LONDON — This Morning presenter Sian Welby has opened up about the emotional pressure she faced while keeping her pregnancy a secret from ITV bosses, fearing that the news might cost her the job she had only just begun. Welby, 38, who gave birth to daughter Ruby in June 2023 with her fiancé, Heart Breakfast producer Jake Beckett, shared her experience on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast with Giovanna Fletcher. She revealed that she was already 20 weeks pregnant when she started guest-hosting This Morning alongside Dermot O’Leary — but told no one at the time. “When you first start a new job, especially in TV, you feel like you’ve got to prove yourself,” Welby said. “I didn’t want them to think I was going to be unavailable or unreliable because I was pregnant.” Welby admitted she kept the pregnancy hidden from colleagues, including O’Leary and the wider This Morning team, as she worried it might “put them off” bringing her back. “There’s this underlying fear, especially for women starting a new job, that you’ll be judged, or worse — dropped.” The presenter recalled moments when hiding the pregnancy became difficult — particularly during wardrobe fittings. “You can’t breathe in a baby bump,” she said, laughing about a shoot where she struggled to fit into a pair of gold trousers. “I looked like Humpty Dumpty.” It was during that photoshoot that Welby had her breaking point. Fighting back tears, she confessed to the stylist — a stranger at the time — that she was pregnant. “I cracked,” she said. “She was the first person I told outside my circle, and thankfully, she was lovely about it.” Welby eventually went public with her pregnancy live on Capital Breakfast, joking about all the “mocktails and deceit” she used to hide it. The moment marked a turning point for her, both personally and professionally. Since then, she’s become a regular face on This Morning, covering showbiz news and stepping in for main presenters when needed. She’s now part of the rotating team with Ben Shephard, Cat Deeley, Alison Hammond, Rochelle Humes, and Craig Doyle. In addition to her ITV role, Welby continues to co-host Capital’s Breakfast Show alongside Jordan North and Chris Stark. Welby’s candid confession shines a light on the pressure many working women feel during pregnancy, especially when entering new roles. “It’s so natural, yet we feel so guilty for it,” she said. Her vulnerability and honesty are resonating with viewers and listeners alike — proving once again why she’s become one of the most relatable and respected voices on British television. Writing exclusively for The Independent, former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby recalls his meetings with Pope Francis – and reveals how he received a surprise call moments after he was forced to resign in November I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice I will never forget the first time I met the Pope in 2013 I had never met a Pope before and was on edge The Vatican is designed to overwhelm visitors with power We walk through long corridors to his office a man in an exquisitely tailored tailcoat leading us; Swiss Guards in their full uniforms salute as we pass The wall paintings are beyond description; you could do a Renaissance art course just in the rooms we go through The others are ushered out and we sit either side of a desk I feel a sense of disappointment: I did not think he was like that He interrupts, smiling, “by three days”. He was inaugurated that much before me: in March, earlier that year. We both laugh and there are the beginnings of a friendship The second standout time I remember with the Pope is around 2016 – in a small room in the modern block of flats in Rome where the Pope has lived since his election. of the work of God’s Spirit in a world of war I listen to his wisdom on how to lead a global church I nervously ask if he would do a recorded message for an event in Trafalgar Square a couple of months later before anyone tries to stop me!” He delivers a fluent and off the cuff message about the work of the Holy Spirit of God The third fond memory is of a roasting hot evening in 2023 I am at a vast stadium and gathering place in Juba South Sudan; the crowd stretches to the horizon On the stage are three chairs. In the centre, the white clad figure of the Pope. To his right sits the moderator of the Church of Scotland It is the Pilgrimage of Peace: we each address the crowd and each speak directly to different people The president and cabinet are sitting in the front row No punches are pulled. The Pope challenges corruption He turns to the women in the crowd and tells them of God’s love for them in their agony of war He speaks of the need for a government that loves a flight of cranes flies over our heads towards the setting sun It is the universal pastor of Christians speaking God’s call to a government that seems unwilling to listen in the hearing of the people for whom they are meant to care How many times did we meet? I am not sure, but many. We last spoke when he rang after the announcement of my resignation last November This was typical of the man who was, above all, a pastor. Every day, he used to ring a designated telephone number to talk to the congregation of a bombed out monastery in northern Gaza It was always his instinct to connect and to comfort The last time I saw him in person was in St Peter’s Square the great basilica behind us as he convened a meeting of Christian leaders – from Orthodox to Pentecostal and all between We knelt in silent and united prayer before an ikon of the Jesus’ crucifixion the crowd behind us also silent as the sun shone down from a cloudless sky It was probably the most varied and largest gathering of church leaders since the reformation but by love and it was in mutual love that for a moment such a large part of the more than 2bn Christians were represented together before Jesus Christ in seeking God Francis was someone who made people want to know God – and God’s love – as he did He was supremely relational – regardless of status – and he lived out his call for the shepherd to be close to the sheep in Luke’s gospel – that revolutionary hymn to the reversal of power so Francis obeyed – calling on the powerful to serve He was a supreme master of symbolic actions that preached a sermon instantly In 2019, at his request, the leaders of government and rebels in South Sudan gathered for a 36 hour retreat at the Vatican. Once again the then moderator of the Church of Scotland and I worked with the Curia and co-led the event he spoke on the witness and call of Christ – superbly walked round to the South Sudanese leaders – the towering Dinka and Nuer included – and knelt to kiss their shoes Their choice as to what to do – and they have yet to act as they should – was squarely before them The symbol spoke in tones of absolute authority; through it the voice of God was saying So, what now? God’s universal, fractured and suffering church is so much greater than any Pope (let alone Archbishop) As I found even in the small corner that is Anglicanism around the world centuries of history and a global presence bring a complexity – which means that even Roman Catholicism is an organism It can be frustrating – I saw and heard his frustration. To the outside observer, little may seem to change. It will be decades before we see whether the things Francis did bear fruit. The next Pope may well be from Asia or Africa, with a deep conservatism on issues we consider in the UK to be so obvious they need no discussion But they will also find that bending the attitudes of 1.2bn Catholics to a single agenda is unthinkable. They come from every country on earth and speak every tongue under heaven His call is to love God and love people – and through his universal primacy to enable Catholics first (and all others also) to love God in Christ and to love people That is his legacy: to be a Pope of love, serving the God of love, who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, like Jesus Christ. That love was returned – and it is that love that God’s church is called to sow, nurture and see from it a harves, in God’s time. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies govt and politics"},{"score":0.616362,"label":"/society/social institution/divorce"},{"score":0.610453,"label":"/law extraordinarily empathetic: The Pope I knew supported me even at my lowest hour","description":"Writing exclusively for The Independent former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby recalls his meetings with Pope Francis – and reveals how he received a surprise call moments after he was forced to resign in November I negotiated a guest editorship of the New Statesman for Dr Rowan Williams We commissioned coalition ministers such as Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague and a piece from Gordon Brown on youth unemployment It was a reasoned and reasonable piece on the shifting tectonic plates of British politics which in passing noted that “Government badly needs to hear just how much plain fear there is” around issues such as child poverty access to education and sustainable infrastructure in poorer communities It was the line I lifted for the headline: “The government needs to know how afraid people are” And I showed the page proof to a colleague who looked after the archbishop’s parliamentary affairs I asked simply what would happen when we published Lambeth Palace would lose the government front bench and there would be real anger on the Conservative backbenches that the archbishop had said something unsayable My friend was even more right than I expected by many Conservative parliamentarians who clearly had not read the piece beyond a glance at the headline Williams was ostracised by the Conservative Party It turned out to have been what Sir Humphrey Appleby would call “a very brave thing to do” Dr Williams wrote to me afterwards to say that it had been a more than worthwhile exercise and had achieved what we’d intended The point I want to make is that we knew what we were doing and why we were doing it We were ready for the quite predictable lines of attack and had answers to them We had also made the archbishop’s critics look silly Compare and contrast that with Dr Williams’ successor Justin Welby’s interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg last Sunday which has been widely denounced as yet another exercise in self-exculpation despite Welby’s repeated assertions that he is “deeply ashamed” and “sorry” that he “got it wrong” in failing to respond actively enough to church volunteer John Smyth’s serial child abuse failings that led to Welby’s almost unprecedented resignation The very first question anyone should have asked him as he considered going on the BBC is: What do you want to get out of this We can only speculate on what his answer that might have been A journalist friend who knows him a bit said he looked “deflated” only making eye contact with Kuenssberg when he had to However much he repeated that it was all his fault rather than focussing exclusively on those countless real victims of Smyth Read it all at A Word to the Wise George Pitcher is a visiting fellow at the LSE and an Anglican priest This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Premier Christianity uses cookies Read our cookie policy By George Pitcher2025-04-04T13:17:00+01:00 Perhaps the former Archbishop of Canterbury intended to convey remorse and accountability in his conversation with Laura Kuenssberg Lambeth Palace would lose the government front bench and there would be real anger on the Conservative backbenches that the Archbishop had said something unsayable Williams was ostracised by the Conservative Party. had given voice to “ordinary” people and spoken with a prophetic voice We can only speculate in what his answer that might have been rather than focussing exclusively on those countless victims of Smyth wearing clericals and a pectoral cross of office but an open-necked blue shirt and business suit I don’t for a moment think he has any kind of messianic complex but the impression nevertheless is extended of ecce uomo But, again, why? No one has demanded his public presence again. He could have slipped quietly into the obscurity of retirement. By his own admission, he had already made a truly dreadful valedictory speech in the House of Lords, in which he joked about the situation in which so many people had suffered through his professional neglect. He could have used the interview to say what was wrong with the management structures of the Church and what needs to be done to put them right Presumably that circumstance won’t be improved when a successor is appointed to his place There are times to invite censure and opprobrium from your critics as the New Statesman venture of 14 years ago demonstrated Whoever is doing the job I once did should have said softly but firmly: “You’ll get nothing out of this Offering a gift of the book Have You Ever Wondered By Andy Bannister and Gavin Matthews for the first 100 subscribers Our exclusive May offer for Premier Christianity gives you 12 months of the magazine for £39.99 Delve into thought-provoking content from the UK's leading Christian magazine Begin your enriching journey with us today This offer is only running for a limited time *Offer applies in UK only, but check here for our overseas offers The position of Archbishop of Canterbury has been vacant since January 2025 Who will be the person to guide the Church of England through what has been a volatile era of polarisation yet spiritual awakening amongst the youth and renewal in the UK Here are seven prospective candidates From mass baptisms to churches being so full they had to turn people away, the number of good news stories from the Easter weekend have exceeded many people’s expectations We round up the most encouraging stories following what appears to be an unprecedented weekend for many churches Add your own stories in the comments section below biblical culture around the powerful gift of prophecy David Shadbolt shares wisdom on guarding against the manipulation it’s vulnerable to An independent report has said the prominent Christian apologist Dr Michael Brown engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct” yet those who commissioned the report have cleared him to return to ministry We must not confuse forgiveness with re-admittance to leadership - it’s re-traumatising for victims and unsafe for the Church, argues Gavin Drake and led record labels — all on his way to becoming a household name in the Christian world T.D Jakes is stepping down — but he isn’t stepping away On the day his club lifted the Premier League trophy Cody Gakpo revealed a shirt reading “I belong to Jesus.” For professional footballer John Bostock it was a powerful reminder: your faith is to be shared — whatever your platform Site powered by Webvision Cloud Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker This Morning star Sian Welby has opened up about hiding her pregnancy from ITV bosses On the latest episode of Giovanna Fletcher's Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast who welcomed her daughter Ruby with her fiancé Jake Beckett in June 2024 shared the reason for hiding her pregnancy you think ‘nobody knows what I'm actually like that I'm trustworthy,’ and you have to prove yourself.” When I got that first This Morning cover with Dermot I knew I was pregnant but I didn't tell anyone.” She further revealed that neither her co-host Dermot O'Leary nor any of the team members knew about it the presenter had only shared the news with her friends and family and was awaiting her 20-week scan will this put them off getting me in again?’ And will they think especially if they are starting a new one they must think ‘I have just got this new job and I can't tell them that I'm pregnant.’ It's the fear that you're going to be immediately judged or dropped or they'll go ‘Oh why you didn't tell us because that is really inconvenient for us now.’” “You feel like that; you're like this is so natural and normal why and I feeling so bad of it and so bad about it?’” she said Welby recalled her struggle of getting some trousers on during the fit check for the show but she somehow managed to hide her baby bump with 'quite forgiving' outfits “It was stressful because I still hadn't publicly said anything Please email comments to letters@livingchurch.org The 105th Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed his willingness to forgive layman and barrister John Smyth the accused serial child-beater whose actions led to the archbishop’s resignation Former Archbishop Justin Welby mentioned forgiveness in response to a question on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg program He was quick to emphasize that his forgiveness was not important compared to that of Smyth’s victims and that he has never told such victims they must forgive Smyth ‘You must forgive,’ because that is their sovereign but to demand forgiveness is to abuse again.” The interview was another instance of Welby’s ambivalent actions since the Smyth scandal ended his tenure sooner than he had planned He appeared on one of England’s more popular programs to say he wishes to fade into “total obscurity.” He responded testily when Kuenssberg questioned his assertion that he knew nothing of Smyth’s behavior before 2013: “You can believe it or not Welby said he remains deeply ashamed of the jocular remarks he made in the House of Lords at the time of his resignation “It was entirely wrong and entirely inexcusable,” he said I shouldn’t have given a valedictory speech at all.” Welby was mostly unguarded during the interview He wore a blue shirt without a clerical collar and stressed that whether he will continue his ministry of mediation and reconciliation is a decision for the Church of England The interview led to critical remarks by longtime religion journalist Damian Thompson of The Spectator, who interviewed the Rev. Fergus Butler-Gallie, vicar of St. Marys and All Saints in Charlbury and editor at large of The Fence magazine Both Thompson and Butler-Gallie described Welby as “tin-eared,” both in the interview and throughout his tenure “I’m not sure another interview by the archbishop is what was required,” Butler-Gallie said “I think a period of repentance and reflection a period of perhaps more meaningful engagement with those victims who do still feel very aggrieved would have been a more effective way of safeguarding his legacy if that’s indeed what we was intending to do.” Thompson said Welby was slow to meet with Smyth’s victims Celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Raj Persaud, a contributor to the Daily Express, discussed the Welby interview in a YouTube video Persaud challenged the notion that forgiveness can lead to greater healing “I’m not sure it is at all clear that forgiveness is the right route to go down.” Persaud said that Welby’s repeated reference to being guided by the police’s advice was an excuse for inaction Douglas LeBlanc is the Associate Editor for Book Reviews and writes about Christianity and culture The Primate of the Anglican Church since 2013 announced his resignation in November 2024 after a report denouncing his silence over a large-scale sexual scandal On March 30, the BBC broadcasted an interview with Archbishop Justin Welby, the former head of the Anglican Church. In November 2024, he had announced his resignation from his role. His decision to resign was taken after the release of an independent report that revealed the Anglican Church's poor handling of a case involving a layman who had committed sexual assaults on more than 130 children and young men over more than 40 years. The abuser, John Smyth, a lawyer linked to the Church of England, died in 2018 in South Africa without ever having been troubled. Yet the report accused Welby – who was also the primate of 85 million Anglicans around the world – of not having reported these facts to the authorities in 2013, even though he became aware of them then. His resignation took effect on January 6, 2025. “It was overwhelming; we were trying to establish priorities, but I think it was easy to be on the defensive,” he continued, adding that he was “wrong.” And, he added, “As archbishop, there can be no excuses.” On the part of Welby, a broader analysis is added to his words spoken without evasion or ambiguity. During the interview, he estimated that there was sometimes a “rush” to judge the heads of institutions caught in the whirlwind of a scandal. “There is a lack of forgiveness; we do not treat our leaders as human beings,” he lamented, stating that “we expect them to be perfect.” “If you want perfect leaders, you will not have leaders,” he said. The abuse scandal caused shock in the United Kingdom and led to many calls to deeply reform the Church of England, whose supreme head is the British monarch. In February 2025, the team in charge of protection and safeguarding policy within the church published the names of ten other clergy members against whom it will “seek to initiate disciplinary procedures” in connection with this case. Among them is Archbishop George Carey, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury between 1991 and 2002, who was, according to this team, aware of Smyth’s actions and had received a copy of a report on the subject, which he “denies having seen.” The 89-year-old man gave up being a priest in December 2024, after the publication of another investigation accusing him of not having passed on to the police accusations of sexual assault targeting a bishop at the time when he was head of the institution. About 30 other members of the Church of England, mother church of the “Anglican Communion,” will not be subject to disciplinary measures due to “insufficient evidence,” the team indicated. The Church of England has about 20 million baptized faithful, but the number of regular worshipers is estimated at just under one million, according to 2022 figures. After Welby's resignation, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York, the second-highest dignitary of the church, aged 66, temporarily took over leadership of the institution. King Charles III will designate the future head of the Church of England at the end of a long selection process led by a former head of the internal security service, MI5. According to British media, his name will not be known before the autumn. The Independent's journalism is supported by our readers When you purchase through links on our site TV presenter was 20 weeks pregnant when she started doing co-host slots on the show TV presenter Sian Welby has admitted she was scared she would lose her job at This Morning if she told them she was pregnant before she started The mother of one, 38, welcomed her nine-month-old daughter Ruby with her fiancé Welby has now revealed that she was 20 weeks pregnant when she started co-hosting This Morning alongside Dermot O'Leary and kept her pregnancy a secret because she felt she had “something to prove” Speaking in the latest episode of Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast you think ‘Nobody knows what I'm actually like that I'm trustworthy’ and you have to prove yourself I knew I was pregnant but I didn’t tell anyone.” The presenter explained that she didn’t tell O'Leary or the This Morning team and had only informed friends and family ahead of her 20-week scan I was thinking ‘If I tell them I'm pregnant will this put them off getting me in again?’ And will they think ‘Oh she’s gonna be off for ages?’” “I am sure so many women must feel in any job they must think ‘I have just got this new job and I can't tell them that I'm pregnant’.” “It’s the fear that you're going to be immediately judged or dropped or they'll go ‘Oh why you didn’t tell us because that is really inconvenient for us now.’” If you sign up to this service we will earn commission This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent this is so natural and normal why and I feeling so bad of it and so bad about it?” Welby said she found it difficult to keep it hidden at work especially during fittings with stylists while she was 20 weeks pregnant She remembered doing a fitting for a photoshoot for a newspaper and realising “you can’t breathe in a baby bump” “It was a new stylist… I didn’t know anybody and I was just about getting away with it because I hadn’t popped out at that point yet she remembered the stylists gave her a pair of gold trousers to put on said that she didn’t want to upset the stylist but ended up blurting out that she was pregnant in an emotional moment She “ended up cracking” two hours into the shoot and said to the stylist: “This is a massive overshare because I don’t want you to think I don’t think you’ve done a good job – and I’m pregnant.” “This poor woman was the first stranger I told,” she said “We went through the clothes and found stuff and she was lovely.” Welby announced her pregnancy live on air on Capital Breakfast jokingly recalling the lengths she went to to hide her pregnancy The stress I’ve gone through trying to pretend not to be drinking,” she said After impressing the This Morning team co-hosting alongside O’Leary in January last year, Welby is now part of the weekly set-up alongside main hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley, plus Alison Hammond, Rochelle Humes and Craig Doyle. She presents a regular showbiz slot as well as covering when other presenters are away. Alongside her role on This Morning, Welby hosts Capital’s Breakfast show with Jordan North and Chris Stark. Here I am, a common peasant, pulling on me northern clogs. My intent is to have a game of footie with the decapitated head of an Archbishop. Well, it was his idea. I had no religious upbringing. My father was an ardent atheist. I came from a working class family. Dad was a foundry worker, we lived just outside of Stockport and we were poor. I did not do well at school – today they would call it dysgraphia with associated learning issues, but in those days I was messy and untidy and found it difficult to engage with lessons. My teenage years, were on the whole, not good at all, and I was certainly “going off the rails”. Faith came to me in 1972 at the age of 16. It was a deeply personal conversion experience. There were no rallies or hype, just God showing himself to me in a bedroom I shared with two brothers. Unfortunately, my experience of Anglican Evangelicalism, in the centre of Cambridge, was totally different from that of Cheadle. Unless you were, well connected, public school, Oxbridge, a member of the “posh boys” circle, you were nothing. I tried hard, but found it impossible to make friends within that atmosphere of social exclusivity. Compared to the embrace of Cheadle, this felt like an upper crust cult. It was a “closed shop” rather than an all-embracing church. For Ruston, I was good only for menial tasks and even then, not to his satisfaction. The Canon was quite the perfectionist, and I was, confessedly, messy. Also sharing the lodging, was a certain Justin Welby, a student at the University. I got to know him, a little, but a significant “little”. We all ate breakfast together and the breakfast table had to be laid “just so” special spoons and knives for this, that and the other, porridge prepared in a particular way, and I was responsible for this. A nightmare every morning, as almost inevitably, despite my best efforts, something was always not quite as it should have been, and I was roundly told so. I remember all these things very well indeed, they made quite an impression on me. The breakfasts were occasionally attended by evangelical grandees, most of them of the “posh boys” circle. Justin was promoted by Ruston to his buddies. These were heavyweights who would support and encourage him in his ministry, an influential network, who would help him rise to dizzying heights. There was a sense of gravity in Ruston’s instruction and the conversation took place in Ruston’s study with the door firmly closed. Normally Ruston, seeing people would leave the door ajar. (Well, you would not want to be accused of doing something inappropriate would you?) The door being closed sent me a clear signal, this was serious, whatever it might be. As far as inappropriate was concerned, Ruston played a straight bat. Anything sexually off-colour would have been utterly detestable to him. How that competed though, with the reputational damage that could rebound onto the Iwerne camps, and the project to promote and place evangelical men from “the right backgrounds”, in positions of power, authority and influence is another question and something Makin rightly explored and exposed. I am absolutely sure Welby, as a student, knew in 1978 that there was a problem with Smyth. I have no doubt that Ruston was alerted to such issues by those at dormitory level like his trusted servant and future candidate for leadership, (a young man he treated like the son he never had), Justin Welby. For Welby not to remember this occasion (as he testified to Makin) is very convenient and disingenuous, but sadly, not a surprise to me. You see my experience of Welby, was that he could not bear the consequences of his actions. When things went wrong at 37 Jesus Lane, guess who perpetually “copped” for it and received the tongue lashing from Ruston? Yes, indeed, your truly. Ruston would blame me for doors being left unlocked at night amongst a multitude of other things. I’ll give you no prizes for guessing who the real culprit was. Later on in Derby Diocese I spoke with the former Bishop of Derby, the good Bishop Alastair Redfern, that I had lived with Welby for a year and shared daily breakfasts with him and Ruston. Apparently, according to him, Welby did not remember me. When I met Justin subsequently after an event at The Round House in Derby, (where he spoke, June 2016 ) he completely blanked me. There was no warm greeting or recognition of the time we had shared. It made me wonder, what had gone on in the Archbishop’s experience to delete this and me from his memory? On the other hand, it could have just been the old Justin, acting as he had done as a student, unable to bear the consequences of his actions. It is curious just how much eludes the memories of Bishops and Archbishops at the most convenient of occasions. For sure, it was a year that made an impression on me. It taught me lot about the public school evangelical sect, and their values, even though I did not know even half of what was really going on, unlike other key people in the story. Why is Welby not on the sticky end of a Clergy Disciplinary Measure for his mishandling of Safeguarding issues? Any other rank and file cleric would have been severely punished for such goings on. It’s not just “process” either – this is personal responsibility one that Welby should have acted upon straightaway as he gained seniority. On another occasion I will tell you of my experience of a Bishop who has done some unpleasant things to clergy, someone whom Justin has shamefully defended. For now though, it’s time for me to put the Archbishop’s head down, put t’coal in t’bath and walk the whippet. Lucy Leeson | Friday 02 May 2025 08:49 BST Radio and television presenter Sian Welby has spoken about why she decided to keep her pregnancy hidden from This Morning bosses The 38-year-old Capital FM radio presenter revealed she was 20 weeks pregnant when she had her first stint presenting the popular ITV daytime show but decided to keep her pregnancy hidden from bosses and co-host Dermot O’Leary Appearing on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, she opened up to host Giovanna Fletcher about her reason for keeping her pregnancy quiet. Kim Kardashian wears Marilyn Monroe’s dress As Baltimore begins the process of planning to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge, labor experts have pointed to how Latino workers will be the one who rebuild it. Anderson Clayton attends the North Carolina Young Democrats Convention in Durham. Decomplicated thumbnail about bedbugs explainer Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party could win 12 seats at Holyrood, analysis based on the poll indicated. (Jacob King/PA) Food supplies blocked to stricken Gaza aid ship hit by drone attack Woman runs London marathon topless after her double mastectomy Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds, right, and Wrexham's Ollie Palmer pose with trophy at the Racecourse ground in Wrexham, Wales Defeat to Chris Eubank Jr ‘hard to swallow’ for Conor Benn Chris Eubank Jr (right) and his father, boxing icon Chris Sr Freddie Flintoff recalls second-by-second how cricket helped him survive horror Top Gear crash. Freddie Flintoff reveals frightened young son wouldn’t go near him after horror Top Gear crash. Eddie Hearn storms off stage at Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn press conference. Floodwaters rage across Yelville as residents evacuated from homes Googlebox stars stuck in Jamaica as Hurricane Beryl makes landfall: ‘I want to get out’. Cars swept away in New Mexico flash floods after wildfires charred the region Prince Louis caught brushing down Price Williams jacket during VE Day celebrations The 1998 diesel has been converted into a stylish two-bed Beckham luciendo su peinado mohicano antes de un amistoso internacional contra México en 2001 Chen brings over 20 years of leadership in entertainment and technology with a proven track record of driving significant growth and scale across global organizations LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Whip