More senior clergy may need to follow Welby in resigning, says bishop

Justin Welby

More senior clergy in the Church of England may need to resign following the Archbishop of Canterbury's decision to step down over personal failings in how decades of "abhorrent" child abuse by the late John Smyth was responded to. 

Julie Conalty, the Bishop of Birkenhead and deputy lead bishop for safeguarding in the Church of England, said that Archbishop Justin Welby had "done the right thing" by resigning but that his departure alone may not be enough as far-reaching change within the Church of England is needed.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme, Conalty said: "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."

She declined to name who else she thought should resign. 

The second most senior figure in the Church of England, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has said he does not think more bishops need to step down. 

He told the "Today" programme: "Those who actively covered this up [should resign], which was not bishops.

"When people speak about the Church of England, we need to remember we are speaking about literally thousands of branches, parishes, chaplaincies."

Asked whether more bishops should resign, Archbishop Cottrell replied: "The Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned."

Pressed on whether he thought this was enough, he said: "Yes, because he has resigned for the institutional failings."

Health Secretary Wes Streeting weighed in, saying that while it was "absolutely the right decision" for Welby to step down, the Church of England should not think "one head rolling solves the problem". 

Saying that he was speaking "as an Anglican, not as a government minister", he told the "Today" programme that there are "deep and fundamental issues of not just practice, but culture on safeguarding that needs to be taken seriously".

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 organiser, 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 "despite the efforts of some individuals to bring the abuse to the attention of authorities, the responses by the Church of England and others were wholly ineffective and amounted to a cover-up".

The report also pointed the finger at Welby for failing to report the abuse to the authorities after becoming aware of it in 2013. 

It said, "From July 2013 the Church of England knew, at the highest level, about the abuse that took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s. John Smyth should have been properly and effectively reported to the police in the UK and to relevant authorities in South Africa. This represented a further missed opportunity to bring him to justice."

There have been calls from survivors for more resignations, with Smyth survivor telling Channel 4 News: "What I think the survivor group would like is more resignations because that means more 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 a detailed disclosure to Lambeth Palace and contacted the relevant diocese in South Africa to alert them to the issue", and that he "did all within my authority as a bishop of the Church of England". He also said it was his understanding that the matter had been reported to UK police. 

He said: "I acknowledge fully that my fault was in not rigorously pursuing Lambeth about that province-to-province communication, and for this I am deeply sorry."