faces a long process in naming a new Archbishop of Canterbury.

“There will be a commission to take in opinions across the Church of England and wider Anglican communion,” the BBC said. “A committee will then be formed, and they will call people for interviews.” The process could take six months.

Before being elected Archbishop of Canterbury, Welby, 68, was Bishop of Durham, Dean of Liverpool Cathedral and a Canon of Coventry Cathedral, where he worked extensively in the field of reconciliation. 

He studied history and law at Trinity College, Cambridge. Before he began seminary studies in 1989, he worked in the oil industry for 11 years – five in Paris and six in London.

As a member of the House of Lords, he sat on the panel of the 2012 Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.

The Church of England’s website noted that Archbishop Welby has had three main priorities for his ministry – evangelism and witness, prayer and renewal of religious life, and reconciliation.

He is a member of the High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation for the United Nations. He is the author of Reimagining Britain, Dethroning Mammon and The Power of Reconciliation. 

Born January 6, 1956, he had a rough childhood, as his parents were alcoholics who divorced when Justin was 3. In a 2013 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Welby related his conversion experience when he was a student at Cambridge. He said that he had "vaguely assumed there was a God. But I didn't believe. I wasn't interested at all." 

However, one October evening in 1975, while praying with a Christian friend, he suddenly felt "a clear sense of something changing, the presence of something that had not been there before in my life." 

In a 2014 interview, Welby said that his conversion had come when his friend had taken him to an "evangelistic address," which he found to be poor. After this, his friend "simply explained the Gospels" to him. Welby said that from that point onwards he "knew the presence of God."

Welby is married to Caroline, and they have five children and four grandchildren

The archbishop concluded his statement on Tuesday by expressing the hope that his decision “makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer Church. As I step down, I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.”

Said the archbishop, "The last few days have renewed my long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England. For nearly 12 years I have struggled to introduce improvements. It is for others to judge what has been done.”