By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-06 21:05:16 | Updated at 2025-01-08 03:15:04
1 day ago
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s tenure officially ends on Monday, two months after he resigned following an inquiry that found he failed to tell police about serial abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.
Welby, the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, will lay down his bishop’s crosier – a ceremonial long staff – in a symbolic act that marks the end of his ministry.
Most of Welby’s official functions will be delegated to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, as the church embarks on the lengthy process of selecting a new leader.
Welby had announced in November that he would resign after an independent investigation into the late John Smyth, a prominent lawyer who the inquiry said sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 boys and young men in the UK and 85 in Africa from the 1970s until his death in 2018.
The 251-page report of the Makin Review concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury. Had he done so, Smyth could have been stopped sooner.
Welby’s initial refusal to step aside kindled anger about a lack of accountability at the highest reaches of the church.
The resignation comes against the backdrop of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England. A 2022 report by the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse said a culture that gave more support to alleged perpetrators than their victims helped make the Church of England “a place where abusers could hide”.
