Archbishop Justin Welby

Archbishop Justin Welby

News this week of the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury will have been a shock to all Anglicans, as will have been horror that terrible abuse has been perpetrated yet again by a person while acting in the name of the Church as a carer and nurturer of young people.

It was right that the Archbishop resign, but it is wrong that he be the subject of unwarranted and ignorant vitriol and smear, particularly from social media and from some sections of the Church whose beef with the Archbishop has little if anything to do with this matter.

As Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby had ultimate responsibility for all matters of oversight in the Church of England.  To fulfil his obligations, of necessity he had to rely on others. Apparently, knowledge of the dreadful and extensive nature of Smythe’s abuse was made known to the then bishop of Ely in 2013, the year Justin Welby became Archbishop. Apparently, that bishop passed the information informally to the police and wrote a letter conveying concern to the Diocese of Cape Town where Smythe was then residing.  Information of this action was conveyed to the Archbishop’s episcopal chaplain, appointed to first deal with these matters for the Archbishop, and then to the Archbishop himself.  Wrongly, as later revealed, the Archbishop came to the conclusion, protocol had been followed, appropriate authorities had been informed. The Church’s protocol required the matter be left with the police to make their enquiry.  In reality, the then bishop of Ely had not formally reported the matter to the police, as he thought, and consequently no enquiry was being made by them. The Archbishop’s guilt lies in that he did not initiate enquiry as to the matter having been followed up. He has not used his undoubted impossible workload as an excuse.

No suggestion has been made that the Church, least of all the archbishop was attempting a cover up.

The Archbishop’s resignation, is a standard seldom followed in public life in Britain, or in Australia.  He has taken full responsibility and not sought to make others responsible.  Would that this standard was the norm in industry and commerce and particularly in political life.

Now 68, the Archbishop worked in the oil industry until 1989 when he began study for the priesthood.  He was ordained in 1992.  Since then, he has had a meteoric rise, first becoming Bishop of Durham and then Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013.

Conscious of the biblical injunction that a house divided against itself falls, the Archbishop’s 12 years in office have been spent attempting to hold the unity of the Anglican Communion as his major priority.  Afraid to offend, the consequence has inevitably been less clarity in leadership that many, including me, would have liked. It would have been bitterly disappointing to him that many bishops within the evangelical faction of the Church refused to join him at the 2023 Lambeth Conference.  Presumably it would have been someone identifying with this faction who posted on social media their hope that the next Archbishop of Canterbury would be a Christian.

I have not personally been happy with everything the Archbishop has said, or has refrained from saying.  It took him a long time to appropriately condemn Israeli abuses of civilians in Gaza. He has not had the presence of a Temple, Ramsey, Williams, or even a Coggan. However, he is transparently a very good man who has sought to fulfil the Micah challenge: to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.
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Those unable to accept this challenge, as he has done, accuse him of “wokeness”, a word spat with increasing vehemence by supporters of Donald Trump. If it is a word of derision made by those who obviously find Christ-likeness distasteful, it should be worn as a badge of honour.

As the Archbishop with his wife and children step into a less public world he deserves to be remembered as a man of deep faith and courage, referenced in the future through his life of outstanding witness and service and not by the manner of his departure.