Demands for Church of England reform after abuse scandal

A review calls for urgent action to restore trust and confidence

By AFP

Published: Wed 13 Nov 2024, 6:50 PM

Anglican leaders faced pressure on Wednesday to speed up reforms following Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby's resignation over a damning report concluding the Church of England covered up a serial abuse case.

Welby announced his resignation on Tuesday after a chorus of criticism about his role in the decades-spanning scandal, prompted by the release last week of an independent probe's findings.

It concluded that the Church of England — the mother church of Anglicanism — covered up "prolific, brutal and horrific" abuse" by John Smyth, a lawyer who organised evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s.

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The investigation found that Welby "could and should" have formally reported the "traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks" by Smyth to authorities in 2013, when he claims to have first learned of them.

The report follows another review published in February that said the Church "needs to take action urgently to restore trust and confidence in its safeguarding" after other abuse cases emerged.

Bishop of Birkenhead Julie Conalty said on Wednesday that Welby's resignation was "not going to solve the problem" as she demanded "institutional changes".

"Very possibly some other people should go," Conalty told BBC radio, while adding she would not "name names".

"It is frustrating for me because in many ways we have been working really hard at making churches safer places," she said.

"We still have this institutional problem where we are not putting victims and survivors at the centre. In some ways, we are not a safe institution."

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the church's second most senior bishop, said that "people do need to be brought to account" for the cover-up while insisting the recommended reforms were being implemented.

"We are doing what has to be done through our Synodical processes," he added, referring to the General Synod, an assembly of bishops, clergy and laity that meets at least twice a year to debate and decide church laws.

"I'm frustrated... that that takes time but those things are happening," Cottrell said, adding that its next meeting in early 2025 would take up the issues.

Victims of Smyth's abuse have urged further resignations.

Mark Stibbe, a former vicar and author, told Channel 4 News he wanted "more accountability".

"People taking responsibility for having been silent when they should have spoken," he said.

The report into Smyth, led by former social services chief Keith Makin, found that some church officials knew of the abuse claims in the 1980s while those "at the highest level" were aware from mid-2013.

Smyth, who lived in Africa from 1984, died aged 75 in South Africa in 2018 while under investigation by British police and never faced any criminal charges.

The Church of England has been the target of abuse claims in the recent past but not on the same scale as within the Roman Catholic Church.

A 2020 report — part of a wider-ranging independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in various institutions — identified nearly 400 convicted offenders associated with the Church of England from the 1940s until 2018.

Their convictions related to sexual abuse of children.

Richard Scorer, a lawyer for some of Smyth's victims, said that in recent years more cases of sex abuse were emerging from within the Church of England than the Catholic Church.

"That changed probably about a decade ago as cases seemed to start coming through from other churches and particularly the Church of England," he told Times Radio.

"I think the reality now... is that the problem has been probably as big in the Church of England as it has been in the Catholic Church."