As many readers will know, in the wake of the Makin Report concerning the Church of England’s handling of the horrific abuse by John Smyth, Justin Welby has now resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury. The resignation has come amidst mounting pressure from different wings of the church, including a growing online petition calling for Welby to step down. Welby insisted it was right to stand down now “in the best interests of the Church of England”. So, let me make four comments.
Why now?
My main observation is simply that I do not understand why this issue has suddenly come to a head for Justin Welby. Don’t mishear me here. I understand fully why people believe he ought to resign given what the Makin Report says and his culpability in the handling of matters. What I am surprised by is not that there were growing calls to resign, but that they have only come about as a result of this report.
Let me be as blunt as I can be: the report didn’t really say anything new to my knowledge. The heinous behaviour of John Smyth has been well known and well documented for some time. The Makin Report insistence that it is “very unlikely” that Welby knew absolutely nothing about it and had no inkling of Smyth’s behaviour – whilst recognising he may not have known the full extent of the matter – is similarly not really a new finding. The fact that the Church of England, under Welby’s watch, has botched the handling of the entire matter isn’t really new either. All of this is in the public domain and pretty well known. So, I’m unclear what the need was for a report telling us what even this nonconformist dissenting observer largely already knew nor why only now, in the wake of it, the Archbishop of Canterbury has been pushed to resign?
