Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, resigned on Monday, November 12 after coverups of sexual abuse scandals resurfaced. A petition with more than 8,000 signatures organized by the Church’s parliament called for the resignation of the Archbishop. Welby served as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury since 2013, ending his 11-year-long tenure. An investigation found that Welby failed to report to the police regarding a volunteer’s consistent sexual and physical abuse occurring at summer camps perpetrated by recently deceased John Smyth, in Africa and the U.K. overseen by the Church of England.
According to AP News, The Church of England released a report on November 7, 2024, regarding John Smyth, an attorney who “sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 boys and young men in the United Kingdom and 85 in Africa from the 1970s until his death in 2018.”
Sky News reports that Smyth ran Christian summer camps between the 1970s and 1980s through the Irwene Trust, which organized summer camps for young Christians. Sky News writes that the first allegations that were released regarding Smythe happened in 1982 when the Irwene Trust reported: “‘horrific’ beatings of boys and young men that left some of them bleeding.” The Makin Report then reported that church officials were now aware of the severity of the abuse, but “participated in an active cover-up” to prevent the situation from coming to light. Smythe set up camps in Zimbabwe and was arrested in 1997 after the death of a 16-year-old boy, but the case was dropped. U.K. police opened an investigation into Smythe’s abuse in 2017, but he died shortly after aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018.
Victim Andrew Morse in an interview with Sky News recounted the awful abuse he endured under the hands of Smythe: “Over a number of years he groomed me,” adding, “he introduced sadistic beatings when I was an older teenager and through my university days up to a point when I made an attempt on my life to stop the abuse.” Moreover, Morse spoke about the physical aspect of abuse, saying Smythe would beat him with a cane. When asked about how the serial abuse impacted him, Morse said, “I have struggled with PTSD and mental health problems.”
With the resignation of Welby, even more pressure has been put on the Church of England, with demands for accountability being echoed worldwide. Many are calling for the resignation of Bishops Stephen Conway, Jo Bailey Wells, Thabo Makgoba, and Martin Steely, with the Makin Review reporting that all of them had prior knowledge of John Smyth’s serial abuse before more allegations were brought to light in 2017. When speaking about Bishop Conway, Andrew Morse shared his thoughts with Telegraph UK: “Conway should resign for obstructing the Smyth victims in our long road to justice.” He added, “I cannot see how someone so closely associated with the problem can be part of any solution.”
This long line of sexual abuse was spoken about in 2020 when AP News wrote that a report made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found that more than 390 clergymen from the Church of England spanning from the 1940s to 2018 were convicted of sexual abuse against children. The report cited the case of Reverend Ian Hughes who in 2014 downloaded 8,000 inappropriate images of children. During this time, the chairwoman of the IICSA said to AP News, “Over many decades, the Church of England failed to protect children and young people from sexual abusers, instead facilitating a culture where perpetrators could hide and victims faced barriers to disclosure that many could not overcome.”
Serial abuse in the church has not only been present in England, but worldwide. One instance was shown in the Catholic Church spanning way back in 2002. The Boston Globe released a lengthy exposé on Boston priest John J. Geoghan, who “allegedly fondled or raped them during a three-decade spree through a half-dozen Greater Boston parishes.” Geoghan was accused of molesting more than 130 boys. The Globe also added that one of the victims was just 4-years-old. Despite his serial abuse, the church simply moved to different parishes without taking action to protect victims of abuse.
Keith Makin, who led the Makin Report regarding Smythe’s abuse, told AP that “Many of the victims who took the brave decision to speak to us about what they experienced have carried this abuse silently for more than 40 years.” He added on by revealing how church officials were ignorant: “Despite the efforts of some individuals to bring the abuse to the attention of authorities, the responses by the Church of England and others were wholly ineffective and amounted to a coverup.”
Long lines of sexual abuse have been exposed in the Church of England throughout many years, with a lack of accountability leading officials to resign or deflect amidst allegations. Many victims post-abuse deal with severe mental trauma caused by the ignorance of the Church, and one can hope that despite decades of abuse, the Church of England, but also churches all around the world will take decisive action to prevent young adolescents and children from such abuse, but also, if such abuse does happen, hold abusers accountable and not cover-up their wrongdoings.
