A desire for institutional change following the resignation of former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby could mean the appointment of a successor from outside the United Kingdom—though the main priority for the committee tasked with filling the role is likely to be restoring stability to the Church of England, an Anglican scholar says.
Welby—who as Archbishop of Canterbury served as spiritual head of the Anglican Communion and senior bishop of the Church of England—resigned Nov. 12 after an investigation found he failed to inform police upon becoming aware of rampant physical and sexual abuse by the late John Smyth, a prominent lawyer and volunteer at Christian summer camps. As this story was being written in late November, abuse survivors and others were calling for more Church of England leaders, alleged to have known about the abuse and failed to act, to resign.
Christopher Brittain, dean of divinity and professor of Anglican studies at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, says members of the Anglican Communion frustrated with the Church of England may feel emboldened in calling for change, and this may sway to some extent the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), which is responsible for appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“What could be part of the conversation is, ‘Yes, we can see the importance of signalling to the Communion and maybe even to the Church of England that we’re open to change,’ ” Brittain says. He says this could mean the nomination of someone with ethnic origins outside the U.K. or from outside the U.K. altogether.
At the same time, however, the scandal will have left the CNC with a desire to bring some sort of relational and reputational recovery to the Church of England—and this consideration may end up carrying more weight.
“I don’t know if that’s going to be their priority—‘First thing we need to do is save the Communion,’—I suspect that’s not what the commission is going to be focused on,” he says. “They’ll be talking about that. But first thing [they’ll want] to do is bring some order to the Church of England and to the place of the church in the United Kingdom. It’s very rocky right now.”
The case, he says, reveals a failure by the Church of England as an institution to respond adequately to decades of abuse.
Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, reiterated the church’s commitment to safety.
“Our hearts break for the children and young people who were abused by Smyth and further victimized by the lack of meaningful action on the part of the church,” Germond said in a public statement the day of Welby’s resignation.
The acting primate noted that in 2022, Welby visited Canada to listen to residential school survivors and to apologize for the church’s role in abuses that took place at residential schools.
“We mourn that today’s news will add to the pain of survivors, and we hold them in our prayers,” Germond said.
The CNC examines and interviews candidates for Archbishop of Canterbury before putting forward a name to the Prime Minister, who in turn passes on this selection to the King. The commission has 17 voting members, including five representatives from the Anglican Communion outside the Church of England.
U.K. newspaper The Independent reported on Nov. 13 that it was unlikely any candidates for Archbishop of Canterbury would be named until late spring 2025.
The Church of England on Nov. 7 released results of the investigation—led by independent reviewer Keith Makin—into Smyth, who the report said subjected about 30 boys and young men in England and more than 85 in Africa to “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks.” From the 1970s until his death while under investigation in 2018, the report said, Smyth carried out abuse that was “prolific, brutal and horrific.”
The Makin Review found that from July 2013, months after he became Archbishop of Canterbury, Welby knew about the abuse that took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but did not inform U.K. police or authorities in South Africa. Investigators said if Welby had reported Smyth to authorities at this time, many victims would have been spared abuse.
Welby faced calls to resign from victims of Smyth as well as some members of the Church of England’s General Synod, who started a petition calling on Welby to step down because he had “lost the confidence of clergy.”
In his statement of resignation, Welby said when he was informed of Smyth’s abuses in 2013, he was told that police had been notified and he “believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.”
“The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth,” Welby said. “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.”
Precise timing for his departure, he said, would be decided after a review of his obligations in England and the Anglican Communion. In the meantime he planned to follow through on commitments to meet survivors and delegate his other responsibilities.
“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,” Welby said. “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. For nearly twelve years I have struggled to introduce improvements. It is for others to judge what has been done.