Media a leader in next-generation software solutions for the business of content in the entertainment industry today announced the appointment of Welby Chen as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who has served as CEO of Whip Media since 2023 Welby brings extensive expertise in the software with a proven track record of scaling companies to global operations He has held leadership roles at renowned companies such as JW Player Chen served as the Chief Operating Officer at Adventr where he drove significant growth and innovation "We're not just participating in the industry; we're redefining it with cutting-edge products and seamless solutions that empower global entertainment organizations and streamers," said Welby Chen "In our search for a hands-on executive to guide Whip Media's AI-driven product transformation we were laser-focused on maintaining our position as the leader in content operations and supply chain orchestration," said Michael Richards "Welby is a high-caliber executive whose blend of product development expertise and industry experience makes him the ideal CEO to advance our mission with speed and urgency." "I can't think of a better time to join Whip Media as we spearhead transformative changes in a rapidly evolving entertainment and streaming landscape," said Welby Chen "Leveraging our deep industry expertise and leadership position Whip Media stands at the forefront of innovation in content reporting and analytics We're not just participating in the industry; we're redefining it with cutting-edge products and seamless solutions that empower global entertainment organizations and streamers I am thrilled to lead such a dynamic team as we accelerate our journey setting new standards and cementing our role as the undisputed leader in the industry." Jerry Inman, Whip Media, 1 212.673.2222, [email protected], www.whipmedia.com Do not sell or share my personal information: Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said Nov 12 he will resign after an investigative report found he did not do enough to respond to allegations of child sex abuse by a British lawyer at a Christian youth camp Photo: Neil Turner/For the Lambeth Conference [Episcopal News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will resign under pressure for his delayed response to extensive and devastating allegations of “physical psychological and spiritual attacks” by a British lawyer on young victims he met at youth camps tied to the Church of England Welby, 68, announced his resignation in a statement released Nov. 12 acknowledging that a newly released investigative report “has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.” “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 As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse,” Welby said “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 had faced pressure to step down since the Nov. 7 release of a 253-page report detailing the independent investigation led by Keith Makin The Makin report documented “prolific brutal and horrific” attacks by Smyth on more than 100 boys and young men starting in the late 1970s Smyth first participated in the Iwerne camps in 1964 at age 22 Invited by a camp leader who saw him as “a strong Christian and a gifted barrister,” Smyth “made rapid progress through the ranks” of camp leaders and began grooming boys for abuse around 1974 “Several of the victims’ accounts indicate their experience of sexual abuse particularly describing John Smyth kissing them nakedness and other indicators of sexual abuse,” the report found It also cited instances of Smyth taking victims to a shed and beating them repeatedly with cane while they were partially naked Some Anglican officials were informed of the abuse as early as 1982 but did not report it to police or to higher authorities in the church The report says Welby and other top Church of England officials first learned of the allegations in 2013 the year Welby became archbishop of Canterbury they “could and should” have followed up with police but “there was a distinct lack of curiosity shown by these senior figures and a tendency towards minimization of the matter demonstrated by the absence of any further questioning and follow up.” Police eventually opened a criminal investigation of Smyth in 2017 in response to information made public that year in a TV documentary, according to BBC News. Smyth died in 2018 at age 77 in South Africa he reportedly was in the process of being extradited from Zimbabwe to face charges in England the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team commissioned the independent investigation led by Makin Welby issued a public apology for failing to ensure that “the awful tragedy was energetically investigated” and for not meeting quickly with Smyth’s victims That statement was not enough to quiet calls for his resignation became one of the most senior church officials calling for Welby to step down a petition drive on Change.org urging Welby’s resignation received 14,000 virtual signatures Welby said he had been told in 2013 that police already had been notified of Smyth’s abuse “I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow,” Welby said “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024.” in addition to serving as the head of the Church of England also historically has filled the role of a “focus for unity” in the wider Anglican Communion and its 42 autonomous “Today I am praying for the people of the Church of England for our siblings in the Anglican Communion and for all victims and survivors,” the Most Rev The Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop “Abuse in any form is horrific and abhorrent and it grieves me that the church does not always live up to its ideal as a place where all of God’s children are safe.” Rowe also affirmed Welby’s call for the Church of England to address its safeguarding failures “I pledge The Episcopal Church’s commitment to this critical task in our own contexts and in the Anglican Communion,” Rowe said “The church must be a place where people can come with the deepest wounds and vulnerabilities and be nurtured Welby said he sought permission from King Charles III to resign before announcing it publicly former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams also resigned before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 at a time of increasing schism over issues of human sexuality said in 2012 he wished to return to academia who also receives input from a 16-member Crown Appointments Commission “I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England which I dearly love and which I have been honored to serve,” he said “I pray that this decision points us back towards the love that Jesus Christ has for every one of us.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience and analyse our traffic We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below The cookies that are categorised as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse how you use this website and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors Performance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customised advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyse the effectiveness of the ad campaigns has confessed that the scale of abuse cases reported to him was "absolutely overwhelming" influencing his lack of action related to serial sex abuser Welby endured criticism by the Makin Review, as reported by Christian Daily International about his responsibility with the late John Smyth QC who sexually abused countless boys and young men in the 1970s and 1980s The review concluded that Smyth would have been stopped sooner if Welby had formally reported concerns disclosed to him a decade ago Smyth was reported to be the most prolific serial abuser associated with the Church of England after being accused of abusing boys at his home in Winchester whom he worked with at a Christian summer camp in the county of Dorset in the 1970s and 1980s In an interview with the BBC 6 after being publicly criticised by the Makin Review outlined the reasons for his lack of action whilst acknowledging them as “not an excuse.” "Every day more cases were coming across the desk that had been in the past it was another case - and yes I knew Smyth but it was an absolutely overwhelming few weeks," he said one was trying to prioritise - but I think it's easy to sound defensive over this cautioned against public figures being put under pressure and warned about a “rush to judgement.” "Having been the object of that question [over whether to resign] it's a very difficult one to answer because you think: am I letting people down there is this immense — and this goes back half a century — immense distrust for institutions and there's a point where you need institutions to hold society together there is an absence of forgiveness; we don't treat our leaders as human If you want perfect leaders you won't have any leaders." Questions around transparency of election process to choose new Archbishop of Canterbury The Church of England is currently in the process of choosing Welby’s replacement as Archbishop of Canterbury On Jan. 20, Stephen Knott, the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments, wrote to members of the Anglican General Synod in which he said that by mid-March the names of three individuals would be put forward from the Diocese of Canterbury’s Vacancy in See Committee adding that “the outcome of the election of the episcopal member(s) the Central Members and the Anglican Communion representatives will be announced.” “Once the Diocese of Canterbury’s Vacancy in See process has concluded the extensive consultation exercise has been completed and the full membership of the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) is known the Commission will convene for its first meeting in May followed by two further meetings – one in July and one in September,” Knott outlined in his letter the Commission will agree the ‘Role Profile’ and ‘Person Specification’ for the next Archbishop shortlist and interview potential candidates.” Meanwhile, Rev. Andrew Goddard, a member of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) and a tutor in ethics at both Westminster Theological Centre and Ridley Hall, Cambridge, has publicly raised concerns about the process by which the new archbishop will be appointed, as reported by Christian Daily International The Anglican House of Bishops did not succeed in persuading the General Synod responsible for governance in the Anglican Church to approve changes to the decision-making process at the CNC which is responsible for recommending candidates for vacant diocesan positions King Charles III will approve the appointment of the new archbishop via the prime minister with input from both clergy and laypeople inside and outside the diocese A Vacancy in See Committee (ViSC) within each diocese elects members for the CNC and provides a "profile" of the diocese and its needs for the commission Goddard believes that "due process" has not been followed in the Canterbury diocese where the new archbishop will be nominated He claimed that an agreed timeline to replace members of the current ViSC had not been followed The CEEC reported that a second ViSC had been formed for the 2025-2027 period following Welby’s resignation overlapping with new regulations for ViSC elections agreed upon at the recent General Synod in February 2025 These new regulations pose further questions about the process in the Canterbury diocese "This has been seen to have been done in a shroud of mystery and it is unclear whether the latest ViSC complies with the new regulations." some considerable confusion and serious questions which need answering with no less than three different Vacancy in See Committees (ViSC) being in existence in the diocese since the vacancy was announced but with all of them potentially not compliant with the regulation,” said Goddard Another point of controversy is that new regulations prevent male clergy in the Canterbury diocese from being elected to the CNC These rules require that one clergywoman and one laywoman be elected by the ViSC so when this new rule combines with the rule that at least half of CNC members must be lay this means that no male clergyperson can be elected,” explained Goddard calling for “greater transparency and fuller explanations” about the processes involved in appointing the future Archbishop of Canterbury Help keep The Christian Daily free for everyone By making a recurring donation or a one-time donation of any amount you're helping to keep CDI's articles free and accessible for everyone Hope you’ll give us another try and check out some other articles. 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Already new life can be seen returning to the scarred LA landscape It is a reminder that in the face of overwhelming devastation and destruction we can retain hope in new creation through Jesus and work now in our environments to testify to that hope The leader of the Church of England Justin Welby resigned after pressure had grown following the publication of a report into a serial child abuser linked to the institution The report found that the church had known about allegations of abuse against John Smyth since 1982 but had failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed resigns after an investigation found he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse at church camps addresses the media during a press conference in Canterbury during vespers prayers in the church of San Gregorio al Celio FILE - The Most Reverend Justin Welby sits in the Chair of St Augistine as the Dean of Canterbury Robert Willis takes him by the hand during his enthronement service to become Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury FILE - Britain’s King Charles III speaks to Archbishop of Canterbury as he meets with faith leaders during a reception at Buckingham Palace FILE - Britain’s new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby leaves after his enthronement ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury FILE - Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivers his speech at a interreligious meeting FILE - Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby listens to speakers in the United Nations Security Council pays his respects at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial FILE - The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby accompanied by Archbishop of Kenya Eliud Wabukala poses for a photograph with members of the choir after conducting a service at the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi FILE - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II receives the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at Windsor Castle where he presented the Queen with a special ‘Canterbury Cross’ for her unstinting service to the Church of England over seventy years and a citation for the Cross which was presented as a framed piece of calligraphy the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby conducts a service at the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi FILE - Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as he listens to debate at the General Synod in London pays homage to victims of the Easter Sunday attacks at St Sebastian’s church in Katuwapitiya village Justin Welby conducts a church service with Anglicans in Harare LONDON (AP) — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion resigned Tuesday after an investigation found that he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it Pressure on Welby had been building since Thursday when the archbishop’s refusal to accept responsibility for his failure to report the abuse in England and in Africa in 2013 kindled anger about a lack of accountability at the highest reaches of the church “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024,” Welby said in the statement announcing his resignation “I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England which I dearly love and which I have been honored to serve.” Welby’s resignation will send ripples around the world The Archbishop of Canterbury is the symbolic head of the Anglican Communion which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries including the Episcopal Church in the United States While each national church has its own leaders the Archbishop of Canterbury is considered first among equals a former oil executive who left the industry in 1989 to study for the priesthood was a controversial figure even before the scandal A skilled mediator who has worked to resolve conflicts in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa he struggled to unite the Anglican Communion which has been riven