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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has resigned after the independent Makin review discovered that the Church of England covered up sexual abuse by a barrister.
Following calls for his resignation, Welby said the report “exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth”.
According to Welby, he believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow” when he was told in 2013 that Smyth had been reported to the police.
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In a statement, Welby said: ‘Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.
“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024”.
The independent Makin review into John Smyth QC’s abuse of children and young men was published last week.
John Smyth QC is said to have subjected his victims to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks.
The report concluded he might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported it to police a decade ago.
Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and so was “never brought to justice for the abuse”, the review said.
“Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury,” Welby said in a statement on Tuesday.
Pressure had been mounting on Welby in recent days, following an independent review into “sickening abuse” committed by John Smyth, a deceased British lawyer considered the worst serial abuser linked to the Church of England.
The incriminating report, commissioned by the church and released November 7, tracked a “worrying pattern of deference” to Smyth, concluding that “a serious crime was covered up.”
In Welby’s resignation statement, he said the 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,” Welby added. “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.”
In his statement, the archbishop said the “exact timings” of when he officially leaves office were yet to be decided and would be established “once a review of necessary obligations has been completed.” It leaves open the possibility that the archbishop will remain in position over the Christmas period, while the process of finding his successor is expected to take many months. Welby, 68, will turn 70 on January 6, 2026, the retirement age for bishops in the Church of England, which meant he only had a little over a year left in post.
While it is custom for Archbishops of Canterbury to be elevated to the House of Lords, Britain’s upper parliamentary chamber, after they leave office, the circumstances of Welby’s resignation will likely bring opposition against such a move.
