Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Guardian reports:
The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has announced that he will step down after facing mounting pressure to quit over his handling of an abuse scandal.
Pressure on Welby has been intensifying since the publication last week of a damning report on the church’s cover-up of John Smyth’s abuse in the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and later in Zimbabwe and South Africa. About 130 boys are believed to have been victims.
The independent review into the abuse concluded that he might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally reported it to police a decade ago.
The BBC reports:
We can bring you the full statement now from Justin Welby, after he moments ago announced his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury:
“Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.
“The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth. When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.
“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.
“It is my duty to honour my constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.
“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. 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 is/was the primate of the Church of England, Britain’s official state religion and King Charles is its “supreme governor.”
Welby last appeared here in December 2023 when the Church of England agreed to bless same-sex couples, drawing howls of outrage from US evangelicals such as Franklin Graham.
Last year’s move came after a 2020 Church of England edict that sex is only for married heterosexual couples.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigns after report into child abuser associated with Church of England https://t.co/lWnlN0qQSj
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) November 12, 2024