Church of England head Justin Welby resigns over handling of sex abuse scandal
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Justin Welby, the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, has resigned after an investigation found that he failed to inform police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.
Pressure had been building on the Archbishop of Canterbury after release of the finding stirred anger about a lack of accountability at the highest echelon of the church.
Some members of the General Synod, the church’s national assembly, started a petition calling for Welby to step down, saying he had “lost the confidence of his clergy.”
But in his resignation letter, Welby said he must take “personal and institutional responsibility” for lack of action on the “heinous abuses”.
“The last few days have renewed my long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England,” Welby said in a statement.
“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church. As I step down, I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse”, he added.
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Meanwhile, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the Church’s second-ranking cleric, called Welby’s resignation “the right and honourable thing to do”.
Welby’s tenure covered a decade of major upheaval in which he was forced to navigate rows over homosexual rights and women clerics between liberal churches, mostly in North America and Britain, and their conservative counterparts, especially in Africa.
The Anglican churches in African countries such as Uganda and Nigeria are likely to welcome Welby’s resignation, after saying last year they no longer had confidence in him.
