Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigns in abuse fallout: All to know

The archbishop of Canterbury has resigned after an investigation found that he failed to pursue an investigation into allegations of serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer associated with the Church of England at Christian summer camps.

Justin Welby, 68, resigned on Tuesday, five days after the independent Makin Report singled him out for criticism over his handling of abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s.

Here is what you need to know:

Who is Justin Welby, and why did he resign?

Welby announced his resignation “in sorrow”, taking “personal and institutional responsibility” for a lack of action on the “heinous abuses” allegedly committed by the late John Smyth, a volunteer at Christian summer camps decades ago.

“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.

Educated at Britain’s most prestigious private school, Eton, Welby worked in the oil industry for more than a decade before being ordained in 1992. He was made the senior prelate of the Church of England in 2013.

Welby was an outspoken spiritual leader of the global Anglican community who grappled publicly with issues ranging from same-sex marriage to Britain’s immigration policy, Israel’s war in Gaza, slavery reparations, climate change and his own mental health problems.

Pope Francis, left, speaks with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby during a service to commemorate the Christian conversion of St Paul in the Basilica of St Paul Outside The Walls in Rome on January 25, 2024 [Filippo Monteforte/AFP]

Who was John Smyth, and what was he accused of?

Smyth was an evangelical, Canadian-born, British barrister who held leadership roles in a charity called the Iwerne Trust, which ran Christian camps in England and Wales.

Initial details of Smyth’s physical abuse of schoolboys who had attended the camps during the 1970s and 1980s emerged in a 1982 report by the charity.

Smyth was reported to have brought pupils from prestigious public schools in England, including Winchester College, to his home, where he lashed them with a cane in his shed.

The case was not reported to the police by the trust, the church or the schools whose pupils were subjected to abuse.

Instead, Smyth moved to Zimbabwe, where he set up the Zambesi Ministries, which ran similar Christian camps for schoolboys.

In 1992 after facing charges of killing a teenage boy who was found dead in a swimming pool, Smyth moved to Cape Town, South Africa.

In 2013, a victim reported abuse by Smyth to the Church of England, which in turn reported the allegations to the police, but an investigation was not initiated.

The 1982 Iwerne Trust report was made public in 2016, prompting an investigation by Channel 4 News in 2017.

Smyth died the next year in Cape Town at the age of 77.

In total, he has been held responsible for the violent abuse of at least 115 children and young men in England, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The report said Smyth had subjected boys and young men to “brutal and horrific” physical and sexual abuse over a 40-year period.

Smyth beat some victims with up to 800 strokes of a cane and supplied nappies to absorb the bleeding, the report said.

He would then drape himself over his victims, sometimes kissing them on the neck or back.

Welby said he had “no idea or suspicion” of the allegations before 2013, but the independent report concluded it was unlikely he would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding Smyth in the 1980s.

Who could succeed Welby?

Under the church’s rules, the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) is a body of clerics that manages the choice of Welby’s successor.

It submits the name of a preferred and an alternative candidate to the United Kingdom’s prime minister, who then advises the monarch on the appointment.

It is too early to tell who the CNC will select as Welby’s successor, but there are some likely candidates.

Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York and the second most senior bishop of the Church of England, will be in the running.

Cottrell released a statement after Welby’s resignation, saying it was “the right and honourable thing to do”.

A former chief nursing officer in the Department of Health and current bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, could also be in the running. She is the third most senior bishop in the Church of England.

Sarah Mullally, the first female bishop of London, at St Paul’s Cathedral in London [File: Isabel Infantes/Reuters]

The bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, has been vocal in calling for Welby to step down, which could make her a possible candidate as the Church of England looks to distance itself from the scandal.

She has also recently come out as saying she has experienced “coercive language” from Welby and Cottrell in the past.

Martyn Snow, the bishop of Leicester; Graham Usher, the bishop of Norwich; and Guli Francis-Dehqani, the bishop of Chelmsford, have all also been tipped to succeed Welby.

Snow abstained in a church assembly vote on blessings for gay couples while Usher is in favour of gay rights.

Francis-Dehqani was born in Iran and has spoken about how her brother was killed in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.

If a woman is chosen archbishop of Canterbury, she would be the first to occupy the post.

Has the church faced other abuse allegations in the past?

Welby’s resignation comes against the backdrop of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England.

A 2022 report by the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse found that deference to the authority of priests, taboos surrounding the discussion of sexuality and a culture that gave more support to alleged perpetrators than their victims helped make the Church of England “a place where abusers could hide”.