Head of Anglican Communion resigns over failures in dealing with “abhorrent” abuse case

Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion, resigned 12 November due to failures in dealing with a British abuse case.

“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024,” Archbishop Welby said in a 12 November statement.

Before noon of the day of resignation, more than 11,000 signatures had been gathered in a petition by members of the General Synod, the national assembly of the Church of England, calling for the archbishop to resign.

Pressure for his resignation mounted after an independent inquiry authored by safeguarding specialist Keith Makin was published 7 November by the Church of England, Britain’s established state church, citing “abhorrent” abuse and Archbishop Welby’s failure to report it.

The case over which the archbishop resigned is that of John Smyth, a prominent British lawyer, who, according to the independent report, abused more than 100 boys and young men starting in the 1970s when he was running summer camps as a layman guardian.

Accusations include physical, psychological and sexual abuse. “The abuse at the hands of John Smyth was prolific and abhorrent.

Words cannot adequately describe the horror of what transpired,” stated the independent review into the church’s handling of the Smyth case.

“Many of the victims who took the brave decision to speak to us about what they experienced have carried this abuse silently for more than 40 years.”

Archbishop Welby was a spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide.