Head of the Church of England resigns from his post

On November 12, 2024, the head of the Church of England, Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, announced his resignation from his post. This happened shortly after the publication of a report, the authors of which criticized the spiritual leader of the Church of England for suppressing information about cases of sexual abuse. This was reported by the media.

According to published data, it is an employee of a Christian organization, John Smyth. An independent team of investigators found that Smythe systematically abused boys and young men by luring them to his home in Winchester. The abuse, according to the investigation, also took place in Zimbabwe and South Africa, where Smythe later moved to. The number of his victims may exceed more than a hundred. Smythe was a well-known lawyer and preacher who often spoke in churches, although he had no clergy rank. He also ran summer camps for young Christians.

One of those who called for Jasin Welby’s resignation was Andrew Morse, a Briton who survived violence at the hands of Smythe in his youth. Morse claims that Welby could have taken steps against his rapist back in 2013, when he first took office as Archbishop of Canterbury, but chose not to act.

After the results of the investigation were made public, several members of the synod initiated the collection of signatures for the archbishop’s resignation. Lambeth Palace (the archbishop’s London residence) responded that the archbishop was appalled by Smythe’s actions and deeply apologized for his own mistakes and omissions, as well as for the crimes, cover-ups, and violence committed by the church as a whole. At the same time, Welby refused to resign, citing a lack of information about crimes committed before 2013.

“Having received the gracious permission of His Majesty the King, I have made

to resignfrom my post,” Justin Welby said, commenting on his resignation.

Earlier, we reported that law enforcement officers in Lviv had taken into custody an attacker who had been sexually abusing his young daughter for years. The pedophile was a Lviv cleric of the OCU.