Extra senior clergy within the Church of England may have to resign following the Archbishop of Canterbury’s choice to step down over private failings in how a long time of “abhorrent” baby abuse by the late John Smyth was responded to.
Julie Conalty, the bishop of Birkenhead and deputy lead bishop for safeguarding within the Church of England, mentioned Archbishop Justin Welby had “done the right thing” by resigning however that his departure alone won’t be sufficient as far-reaching change inside the Church of England is required.
Chatting with BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program, Conalty mentioned: “Just the Archbishop of Canterbury resigning is not going to solve the problem. This is about institutional changes, our culture and a systemic failure, so there must be more that we need to do. Very possibly some of the people should go.”
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She declined to call who else she thought ought to resign.
The second most senior determine within the Church of England, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has mentioned he does not suppose extra bishops have to step down.
He instructed the “Today” program: “Those who actively covered this up [should resign], which was not bishops.
“When folks converse in regards to the Church of England, we have to bear in mind we’re talking about actually hundreds of branches, parishes, chaplaincies.”
Asked whether more bishops should resign, Cottrell replied: “The archbishop of Canterbury has resigned.”
Pressed on whether he thought this was enough, he said: “Sure, as a result of he has resigned for the institutional failings.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting weighed in, saying that while it was “completely the correct choice” for Welby to step down, the Church of England should not think “one head rolling solves the issue.”
Saying that he was speaking “as an Anglican, not as a authorities minister,” he told the “Right now” program that there are “deep and basic problems with not simply observe, however tradition on safeguarding that must be taken critically.”
Welby resigned on Tuesday after coming under intense pressure in the days following the publication of the Makin Review’s final report into how the Church of England handled abuse by the late QC and Christian camp organizer, John Smyth.
The damning report said that Smyth had committed “abhorrent” abuse of over 100 children and young men over a period of decades. Despite knowing about the abuse from the ’80s, referrals to police were not made until decades later by which time Smyth had moved to Africa where the abuse continued.
The report concluded that “regardless of the efforts of some people to convey the abuse to the eye of authorities, the responses by the Church of England and others have been wholly ineffective and amounted to a cover-up.”
The report also pointed the finger at Welby for failing to report the abuse to authorities after becoming aware of it in 2013.
It said, “From July 2013 the Church of England knew, on the highest stage, in regards to the abuse that happened within the late Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties. John Smyth ought to have been correctly and successfully reported to the police within the U.Okay. and to related authorities in South Africa. This represented an additional missed alternative to convey him to justice.”
There have been calls from survivors for more resignations, with one Smyth survivor telling Channel 4 News: “What I feel the survivor group would love is extra resignations as a result of which means extra accountability.”
The Bishop of Lincoln, Stephen Conway, has resisted calls to resign over his response to a disclosure about Smyth’s abuse while bishop of Ely.
In a statement, he said he had “made an in depth disclosure to Lambeth Palace and contacted the related diocese in South Africa to alert them to the difficulty,” and that he “did all inside my authority as a bishop of the Church of England.” He also said it was his understanding that the matter had been reported to U.K. police.
He said: “I acknowledge absolutely that my fault was in not rigorously pursuing Lambeth about that province-to-province communication, and for this I’m deeply sorry.”
Initially revealed at Christian Right now
“Well bless their hearts.”
