CRIME: ANGLICAN CHURCH HEAD URGED TO RESIGN OVER ABUSE SCANDAL
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On Monday, the head of the global Anglican communion was under increasing pressure to step down following a damning study that found the Church of England had concealed a case of serial abuse.
In response to the discoveries, three members of the Church’s national legislature, the General Synod, have launched a petition calling for Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to resign.
It concluded that John Smyth, a lawyer who ran evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s, had committed “abhorrent” abuses for which the Church had consistently done nothing.
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After training them at the camps, Smyth is thought to have attacked up to 130 boys and young men at his southern England house, making him the most well-known serial abuser connected to the Church.
Welby “could and should” have formally reported the abuse to authorities in 2013, when he claimed to have first learnt of it, according to the results of the long-awaited independent assessment into the issue.
While being investigated by British authorities, Smyth passed away in South Africa in 2018 at the age of 75. He was never charged with a crime.
Welby, the Church of England’s highest-ranking cleric, said last week he was “deeply sorry that this abuse happened” and that he “had no idea or suspicion of this abuse before 2013” when he became archbishop.
He told Britain’s Channel 4 News that he had considered resigning but decided not to.
“If I’d known before 2013 or had grounds for suspicion, that would be a resigning matter then and now. But I didn’t,” he told the broadcaster.
However, the petition by three members of the General Synod — which comprises 483 lay members and clergy — urges Welby to step down.
It argues that Welby “held a personal and moral responsibility to pursue this further… which he failed to fulfil”.
“Given his role in allowing abuse to continue, we believe that his continuing as the Archbishop of Canterbury is no longer tenable,” it adds.
By Monday morning, it had garnered more than 1,600 signatures, while a growing number of priests were speaking out against him.
Giles Fraser, the vicar of St Anne’s Church in southwest London, told BBC radio on Monday it was “a terrible situation”.
“I’m afraid he’s really lost the confidence of his clergy,” he said.
“He’s lost the confidence of many of his bishops, and his position is completely untenable.”
AFP
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