Anglican leader Justin Welby under pressure to resign over abuse of 130 boys

Justin Welby, the leader of the global Anglican communion, is under intense pressure to resign following a damning report which concluded that the Church of England was complicit in covering up a serial abuse case involving 130 boys and young men.

On Monday, November 11, 2014, three members of the General Synod, the Church’s national assembly, initiated a petition demanding that Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, step down in light of the revelations.

The report uncovered that the Church had repeatedly failed to act over the “abhorrent” abuse committed by John Smyth, a lawyer who organised evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s.

Smyth is reported to have assaulted his victims, beginning at his home in southern England after grooming them at the camps.

The report added that Smyth committed similar atrocities in Africa where he abused dozens after relocating to Zimbabwe in 1984 and then to South Africa in 2001.

The extent of the abuse makes the legal practitioner the most prolific known serial abuser associated with the Church.

The findings of the long-awaited independent review held that Welby “could and should” have formally reported the abuse to the authorities in 2013 but didn’t.

Smyth passed on in South Africa in 2018 at age 75, while being investigated by the British police so he never faced any criminal charges.

Welby, the highest-ranking cleric of the Church of England, said last week that 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.

Welby under pressure to resign

The Anglican leader told Britain’s Channel 4 News that he had thought long and hard about resigning but ultimately decided against it.

“If I’d known before 2013 or had grounds for suspicion, that would be a resigning matter then and now. But I didn’t,” Welby told the station.

However, the petition by three members of the General Synod, comprising 483 lay members and clergy, urges the Anglican leader to step down.

The petition 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 remaining as the Archbishop of Canterbury is no longer tenable.”

The petition had attracted nearly 2,000 signatures by Monday morning, while a growing number of priests were speaking out against it.

Giles Fraser, the vicar of St Anne’s Church in southwest London, told BBC Radio on Monday that it was “a terrible situation.”

“I’m afraid he’s lost the confidence of his clergy. He’s lost the confidence of many of his bishops, and his position is completely untenable,” he said.

In another BBC interview on Sunday, Bishop of Stepney Joanne Grenfell declined to support Welby’s continued stay in his role.

“I really appreciate that the archbishop has wholeheartedly apologised for what he could have and should have done differently in 2013,” she said, adding, “I think there’s still an awful lot to do.”