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Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has resigned following intense pressure over his role in the Church of England’s failure to prevent years of sexual and physical assaults by a suspected child abuser. related to this organization implementation.
“After receiving the King’s gracious permission, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury,” Welby said on Tuesday.
Welby said that when he was informed in 2013 about the “brutal abuses” carried out by John Smyth, a Christian lawyer, he was told that the police had been informed and that he believed “mistakenly that there will be a suitable solution”.
He added that Keith Makin’s review of the church’s handling of the Smyth allegations, published last week, exposed a “long conspiracy of silence”.
“It was clear that I had to take personal and organizational responsibility for the long period of time and re-injury from 2013 to 2024,” Welby said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer called the revelations in Makin’s report “appalling”.
Speaking at COP29 in Baku, the prime minister said: “Let me be clear: from what I know of the allegations, they are clearly terrible. . . both in terms of their scale and content. My thoughts. . . are with the victims here, who have clearly failed very, very badly.”
He added that any decision is “ultimately a matter for the church.”
