Welby should resign over abuse scandal, says bishop

Archbishop of Canterbury has lost confidence of his clergy’

- TOM WATLING & TARA COBHAM

A senior bishop has called for Justin Welby to resign as the Archbishop of Canterbury following a damning report into a barrister who is thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church.

Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley described Dr Welby’s position as “untenable” and claimed that the Church was in danger of “losing complete credibility”. “I think, rightly, people are asking the question ‘Can we really trust the Church of England to keep us safe?’ And I think the answer at the moment is ‘No,’” she told the BBC.

The Rt Rev Hartley, one of the 21 bishops who sit in the House of Lords as lords spiritual, added that Dr Welby’s resignation would amount to a “very clear indication that a line has been drawn, and that we must move towards independence of safeguarding”.

The bishop subsequently condemned the “coercive” language of a letter she released on social media on Monday, which she said had been sent to her by Dr Welby and the Archbishop of York just days before the report was published.

The letter – which appears to relate to her suspension of the former Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, from active ministry in the diocese of Newcastle over a previous Church safeguarding review – reads: “We would very much like to see a resolution to this situation which enables Sentamu to return to ministry.”

In her post on X, formerly Twitter, the Rt Rev Hartley criticised the letter, saying that it signifies “a wider and systemic dysfunction of how the hierarchy of the Church of England has dealt with matters of safeguarding and most particularly the impact of church-related abuse on victims and survivors”.