by sharply divergent views on issues such as gay rights and the place of women in the church The Church of England on Thursday released the results of an independent investigation into the late John Smyth a prominent attorney who the report said 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 The 251-page report of the Makin Review concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013 soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury Smyth could have been stopped sooner and many victims could have been spared the abuse Welby said he didn’t inform law enforcement agencies about the abuse because he was wrongly told that police were already investigating he took responsibility for not ensuring that the allegations were pursued as “energetically” as they should have been Welby’s office said he had decided not to resign even as he expressed his “horror at the scale of John Smyth’s egregious abuse.” said Welby’s position had become “untenable” after some members of the General Synod started a petition calling on him to step down because he had “lost the confidence of his clergy.” But the strongest outcry came from Smyth’s victims who was repeatedly beaten by Smyth over five years said resigning was a chance for Welby to start repairing the damage caused by the church’s broader handling of historical abuse cases “I believe that now is an opportunity for him to resign,’’ Morse told the BBC before Welby stepped down 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.” Welby’s supporters had argued that he should remain on the job because of his role in changing the culture of the church Church officials were first made aware of Smyth’s abuse in 1982 when they received the results of an internal investigation into complaints about his behavior at Christian summer camps in England The recipients of that report “participated in an active cover-up” to prevent its findings from coming to light Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984 and later relocated to South Africa and there is evidence that the abuse continued in South Africa until he died in August 2018 Smyth’s actions weren’t made public until a 2017 investigation by Britain’s Channel 4 television station which led police in Hampshire to start an investigation Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and had been preparing to extradite him dean of the chapel at King’s College Cambridge said Welby could no longer represent the people “There are circumstances in which something happens whereby a person in a position of prominent leadership essentially loses the trust and the confidence and the capacity to do that really wonderful thing that someone like an archbishop does which is represent everyone at a certain moment publicly,’’ Cherry told the BBC before Welby resigned “And the pain in the victim community and the history of not listening to people and not responding to people who are profoundly hurt by those in positions of power means that this is no longer a person who can carry the representative role of that office.” Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless contributed Please email comments to [email protected] a single social-media post sent shock waves through the Church of England and the Anglican Communion It was a photograph of a letter printed on official stationery and placed on a polished wooden surface announced his unprecedented decision to resign. archbishops of Canterbury have been excommunicated they tend to retire at around seventy and head to the House of Lords “Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury,” Welby wrote “The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow. It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.” The long-awaited 251-page Makin Review was an independent report commissioned in 2019 by the Archbishops’ Council into allegations around a lawyer and married father of four named John Smyth It found Smyth was “a charismatic personality” who had subjected up to 130 boys and young men to “physical It also found that Welby and other senior figures had shown “a distinct lack of curiosity” about the allegations “and a tendency towards minimization of the matter.” In addition it called into question Welby’s insistence that he had no knowledge of concerns regarding Smyth in the 1980s Smyth administered severe beatings to boys he had met through the Christian Forum of the prestigious boarding school Winchester College and through Iwerne Christian holiday camps someone authorized by the local bishop to carry out certain teaching and pastoral functions—in the Diocese of Winchester Smyth hurriedly moved to southern Africa He was even charged with culpable homicide over the death in mysterious circumstances of a boy Initial commentary last month asked whether Welby had been right to resign. After the bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, publicly called for him to go and an online petition calling for his resignation—created by three senior members of clergy—gathered more than ten thousand signatures in two days it was increasingly difficult for him to stay The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church issued a statement saying he was praying for “the people of the Church of England for our siblings in the Anglican Communion and for all victims and survivors.” Rowe also reiterated the Episcopal Church’s “commitment to this critical task [of addressing safeguarding] in our own contexts and in the Anglican Communion.” While the report and its fallout have shaken the Church of England and damaged its credibility Some people have called for a clean sweep of clergy who knew of the abuse but failed to adequately respond the bishop for Episcopal ministry and a former chaplain to Welby have been asked to “step back” from ministry The report suggests that another six bishops and around twenty-five other clergy also knew about Smyth’s abuse and failed to stop it public opinion will remain firmly with the victims. telling them of Welby: “We have had many occasions to meet to pray together and to testify to our faith in the Lord,” commenting on their trip to Sudan and referring to Welby as “brother Justin.” Archbishop Welby won praise for his pitch-perfect sermons at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and the coronation of King Charles III the Church’s National Safeguarding Team grew from one to more than fifty employees Welby has been criticized for failing to reverse the decline in church attendance (though it has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels) and taking resources away from parishes in favor of new forms of evangelization. It is unlikely that Welby’s departure alone will do much to repair the serious problems Makin made visible The Church remains deeply split over sexuality specifically the recognition of gay relationships Two questions confront the Church: How will they put right other past safeguarding failures And what compromises are they prepared to make to secure their own institutional future? The report stresses that other people knew more about Smyth’s abuse than Welby and his resignation alone cannot dismantle the culture and structures that enabled the cover-up The review and Welby’s statement mentioned “the long-maintained conspiracy of silence” around Smyth which drew in a tight circle of friends that included some clergy They were bound by social class and a common theology—conservative Evangelicalism which places great emphasis on personal holiness (Conservative Evangelicalism became predominant at many English boarding schools from the 1960s onwards.) When I was reporting on the Catholic abuse crisis about a decade ago I naïvely assumed that Protestant or Evangelical Churches would not harbor such predatory men both because their clergy are allowed to marry and because they do not have an elevated theology of priesthood charismatic men sometimes manage to climb to positions where others are expected to look up to them unquestioningly striking similarities are prevalent among those who have covered up the crimes of such men Their silence often springs from good intentions: an instinct to protect the Church and the personalities that have nurtured faith a belief that the Church is under attack and needs defending Where does the Church of England go from here In his valedictory speech as one of the bishops with a seat in the House of Lords (his last day in post is January 6) he struck a light and at times jovial tone and was criticised—by Bishop Hartley by the Church’s three Lead Bishops for Safeguarding and by some survivors—for doing so officials need to assess the actions of clergy named in the review then swiftly enact cultural and structural reforms to ensure that claims of abuse receive the serious attention they deserve (Efforts are already in place at a parish level to minimize the risk of a future Smyth gaining such dangerously unchecked access to young people: even bell-ringers and flower-arrangers are expected to undertake safeguarding training.) a lawyer who acts for many survivors of abuse in the Church of England fears that proceduralism will blunt the possibility of meaningful reform: “Once again the Church of England is responding on the hoof to try to give the appearance of activity.” Scorer has long called for oversight of the Church’s safeguarding to be outsourced to an independent body and for the government to introduce mandatory reporting of abuse allegations to the police It is in the Church’s interests to ensure this procedure is sufficiently credible so that it is able to withstand future cases coming to light At least three cases of abuse in the Anglican Church will become public next year author of Bleeding for Jesus: John Smyth and the cult of the Iwerne camps who is taking over Welby’s duties until a replacement is appointed has faced new calls to resign over accusations that while he was bishop of Chelmsford he allowed a priest against whom complaints had been made to remain in his post Cottrell said he lacked the legal power to sack the priest until a fresh complaint was made Graystone has called for “an end to deference and bullying in the House of Bishops.” Culture is difficult to change but concrete structures to improve and clarify bishops’ accountability could help space to process the shock and anger would be beneficial There is a lot that Anglicans can inquire of their Catholic cousins: How to remain in an institution that has caused so much harm and shame How to understand faith experiences that involved people who are so fallen or have turned a blind eye to such destructive behavior? Reading about Smyth prompted me to locate a Tablet report of a remarkable service of lament and reconciliation titled “I am furious God.” First proposed by the lay group We Are Church and held in St the service featured Cardinal Christoph Schönborn pronouncing an admission of the Church’s guilt His remarks included memorable lines like “We confess that some of us exploited the trust of children and destroyed it… We confess that for some of us the semblance of the Church’s impeccability mattered more than anything else.” Catholics in England are also looking at Welby’s departure with interest A letter to the Tablet in November 2024 suggested “perhaps it is time for the Catholic Church to look at itself,” given past criticisms of Cardinal Nichols’s handling of abuse cases. speculation has begun about who might come next along with jokes that no one in their right mind would want four jobs in one The position involves holding the Anglican Communion together heading the thirty-diocese province of Canterbury and leading the diocese of Canterbury itself Observers agree that any incumbent must have at least ten years before retirement at seventy and that appointing a woman to be spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion may not sit well with international provinces that do not recognize female leadership That would exclude the highly capable Iranian-born Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani survived an assassination attempt during the Iranian Revolution And many in the Church of England may struggle to accept a Primate of All England who was not English or even British was the first bishop from outside the Church of England since the Reformation.) The main Anglican newspaper has opted not to speculate on possible successors arguing the priority should be reflecting on the lessons of the report and “on exactly what sort of leadership a Church in crisis needs.” The task of restoring trust in the Church will not end after the new archbishop is enthroned (Perhaps language like “enthroned” is also due for reexamination.) The factions that briefly laid down their arms to agree on Welby’s exit will need to work for a longer-term peace This is not a given: some conservative Evangelical parishes are so angry with the House of Bishops’ decision last year to approve blessings for same-sex couples that they have set up a mechanism for their financial contributions to go not to the shared pot but only to other parishes they consider “orthodox.” Yet the Smyth cover-up has had something of a leveling effect: abusers and those who failed to adequately respond to their actions have now been found to come from conservative Evangelical Taking sexual sin seriously starts with taking abuse victims seriously Anglicans are wondering what the future holds for their Church not the Church of England or the Church of any one archbishop But the question remains: What might Jesus want to do with such a mix of the devout the “cultural Christians,” the scandal-hit Evangelicals Time will tell if this crisis finally gets them to agree on something. Abigail Frymann Rouch is a freelance journalist and editor specializing in religious affairs SearchJustin Welby officially resigns, must get permission to perform any future servicesThe Christian Post To enjoy our website, you'll need to enable JavaScript in your web browser. Please click here to learn how You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience delivers his Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral on April 17 | Hollie Adams/Getty ImagesJustin Welby officially resigned at midnight Monday ending his tenure as the archbishop of Canterbury He must now obtain permission from a bishop before leading any services or performing other priestly duties Under Church of England rules, Welby, the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, is now unable to officiate as a priest unless he obtains prior authorization from a bishop. Such permission “would be up to them (the bishop),” The U.K. Times quoted a source as saying Former archbishops are generally understood to have been granted this approval though there is no assurance Welby will receive it It would not be granted “immediately or automatically,” instead requiring “a period of discernment … in conjunction with a diocesan bishop,” the source added Welby spent his final day in office privately at Lambeth Palace, participating in a lunchtime Eucharist and later a service of Evensong, during which he laid down his ceremonial bishop’s crozier, according to The Telegraph His departure follows criticism related to sexual abuse allegations in the Church of England. Separately, Welby was also criticized by conservative members of the denomination for blocking a disciplinary case against the Bishop of Derby, the Rt. Rev. Libby Lane, who labeled the Rev. Bernard Randall a safeguarding risk due to his traditional Christian views on gender identity conducted a review that examined allegations against John Smyth a barrister who was accused of assaulting multiple boys over a period of years Times reports that Welby was assured police had been informed of the allegations but was criticized for not doing more to confirm the matter was investigated thoroughly An earlier independent review concluded Smyth “might have been brought to justice” if Welby had filed a formal police report in 2013 Some Church of England officials who were aware of Smyth’s behavior for decades have had their own permissions to officiate suspended while inquiries continue Welby has made few appearances since mid-November and did not give a Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral He also didn't deliver his usual New Year’s Day message The Children’s Society also turned down a Christmas donation from him explaining that accepting it “would not be consistent with the principles and values that underpin our work,” according to the Telegraph drawing laughter from peers and prompting an apology after an abuse survivor described it as “tone deaf.” key functions of the Archbishop of Canterbury are expected to be split among three senior Church of England figures will assume most duties; the Bishop of London including work within the Diocese of Canterbury Cottrell also faces criticism over his handling of a distinct abuse case though he recently pledged to “do what I can” to allow independent oversight of the denomination's safeguarding The search for the next archbishop of Canterbury is now underway is responsible for drawing up a list of candidates conducting interviews and submitting a final name confidentially and the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham have been mentioned as potential successors both identified as belonging to the conservative wing of the denomination The Times noted that the Iranian-born Bishop of Chelmsford has been named as a possible first female archbishop although some members of the worldwide Anglican Communion might not accept a woman in that role Help keep The Christian Post free for everyone you're helping to keep CP's articles free and accessible for everyone Hope you’ll give us another try and check out some other articles. Return to homepage. who quit over how he handled allegations about the serial abuser John Smyth Justin Welby acknowledged that whether or not he forgave Smyth was "to a large extent irrelevant" He said the matter of forgiveness should be spoken about once survivors were "sufficiently loved by the Church" and "enabled Smyth targeted more than 100 boys and young men in the UK and Africa over many years ShareSaveAt the scene of fatal Valentine's Day pub shootingThe BBC's Ben Schofield says a manhunt is ongoing, but that police believe there is no ongoing risk to the public. Watch: Paralympic flame's journey under the sea to FranceAfter being lit in Stoke Mandeville the Paralympic torch headed through the Channel Tunnel on its way to Paris. The closure of Chatham Dockyard 40 years onA tourist attraction, working port and housing stand on the site of Chatham's closed shipyard. 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Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings Too many automated requests from this network - No HTML tags allowed- Web page URLs will display as text only- Lines and paragraphs break automatically- Attachments Your email address will be used in order to notify you when your comment has been reviewed by the moderator and in case the author(s) of the article or the moderator need to contact you directly shared ownership in or any close relationship with any organisation whose interests may be affected by the publication of the response Please also list any non-financial associations or interests (personal religious or other) that a reasonable reader would want to know about in relation to the submitted work This pertains to all the authors of the piece spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion has resigned over his handling of a sex abuse scandal An investigation found that Justin Welby failed to inform authorities about serial physical and sexual abuse Welby said that he was first informed of abuse allegations in 2013 when he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury the most senior leader of the Church of England Welby said he was told the police had been notified He said he believed that an appropriate resolution would follow but apologized for failing to ensure that the accusations were "energetically investigated." According to a report released last week John Smyth abused more than 100 boys and young men In a statement Welby said he "must take personal and institutional responsibility" for failing to properly report the abuse "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." Welby was the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion a global body of churches rooted in the Church of England Welby had been under increasing pressure to resign over his handling of the accusations against Smyth Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley called on Welby to resign telling the BBC that taking that step would "be a very clear indication that a line has been drawn." "I think rightly people are asking the question 'Can we really trust the Church of England to keep us safe?'" Hartley said "And I think the answer at the moment is 'No.'" Andrew Morse — a survivor of Smyth's abuse — says that Welby's resignation is a chance for the church to repair some of the damage with victims Become an NPR sponsor Victims of abuser John Smyth and fellow bishops expressed frustration at the tone of Archbishop Justin Welby’s occasionally jovial farewell speech delivered during a debate on homelessness in the House of Lords on December 5 The archbishop said on social media that he “would like to apologize wholeheartedly for the hurt” caused by his remarks In his first public appearance since announcing his resignation nearly a month ago Welby said that he pitied his “poor diary secretary” who had to cancel so many engagements already planned for next year Noting that “heads had to roll” in response to the Church of England’s safeguarding problems whose head rolled down Tower Hill after being struck off during the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 “There comes a time if you are technically leading a particular institution or area of responsibility where the shame of what has gone wrong whether one is personally responsible or not He said he hoped to avoid the fate of Simon of Sudbury who was seized by a mob while celebrating a Mass and decapitated by sword blows “[They] then played football with it at the Tower of London It certainly wasn’t Simon of Sudbury,” Welby quipped He emphasized that safeguarding measures in the Church of England are “a completely different picture from the past,” but continued “When I look back at the last 50 or 60 years not only through the eyes of the Makin report — however one takes one’s view of personal responsibility — it is clear that I had to stand down and it is for that reason that I do so.” Mark Stibbe, who was abused by John Smyth as a teenager and led public calls for his resignation, told The Times he was “dismayed” by Welby’s remarks and wondered if the archbishop was “now questioning his personal responsibility.” “I object to the use of such a frivolous tone in such a serious matter — a matter that has been a matter of life and death to some,” he said the only fellow bishop who publicly pushed for Welby’s resignation in early November said she was “deeply disturbed by the language of ‘a head had to roll.’” in my view unwise to say at the very least To make light of serious matters of safeguarding failures in this way yet again treats victims and survivors of church abuse without proper respect or regard.” Lambeth Palace issued a personal statement from the archbishop on December 6 “I would like to apologise wholeheartedly for the hurt that my speech has caused “I understand that my words — the things that I said and those I omitted to say — have caused further distress for those who were traumatized and by the far-reaching effects of other perpetrators of abuse “I did not intend to overlook the experience of survivors or to make light of the situation — and I am very sorry for having done so “It remains the case that I take both personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period after 2013 and the harm that this has caused survivors “I continue to feel a profound sense of shame at the Church of England’s historic safeguarding failures.” Media Play News Thomas K. Arnold an enterprise software platform and data provider to some of the world’s largest entertainment organizations 18 announced the appointment of Welby Chen as its new CEO who announced her departure earlier this week in a LinkedIn post Chen has held leadership roles at such tech companies as Microsoft a creation software and distribution platform “In our search for a hands-on executive to guide Whip Media’s AI-driven product transformation we were laser-focused on maintaining our position as the leader in content operations and supply chain orchestration,” said Michael Richards “Welby is a high-caliber executive whose blend of product development expertise and industry experience makes him the ideal CEO to advance our mission with speed and urgency.” Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter! “I can’t think of a better time to join Whip Media as we spearhead transformative changes in a rapidly evolving entertainment and streaming landscape,” Chen said “Leveraging our deep industry expertise and leadership position We’re not just participating in the industry; we’re redefining it with cutting-edge products and seamless solutions that empower global entertainment organizations and streamers setting new standards and cementing our role as the undisputed leader in the industry.” Whip was recently acquired by Blue Torch Capital according to its website is “a direct lending strategy to ‘companies in transition.’” Hanley had been appointed CEO in June 2023 She joined what was then called TV Time in 2017 as chief revenue and strategy officer with a platform that powered more than two-thirds of all global digital transactional revenue for the film and television industries and the TV and movie metadata platform TheTVDB The combined company was rebranded as Whip Media Hanley’s exit followed the departure a month earlier of Mike Sid who after the merger served as Whip’s chief strategy officer The board of enterprise software platform and data provider Whip Media has promoted Carol Hanley to CEO and has elected her to the company’s board Richard Rosenblatt has been named the board’s executive chair.… an enterprise software platform and data provider to entertainment organizations Hanley previously served as Whip Media’s chief revenue and strategy officer Hanley will lead global growth strategy and performance for the company,… a leading enterprise software platform and data provider to some of the world’s largest entertainment organizations Hanley joined the company in 2017 as chief revenue officer to lead the company’s business strategy Please enter an answer in digits:5 + nine = Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Click here to read the latest edition cover to cover Earlier this year, I attempted to visit the Darien Gap in Central America it is one of the world’s most concentrated areas of flora and fauna – and also a very dangerous migration route But it being one of the most inhospitable terrains in the world does not stop hundreds of thousands of migrants from making the perilous journey northwards every year, driven from their homes, families and ordinary lives by the brutal effects of conflict, poverty and climate change For us, the weather was too bad to make a safe landing in the region, and after 15 minutes we turned back. Unlike those who have no choice but to persevere how privileged we were to have the option of abandoning the attempt and returning to safety just moments later Closer to home, and on recent trips within England, I have heard first hand from farmers in the Dioceses of Gloucester and Bath and Wells how they are being forced to adapt to a changing climate – how unseasonal amounts of rainfall or scorching temperatures are destroying crops and making production and harvests far harder to plan and profit from Our world is becoming increasingly less resilient. Within the Anglican Communion, almost half of the members live amid conflict or persecution the fragility of our healthcare systems and social settings and the impossibility of a sustainable model of isolation The war in Ukraine has shown us how quickly a cost-of-living crisis can be provoked cyclones and storms are triggering mass displacement of people across the planet The destruction of our planet and God’s creation is nothing new the story of the Garden of Eden and of Adam and Eve speaks profoundly about the consequences of pride self-sufficiency and rebellion against God Eden is painted as a place of justice, of equality, of walking closely with God, and where work was a gift rather than a curse. It was a place of harmony with nature – and yet humans, tasked with the responsibility of stewarding it cut themselves off from the blessings the creation is designed to offer But that is not where the story ends and God shows us that when we act as if we are at war with the world there is hope of reconciliation through Jesus who opened the way for the whole of creation to be healed God is green, and He calls on us to be green. God created the world and saw it as good, but human beings have spoiled it by sin. You do not have to be a literalist to see the deep meaning in the Genesis story. It is therefore vital that we tread carefully, and respond to the urgency of the climate emergency This means waking up to the reality of the crisis. It dismays me when I hear Christians disputing scientific facts or saying that it is simply God’s problem. That is to misunderstand the awesome responsibility that God entrusted us with in caring for his planet and its people It is a moral imperative to do as much as we can not to destroy the green world that God created for us. And we must act now, before it is too late The American lawyer and environmentalist Guy Speth said: “The top environmental problems are selfishness and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation And we scientists don’t know how to do that.” This therefore is a moral as well as a practical challenge, and Christians must rise to it I saw the church leading initiatives on the ground with the planting of an Anglican Communion Forest part of a global movement to grow trees and restore ecosystems From reforestation in the Solomon Islands and the introduction of coffee plantations in Papua New Guinea, to the planting of two million trees in Kenya and the restoration of mango groves in Eswatini, Christians are responding to the call to restore creation and preserve biodiversity for future generations Here in England, our church is committed to pursuing a net zero strategy. In 2020, the General Synod voted for the whole church to achieve net zero by 2030 – recognising that the climate emergency is a crisis for God’s creation and a fundamental injustice. Since then, work has started to reduce carbon emissions in our buildings, from schools and churches to cathedrals. We must seek to persuade the powerful that it is in their interest to do good and be green. Some never will, and we have to accept that. Cynics – some of whom even call it a “hoax” – will accuse us of interfering in politics. If it is interfering to seek to avert the catastrophe of climate change, especially as it affects the poorest, then let us interfere. I call it humanitarian care. We are not being performative; when we hear the command of Christ to treasure God’s creation, we seek to obey. Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Bishop of Newcastle condemns former archbishop of Canterbury who also admitted ‘deep sense of personal failure’ about handling of allegations against Church’s most prolific abuser Justin Welby has been condemned by survivors and campaigners for saying he would forgive serial Church of England abuser John Smyth if he were still alive The former archbishop of Canterbury also repeated an apology to victims on Sunday and told of the “deep sense of personal failure” he feels about his handling of allegations made against Smyth – thought to be the most prolific abuser associated with the Church Mr Welby, who resigned in November and stepped down officially in January said he had “not really thought it through enough” when he initially declined to quit over the Makin report into the scandal last year It found Smyth, a Christian camp leader and barrister who is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men to traumatic abuse across five decades in the UK and Africa might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported allegations to police in 2013 In his first interview since his resignation, Mr Welby was asked if he could forgive the now dead clergyman, telling the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “Yes So whether I forgive or not is to a large extent His comments have sparked anger among survivors and senior figures in the Church who said Mr Welby’s words would “bring trauma to victims” The Bishop of Newcastle Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, whose public criticism of the former Archbishop forced Mr Welby to resign over his handling of Smyth’s case, told The Independent: “I cannot fathom what purpose the former archbishop of Canterbury thinks this interview serves Yet again his words will bring trauma to victims and survivors of Church abuse.” “This interview does nothing to restore confidence and trust in the institution Welby once served and led and which continues to be deeply challenged by its failures in safeguarding and its inability to move swiftly to independence transparency and accountability,” she added A spokesperson for the Church of England said Mr Welby’s interview “will be a reminder to Smyth survivors of their awful abuse and its lifelong effects” and added that it was deeply sorry for the abuse they suffered They said that “there is never a place for covering up abuse” and the Church “must learn from this” Asked if he wanted forgiveness from Smyth’s victims, Mr Welby said: “Obviously, but it’s not about me. When we talk about safeguarding, the centre of it is the victims and survivors. I have never, ever said to a survivor, ‘you must forgive’, because that is their sovereign, absolute individual choice. Everyone wants to be forgiven, but to demand forgiveness is to abuse again.” Repeating an apology to abuse victims I am utterly sorry and feel a deep sense of personal failure both for the victims of Smyth not being picked up sufficiently after 2017 when we knew the extent of it told the BBC that “what the Church has put me through [since coming forward with abuse allegations] makes the historic abuse pale into insignificance” He described trying to get answers and support as “the most extraordinary Mr Welby admitted he had not been “sufficiently pushy in a way that I would have been a few years later” insisting the first he heard of Smyth’s offences was in August of 2013 He said he had been overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the abuse problem it was a reason he had not prioritised the Smyth case and admitted: “The reality is I got it wrong.” Graham said Mr Welby was “scrabbling around for explanation” and that the Church remains overwhelmed by abuse cases and is no better at dealing with abuse Graham said: “Not if he continues to blank us and refuses to tell us the truth.” Mr Welby acknowledged he “should have pushed harder” on investigating abuse allegations and said he still felt responsible for how they were handled He told the broadcaster: “I know that I let God down an executive member of the survivors group Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS) told The Independent: “Having helped hundreds of Church survivors over the years we believe most would say it is not Justin Welby’s place to forgive John Smyth he is in no position to advise survivors to forgive Smyth forgiveness had been one of the factors which has allowed perpetrators of sexual abuse in the Church to evade justice over the last few decades We have seen time and again dangerous perpetrators being found out and eventually forgiven and brought back into the Church.” Chair of MACSAS Phil Johnson said Mr Welby’s comments “will doubtlessly offend many of his victims and Church survivors more widely” adding: “It showed poor understanding of the dynamics of abuse within the Church where the expectation for victims to forgive has often been used against them.” Yvette Cooper said she found “it very difficult to forgive terrible criminals” when asked later on the programme about Mr Welby’s suggestion he would forgive Smyth The home secretary said the government would introduce a law which will make failure to report child abuse or attempts to block reporting of the crime a criminal offence When asked how many people in the Church had known about the abuse, Mr Welby said a dozen people within the Church of England were going through a disciplinary process related to Smyth. Following Mr Welby’s interview, lead safeguarding bishop for the Church of England, Joanne Grenfell, said in a statement: “Every member of the Church is responsible for a culture in which victims are heard, responded to well, and put first: there is never a place for covering up abuse. “We must learn from this and build future foundations to ensure that the Church is as safe as it can be for all who come to worship or to engage with our many services and community projects.” She added the General Synod voted in February to strengthen its guidance and safeguarding policies on responding to allegations, which will make the reporting process clearer for all who come forward. If you are a child and you need help because something has happened to you, you can call Childline free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC if you are an adult and you are worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adults on 0808 801 0331 I might have been surprised had I known as much then as I know now about how appointments processes work A friend published this comment on Facebook and I think it was representative of how many people felt at the time: while training for ordination in Nottingham This clergyman spoke about his faith in Jesus Christ I was struck by how he did not gloss over the death of his child I am thankful that his words made space for leaders to speak about mental health challenges… I remember two events early on in his time in office where I too felt deeply encouraged, and excited for the future of the Church of England. The first was watching his enthronement service on March 21st, 2013, when he struck the door of Canterbury Cathedral, and was greeted first of all by a child Child: we greet you in the Name of Christ who are you and why do you request entrance?Justin: I am Justin Despite all the pomp of the ceremony (and that dreadful mitre!) it felt like a new and fresh start and suggested that this might be quite a different way of being archbishop (I gather that asking questions of the incoming archbishop was a mediaeval tradition but here it had a very new twist with the questions being asked by a child.) The second event was being present at the New Wine leaders conference in Harrogate in March 2016 when Justin came to address us. Revisiting it again nearly a decade on makes for fascinating reading One distinct impression we had was that Justin saw himself as one of us and saw a key role for New Wine and similar movements in the renewal of the Church of England I can’t tell you what a privilege it is to be here The New Wine movement has done so much in our lives and in our family’s lives God has worked through you in so many amazing ways And he was distinctly upbeat about what was happening in the C of E: I want to say to you today that I believe from the bottom of my heart that the long years of winter in the church There is a new spring in the church.I say to you secondly: embrace the present the weakness and “we’re not what we hope to be” For the Spirit always meets us in the reality of the present There is no despair in the church because we serve the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead But it was also striking that he was already talking in terms of his legacy: At Canterbury Cathedral there’s a chapel at the west end that is especially complicated for me psychologically It’s complicated because it has a list of all my predecessors If you want to feel inadequate [laughter] then try looking at a list that begins with Augustine…I wonder what thought you give to your legacy to what you will leave behind—to how you might be remembered; most of all to how we will all be judged.That’s the hardest thing for me It’s very difficult for me to escape—especially difficult to escape that sense of our legacy of what it could be and what it shouldn’t be and on honesty and facing up to difficult truths—deeply ironic given the end of his time in office and we felt that Justin gave us reason to be when hopes for women bishops crashed in the General Synod Archbishop Welby offered a fresh way forward (the Five Guiding Principles) Here was Welby the great reconciler in action It will go down as one of his greatest achievements Alongside that, he quickly introduced the Renewal and Reform programme, facing the question of decline in attendance head on: …“the biggest reform of the Church since the mid-19th century” he said — which set out to address the “existential crisis” of numerical decline and addressed the Church’s structures and funding flows if we are to flourish and grow as the Church of England,” he declared It is striking, looking back, at the combination here of concern for evangelism and mission combined with a bold confidence, almost to the point of hubris, that this would solve our problems. It is again worth remembering how most people responded to this, as noted by Madeleine Davies chair of the Archbishops’ Council Finance Committee His speech setting out a vision to “return this Church to numerical and spiritual growth and to return Christ to his rightful place — at the centre of this country and its culture” secured rapturous applause in the General Synod in 2014 so all these things were in placed when I joined the chamber I was elected to the Archbishops’ Council (from here to my surprise; I had not even thought of standing until a friend strongly urged it and in meetings of AC—and in personal conversation—I began to encounter a very different Justin Welby having both been educated at public schools (albeit of very different kinds) and studied at Oxbridge—and shared an interest in rowing Synod was already engaging in the Shared Conversations which had been recommended by the 2013 Pilling Report they demonstrated two things: that opinions were deeply divided within the C of E on the question of sexuality and marriage; and there was no obvious way to bridge this divide I find it strange that none of us raised the question of why so many in the church appeared not to accept its doctrine (The roots of this question go back to the 1991 report Issues in Human Sexuality mainly authored by Richard Harries The Shared Conversations ended with a report from the House of Bishops Marriage and Same-Sex Relationships After the Shared Conversations (GS 2055) at the end of 2016 Central to the paper was paragraph 26 proposing ‘no change to ecclesiastical law or to the Church of England’s existing doctrinal position on marriage and sexual relationships’ but with work being done on better guidelines for clergy than in Issues and guidance on pastoral provision this paper was not ‘taken note of’ in Synod the opposition being mainly liberals who wanted to see change plus a small group of conservatives who thought even this work was a step too far and in the Christian faith as the Church of England has received it But it must be also based on…the freedom and the equality that comes with the radical Alongside the first Justin I had encountered here I found a second Justin—someone who believed he was the expert in reconciliation and who (alone?) could provide the solution to what others saw as intractable problems I passed him on a pathway on the York university campus (where July Synod is held) and I commented that I thought this statement was a disaster since no-one was remembering the caveat ‘founded in Scripture…’ He stopped and turned to me and defended himself: ‘I had to say something’ did not seem to him to be an option to him his inability to listen to advice (despite the claims he made about following advice in his fatal Channel 4 interview) seems to have been a feature of his working relationships About eight years ago, Justin told me with excitement that Richard Hays had informed him (on a trip to the States) that he had changed his view on same-sex marriage—something Hays denied in correspondence, when he also said he would not make any public statement on the matter. It turned out that Justin was right In stark contrast to the message he gave in 2016 to New Wine leaders Justin informed me that he was now cutting off relationships with all those who had nurtured his faith in his early years because of their opposition to his position seeking change in the Church ‘This indicates the seriousness with which I view this matter.’ It is hard to disconnect his own secretive approach from that of the House of Bishops who as a body have consistently refused to be open about their own discussions holding their meetings in camera instead of open to scrutiny and refusing to publish legal and theological advice whilst claiming that it supports the position of their published statements In 2018, he published a book with the ambitious title Reimagining Britain, and out of that set up a series of Archbishops’ Commissions, on race, housing, and the family. In my review of it I don’t hold back on Justin’s achievements to date: Justin Welby had already left a significant legacy from the first half of his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury The swift resolution to the inherited crisis of finding a workable settlement in relation to women bishops; the instigation of the Renewal and Reform programme; reorienting the Church’s administration and finances towards mission; the re-establishment of evangelism as a priority; the prayer initiative around Thy Kingdom Come; and even the personal success of (just about) ‘putting Wonga out of business’—all these have been significant achievements who was head of the Post Office during the Horizon scandal When I asked a staff member what he thought was good about the book The resistance to theological thinking has left its mark in other ways too A professor of theology who was invited to the initial preparation for the 2022 Lambeth Conference quickly stepped back: ‘It was clear that Justin had no interest in theology whatsoever.’ And this has also been reflected in his influence in the appointments to the bench of bishops in the process of appointing the bishop of London even though her shortcomings at the Post Office were already know—and then to use his influence within the process to prevent either Christopher Cocksworth or Graham Tomlin from being appointed As the editorial at Living Church noted: He sought to form the Church of England’s episcopate after his own image by introducing an invitation-only leadership training program This meant the bishops shifted as he did — from a cadre dominated by moderate evangelicals with business degrees to the current band increasingly united around identity politics and ready to take the plunge on same-sex marriage Many gifted clergy and people in the pews were left on the sidelines shaking their heads and in the discussions that we have had on AC about theological education it was clear that Justin knew nothing of the details of how the current system works More odd was his lack of interest in the questions of clergy stipends and pensions. When I succeeded in getting unanimous support for a restoration of the clergy pension and stipend levels through Synod (by means of a Private Member’s Motion) he immediately spoke to me on the platform: ‘I have always been concerned about this’ since I had sat through meetings where he had voted through an effective reduction in the stipend which I had opposed He appeared now to be wanting to take credit for something on which someone else had done the work The overall impact in vocations to ordained ministry has been catastrophic. After a significant rise in numbers prior to Covid, there has been a massive drop, and this will have very long-term implications for the Church’s mission and ministry This lack of interest in process has been the hallmark of other initiatives Justin unilaterally declared that the Church of England ‘is institutionally racist’ He borrowed this language from the 1999 Macpherson report into the Metropolitan Police but Justin made the declaration without the same evidence of research I am sure that he thought that this statement coming from a white man with a privileged background would communicate the support needed for those feeling on the margins of the institutional church But what he failed to realise was the impact on the ground—that he made local clergy and members of congregations immediately feel tarred with the label of ‘racist’ regardless of their own actual attitudes and practice This was one of a number of ‘Ratner’ moments for Justin Every time that he talked about the failure and the shame of the Church I think he genuinely thought people would see both him and the institution as humble and self-aware But what many deduced was that this was an institution to avoid—especially if the leader had no confidence in it The final example was in his Channel 4 interview where he astonishingly said that he didn’t care about the institution Successive reports from the Archbishops’ Commission on Racial Justice have not been widely read, but have continued to lack proper process in drawing on evidence, have argued that any questioning of their methodology must be racist, and even included racist stereotyping of different theological traditions in the Church Another of Justin’s commissions, arising from his book, focussed on the family. But, again, it paid little attention to theology (and in fact omitted a key theological reflection from Elaine Storkey from its published documents) and rather than drawing on Anglican understandings of marriage and family life said that it affirmed family structures whatever their form disregarding the evidence of harm done to children in broken and unstable home environments This approach to process has also dogged key elements around safeguarding The report from Alexis Jay was explicitly commissioned to explore the options in relation to independent safeguarding in the Church both in terms of safeguarding operation and scrutiny of processes she was at pains to emphasis that this is not what she considered—she only looked at what fully independent operation and scrutiny might look like since he mistakenly believed that that is what the IICSA report required of us Keith Makin took five years to produce his report I now think it was a significant failure of ours not to press harder the question as to why the report took so long; I cannot but help feeling that the idea that Justin had no involvement in this delay does not look very plausible Can you imagine where we would be now if Makin had reported four years ago Living Church offered this summary comment on Justin’s attitude to due process: [Justin] had little choice — resignation became inevitable The chorus demanding it was remarkably unified rising from across the normally fractious Church of England This wasn’t just because the Smyth case was appalling or because the church needed to prove once and for all that it takes safeguarding seriously he had lost his notorious temper too many times scolding subordinates for failures he overlooked in himself ignoring precedent and canons when they got in the way of his agenda In a wonderful and moving letter to the Church Times last week James Dudley-Smith offers a list of qualities we need in the next archbishop In the middle he includes the perhaps surprising request: ‘Someone who does the hard work of following due process or changing it by due process.’ The reason for this is that adherence to due process says two things: first I am not the person with the solutions who can fix things; and It seems that Justin struggled to say either of those This is ironic given Justin’s repeated claims that he had little or no power which I’d sort of worked out before I came is: don’t waste time looking for levers to pull of blessing and withholding blessing for particular things and other interventions in processes behind the scenes the Church of England is deeply deferential and Justin appeared to be unaware of how hard those both within and outside the Church of England find it to ignore strong suggestions or preferences expressed by an archbishop This was especially true at moments when he lost his temper I was the object of his outbursts on several occasions both in public meetings and in private—though at other times he could be quite charming There is no doubt that this was exacerbated by his own struggles with confidence and mental health and was made worse with the Covid lockdown But it is very hard to be led as a Church by someone prone to such things which on more than one occasion reduced women in a meeting to tears A friend of mine who was an intern when Justin was based in Coventry (2002–2007) asked after a few weeks: ‘Why does Justin hate me?’ ‘Oh don’t worry’ and I have not even considered the disastrous handling of the Covid lockdown when Justin (I think illegally) issued an order to clergy telling them they could not enter church buildings and later denied it was expressed as an order It alienated many leaders who were ready to be his friends and who may never respond to another Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation As one Indigenous bishop said informally during the conference There could hardly be a starker contrast with all the things Justin said in his enthronement service and to the New Wine audience This article has been a piece in two halves and the two halves seem to correspond to the paradox of the two Justins we have had as archbishop and church growth are now officially on the agenda of the Church and embedded in many of the things we do like never before and that must be credited to one of the Justins his appointment was welcomed enthusiastically by every part of the Church and his resignation was energetically demanded by every part of the Church Amongst all the comments that have been made in the last couple of months Conservative evangelical Gerald Bray commented on Facebook: I think the scandal that finally brought Justin down was just the tip of an iceberg that had been getting closer to the ship for a long time He strikes me as one of those people who cannot deal with bad news Look at the way he has watched the Anglican Communion disintegrate before his eyes Look at the way he has presided over a precipitous decline in church attendance in England he could not face it and tried to sweep it under the carpet as if it had never happened And liberal Martyn Percy said in The Times: I think the one feature needed in the selection process this time will be new: realism The Church of England does not need another rallying call for revival The people’s hopes in the pews rest on an authentic and honest candidate who does not deny reality My main emotion in reading back over this piece is sadness—sadness for the lost sense of hope and optimism that we had eleven years ago sadness that we are now in an even more challenging situation and sadness that Justin’s promising tenure should have ended the way it did As the person apocryphally replied to someone in London asking for directions: ‘If I were you sitting down with someone who once had huge power and now does not The change from before to after can be hard to describe Alone or with one supporter when once they had an entourage carrying their bags or demanding to see the camera shot if they believe they've been wronged out of their job; sometimes bristling with ambition Justin Welby walked into the room for our interview without the Archbishop's sumptuous garb For more than 10 years he was the leader of the Church of England the moral guide for a community of more than 80 million worshippers worldwide His job was one of the most influential and important jobs in our country stitched into the fabric of our national life even though he believed the allegations were probably true An independent review found that Smyth's violent abuse of more than 100 children and young men was covered up within the Church for decades Smyth died aged 77 before he could be brought to justice the admission that he got it so wrong is still baffling when any discussion of abuse was totally taboo There had already been high-profile prosecutions of clergy His attitude has been seen not just as impossible to understand but as completely tone deaf by some of those Smyth abused so appallingly fuelling suspicions that he simply didn't want to know And while it's in line with his faith, the former Archbishop's statement that he would forgive the serial abuser if he was alive may cause further upset who made the original 2013 complaint about Smyth told the BBC that he would not forgive Welby until victims are told the full truth about what went wrong "Not if he continues to blank us and refuses to tell us the truth we deserve to know what happened and we don't yet," Graham says said 'I will come and apologise to you personally I messed up.' I would have forgiven him immediately but he never has in those terms." Watch: Justin Welby says if Smyth were alive he would forgive himWelby talks freely now about what he got wrong and his sense of shame and enthusiastically about the changes to safeguarding in the Church since 2013 But he seemed far less comfortable trying to explain why he had not "cared sufficiently" about reports of harm being done to young men in the Church's care – and he seemed defensive when asked if he really hadn't known anything about Smyth earlier than 2013 which the official review concluded was unlikely In our conversation, which you can watch in full here there was also an overwhelming sense that Welby has unfinished business Welby admitted there are still around a dozen people involved in the Church who knew about the abuse but are yet to face the consequences while pointing out that he himself is not facing any disciplinary action And when it comes to the Church's sometimes woeful handling of abuse cases more broadly there still isn't a truly independent system of safeguarding even though he was keen to highlight the increase in the number of people working in that area What about other issues in the Church that he presided over for more than a decade The equal treatment of gay couples who still are not able to have their partnership celebrated in the same way as straight partners who can still be rejected by individual parishes the Church of England is not an institution that treats all of its worshippers or all of its preachers the same "I would've loved to be able to wave a magic wand and get it all right but he wouldn't have been able to get the votes required for the Church's governing body His backers would say he was able to push forward some modernisation Some say the task of modernising the Church with millions of members in countries around the world in many places more conservative than the UK Isn't there a cost to the compromise to preserve the organisation "We disagree amongst each other but that doesn't stop us being family and the role of the Archbishop and other bishops is to allow people to remain in the family without totally dismissing standards that are essential." Welby was careful not to say he'd been treated unfairly in the frenzy that followed the revelations about the scale of his and the Church's mistakes The reality is that the nature of his errors were not just minor imperfections Yet his words on how hard it is to be a public figure in our era might find some quiet nods of agreement in Westminster you won't have any leaders," he says Does he hope for a place in the House of Lords But Welby's version of his part in the Smyth scandal and his reflections on his time in Lambeth Palace but would have to ask permission from the Church Some of Smyth's victims may blame Welby for his attitude forever Historians and Church experts will debate and argue about his legacy – not just his handling of abuse public figure whose career was brought to a painful end But having made history for the wrong reasons anonymity and obscurity is perhaps not his to choose The full interview is on iPlayer and BBC Sounds BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below Sign up for the Off Air with Laura K newsletter to get Laura Kuenssberg's expert insight and insider stories every week, emailed directly to you. One minute you’re shouting to your mate to get more shots at the bar and the next you’re shouting to your other half to get more wipes because there’s baby poo all down your arm Especially in an industry that moves at 100mph and waits for no one I’ve been perusing a career as a presenter ever since leaving 6th form in 2004 Travelling down for auditions in London from the Midlands on the latest train at night because it was the cheapest saying yes to every presenting job and working out the rest as I went along whilst I was still working part time at New Look when I got the call up from the bosses at channel 5 to be their new weather host My main passion has always been comedy and so no matter what the job I’ve always managed to shoehorn in my sense of humour. I was the first weather presenter to go viral for sneaking words, song lyrics and movie references into my forecasts (yes American TikTok weatherman Adam I walked so you could run!) and it was my Star Wars themed forecast in 2015 that catapulted my career onto the right path: entertainment I was now seen as someone with a fun personality and that 100% lead to my career in radio Starting with my own show on Heart evenings and leading to me being poached for the Capital Breakfast show in 2020 that I currently co-host with Jordan North and Chris Stark Working in a male dominated industry I did always feel pressure to prove I was as good as the lads I’ve never wanted to be treated differently to the men However there’s a fact of life that as a woman at some point you have to be treated differently and you really do have to stop I’d worked too hard for too long that I didn’t want the momentum to slow down To the point where in January 2024 I had a dilemma of getting the biggest opportunity of my career cover hosting This Morning with Dermot O’Leary and yet I wasn’t ready to announce I was pregnant as I didn’t want this to affect or overshadow what I was doing 'This size 10 has come small' said Rachael the stylist as I squeezed into a pink suit that she had to cut open at the back day 2 of hosting the biggest morning show in television at 20 weeks pregnant I worked right up until 2 weeks before I was due I needed to pay my bills and I needed to pick up where I’d left off because at the exact same time as This Morning taking off I had also launched a brand new breakfast radio show that had my name on it In my situation it made sense for me to go back to work and for my fiancé Jake to take over the parental leave He’s an amazing dad and I’m lucky that despite the 4am alarm for radio unless I have other jobs booked in I can be home for midday and spend the rest of my day with Ruby Yes it’s meant sacrificing certain opportunities and sleep… Christ some days I look like a hungover Spongbob SquarePants but the second I see Ruby smile and laugh it melts my heart and makes me feel so thankful to have her in my life It’s a ridiculous juggle and I don’t always get it right I’m wary that people may see the funny parts I share on social media and not realise that the day before I cried over a cold cup of tea that I never got to drink Some days smashing it and others on the verge of a mental breakdown having a reason to say 'no' feels liberating and I finally feel able to put life before work Sian Welby is a TV presenter and radio host and hosts Capital Breakfast with Jordan North and Chris Stark Company number 01176085; Bauer Radio Limited Company number: 1394141; Registered office: Media House Peterborough PE2 6EA and H Bauer Publishing Company number: LP003328; Registered office: The Lantern H Bauer Publishing are authorised and regulated for credit broking by the FCA (Ref No: 845898) SearchJustin Welby feels 'personal failure' over handling of John Smyth caseThe Christian Post 2025A video grab from footage broadcast by the U.K Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivering his final speech in the House of Lords in London | PRU/AFP via Getty ImagesJustin Welby has spoken of a “deep sense of personal failure” over how allegations of horrific sexual abuse by the late John Smyth were handled The former archbishop of Canterbury also said he was "profoundly ashamed" of a farewell speech in the House of Lords in which he appeared to make light of the safeguarding failures that led to his resignation Welby stepped down in the wake of the Makin Review which concluded that he could have and should have done more to stop Smyth's abuse Smyth died in South Africa in 2018 while still under investigation by U.K Speaking on the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg program Welby said he should have stepped down sooner “What changed my mind was having been caught by the report being leaked and not really thought it through enough as I read it and re-read it and as I reflected on the horrible suffering of the survivors which had been more than doubled by the institutional Church’s failure to respond adequately it increasingly became clear to me that I needed to resign.” He said he had failed to properly handle allegations of historical child sex abuse because they were on an "overwhelming scale" with more cases arriving every day Asked if he wanted to be forgiven by abuse survivors the center of it is the victims and survivors ‘you must forgive,’ because that is their sovereign He said that after taking up office as archbishop of Canterbury in 2013 he wasn't as "pushy" as he could have been and that he "didn’t realize how bad it was." “I’d been in post 11 weeks and safeguarding had been the crisis I hadn’t foreseen," he said “I should have pushed harder because I knew enough to know that people Welby came under fire for his farewell speech in the House of Lords given shortly after announcing his resignation in which he suggested that a head had to roll The speech was met with dismay not only by victims but senior clergy in the Church of England Looking back on his words made him "profoundly ashamed," he told Kuennssberg adding that he "wasn't in a good space at the time." It was entirely wrong and entirely inexcusable," he said he repeated an apology to victims: “Just for the avoidance of doubt This article was originally published at Christian Today Welby ‘profoundly ashamed’ of comments he made after resigning as archbishop of Canterbury over scandal The former archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said he forgives a serial abuser at the centre of the scandal that led to his resignation as leader of the Church of England and spoke of feeling “profoundly ashamed” of comments he made afterwards In his first interview since resigning in November he also said he had “not really thought it through enough to be honest” when he initially declined to quit last year Welby became the first head of the Church of England to resign over scandal after an independent review found he should have taken speedier and more robustaction over allegations of abuse by John Smyth About 130 boys are believed to have been victims of Smyth Welby said in an interview broadcast on Sunday with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “Yes a survivor of Smyth’s abuse told Kuenssberg: “I came forward 13 years ago and what the church has put me through makes the historic abuse pale into insignificance It has been the most extraordinary traumatic journey trying to get answers The independent review by Keith Makin – in which he highlighted significant failings and proposed recommendations to improve safeguarding practices in the church – concluded that Smyth could have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally reported allegations to the police a decade ago. Free daily newsletterOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters Read moreWelby initially said he would not resign over the report and remained in post for a further five days before announcing he would quit In the BBC interview he said: “What changed my mind was having been caught by the report being leaked and not really thought it through enough as I read it and reread it and as I reflected on the horrible suffering of the survivors more than doubled by the institutional church’s failure to respond adequately Welby also said he winces at the thought of his final speech in the House of Lords in which he had referenced a 14th-century beheading pity my poor diary secretary” who had seen weeks and months of work “disappear in a puff of a resignation announcement” It prompted anger from abuse victims and others The former archbishop said he “wasn’t in a good space at the time” and should not have made the speech at all “It did cause profound upset and I am profoundly ashamed of that and I apologised within 24 hours and I remain deeply ashamed,” he said Welby also used the interview to say his failure to take effective action over a serial sadistic abuser was because he had been overwhelmed by the scale of the abuse crisis in the church “Every day more cases were coming across the desk that had been in the past It was an absolutely overwhelming few weeks.” The survivor of Smyth’s abuse who gave his reaction to Kuenssberg questioned why it had not been a priority for Welby but if this one wasn’t fairly close to the top of the pile The archbishop has admitted his connections Backing the campaign for reparations would be a start I don’t know my newfound cousin Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury. We’re not close, in any sense. But we do have a mutual great-great-great-grandfather: Sir James Fergusson of Kilkerran He is five generations back on Welby’s side It is not as wildly unlikely as you may think – at six removes we all have 128 grandparents But this particular historical figure is significant because of what he and tens of thousands of British people like him did – the fallout of which is still dividing and toxifying society today Welby’s statement confessing Fergusson’s slave-owning past shows he may not know much about our shared forefathers Fergusson and the generation before him were owners of enslaved Black people in Jamaica and There were 160 to 200 people at any one time at the Jamaican sugar plantation Rozelle there were 800,000 enslaved people remaining When it was clear that trade would eventually be banned Sir Adam encouraged his managers to buy more young women so he could breed new workers The teenagers died or failed to produce nearly as many children as he had hoped He became very cross (I have read his letters to his managers at the plantation in Tobago) But the most important point I would make to cousin Justin is that this was entirely racist Our Christian ancestors could not legally or morally have enslaved a white person they had to make Black people not human at all All the enslaved people had their African names erased and replaced with the sort you might attach to a pet dog They rejected moves to baptise or educate them – that would be to acknowledge their humanity the Fergussons branded their “property” with a logo made of their entwined initials Welby has not held back on the church’s complicity. The Church of England committed a “vile and disgusting sin” not just in the moral support it gave the enslavers but in profiting itself But Welby has admitted his connections. And now he must go further. Apology and acknowledgment lead logically to support for calls for reparations, in the Caribbean, West Africa and here. It’s a progression that many families with this story, from Britain and other enslaving nations of Europe, have embraced. Free weekly newsletterNesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world Read moreLast year, some of us set up Heirs of Slavery to encourage others who were ready to acknowledge that their ancestors profited from enslavement to support attempts to heal the still-open wounds we suggest they research the history fully and listen to those descended from the other side of the story I have done that with people all over the UK and at the sites of the Caribbean plantations that my ancestors never visited It is not on the Commonwealth meeting agenda despite the fact that most other nations still bothering to turn up do want to talk about post-colonial reconciliation a betrayal of all the people who still have some faith in British morality and justice His story shows how deeply embedded this past is in us More than 2 million Britons are as connected as myself and Welby to those who received the compensation money paid out to slave owners by the British government in 1833 after the abolition of slavery Many more are connected to the wealth generated by all the slavery-dependent industries from banking and insurance to shipbuilding and the weaving of cloth for enslaved people to wear For Welby to convince such a totemic public figure to deliver the apology so long called for would leave a lasting legacy – and truly start the process of reconciliation Alex Renton is author of Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family’s Story of Slavery Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. The leader of the Church of England Justin Welby resigned after pressure had grown following the publication of a report into a serial child abuser linked to the institution. The report found that the church had known about allegations of abuse against John Smyth since 1982, and Welby had known since 2013, but had failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed. (Produced by Luke Garratt) FILE - Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as he listens to debate at the General Synod in London, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File) Welby stepped down after an independent investigation found that he had failed to inform police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it. Here are the answers to some questions about the Church of England, Welby’s decision and its global significance. The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, is a Christian denomination and the official church of England. It was created in the 16th century when the English church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. The church is part of the global Anglican Communion, a family of churches that has over 85 million members in more than 165 countries. Britain’s monarch is the supreme governor of the Church of England and has the power to appoint bishops and other church leaders. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England and is traditionally seen as the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion. Each of the 46 churches that comprise the Anglican Communion has its own primate, but the Archbishop of Canterbury is considered first among equals. Justin Welby, 68, was the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. He worked in the oil industry for 11 years before he left in 1989 to study for the priesthood. Welby was ordained in 1992 and worked extensively in Africa and the Middle East before he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013. Though a skilled mediator — who has worked to resolve conflicts in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa — he struggled to unite the global Anglican Communion. The 251-page report concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury. Had he done so, Smyth could have been stopped sooner and many of his victims wouldn’t have been abused, the report found. Welby initially refused to resign, saying he was wrongly informed that police had already been notified and he shouldn’t do anything to interfere with their investigation. But his position became untenable after a growing number of church leaders and victims criticized him for failing to take responsibility for the scandal. “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024,” Welby said, announcing his resignation. Yes. Like the Catholic Church, the Church of England has faced a long series of allegations that priests and others affiliated with the church used their positions to abuse young men and women. An independent inquiry established by the government found that 390 people associated with the church were convicted of child sexual abuse between the 1940s and 2018. 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,” the inquiry found. Welby’s supporters said he was instrumental in changing the culture of the church and improving its safeguarding procedures after he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013. The process of selecting Welby’s successor will begin with the Crown Nominations Commission, which nominates candidates for Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishoprics in England. The commission will send the name of a preferred candidate and an alternate to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who will then advise King Charles III on his selection. The commission has 16 members, including the Archbishop of York, representatives of the clergy and laypeople, a representative of the Anglican Communion and a chair appointed by the prime minister. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivers his speech as Pope Francis presides over the first vespers on the day the Catholic church celebrates the conversion of St. Paul, in the St.Paul’s Basilica, in Rome, on Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File) Welby, the head of Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, will lay down his bishop’s crozier – a ceremonial long staff – in a symbolic act that marks the end of his ministry. Most of his official functions will be delegated to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, as the church embarks on the lengthy process of selecting a new leader. Welby’s initial refusal to step aside kindled anger about a lack of accountability at the highest reaches of the church. The resignation comes against the backdrop of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England. A 2022 report by the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse said a culture that gave more support to alleged perpetrators than their victims helped make the Church of England “a place where abusers could hide.” The Archbishop of Canterbury is the symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries. While each national church has its own leaders, the Archbishop of Canterbury is considered first among equals. The process of selecting Welby’s successor is expected to take months, with the new archbishop to possibly announced in the autumn. The British media is already speculating about the leading contenders. They include Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, who has been outspoken on the need to improve the church’s safeguarding policies. She was the only bishop to call publicly for Welby’s resignation and also criticized Cottrell over his handling of abuse in the church. Others candidates include the bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, a former nurse; and the bishop of Norwich, Graham Usher, a beekeeper who is the church’s lead bishop on the environment. The commission has 17 voting members, including the Archbishop of York, representatives of the clergy and laypeople and a chair appointed by the prime minister. The commission will also include representatives from the churches of the Anglican Communion in five global regions — Africa, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and Oceania. Editorial: As regards safeguarding the Church of England is in no better state than when Justin Welby became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013 in which he said he would forgive the serial abuser John Smyth if he were still alive has emerged from his self-imposed period of silent reflection to declare that he is “utterly sorry” to victims and survivors of child abuse in the Church of England He feels “a deep sense of personal failure” about not doing enough about the scandals that have so afflicted the Church in recent years His expressions of remorse leave the organisation he so recently headed with its 85 million “family” across 165 nations hardly much better placed to face the future his plain declaration that he had forgiven Smyth – an immediate “yes” in response to Ms Kuenssberg’s query – could have been couched in a more empathetic manner though he added it wasn't about him but the victims not quite as empathetic as it might have been at least some of the allegations made against Smyth before and after he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013 that his regret about his lack of action in the Smyth case was because he did not know all the details until 2017 He repeated his line that he was insufficiently “curious” and not insufficiently “caring” and that he regretted failing to follow up on what turned out to be inaccurate information about a police investigation it is the opinion of the reviewers that it was unlikely that Justin Welby would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding John Smyth in the 1980s in the UK […] it is most probable that he would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.” The report also criticised the nature of Archbishop Welby’s subsequent outreach to the victims also echoed by one prominent survivor in the BBC programme as a current issue But those are not reasons to do nothing about the rest of the pile of allegations Bishop Welby stresses that none of this extra background to his lack of curiosity and fatal inaction constitutes an excuse Bishop Welby sometimes seems almost to acknowledge that but cannot quite admit it publicly The lack of judgement exercised by Welby has proved enduring he even had to express regret about the defiantly jokey speech he made in the House of Lords after he had had to resign He admits now that “it did cause profound upset and I am profoundly ashamed of that […] I wasn’t in a good space at the time I shouldn’t have done a valedictory speech at all.” Yet here he is The former archbishop has to live with the fact that he failed to stop the child abusers failed to secure justice for hundreds of victims and survivors and left the Anglican Church in an even weaker state than it was when he took over in 2012 That his wasn’t the only religious movement to have become scarred by sexual abuse scandals ever the “chief executive of the Church of England PLC” with untrammelled powers [Episcopal News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will complete his official duties by the Feast of the Epiphany – Jan. 6, 2025 – according to a Nov. 20 statement from Lambeth Palace Welby “intends very little public-facing activity between now and Epiphany but plans to honor a small number of remaining commitments,” the statement said the archbishop of Canterbury’s official functions will be delegated to Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell psychological and spiritual attacks” on young victims he met in the late 1970s and early ‘80s at youth camps tied to the Church of England The archbishop acknowledged that the investigative report “has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.” upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 The date on which he formally ceases to hold office will be set in agreement with the United Kingdom’s Privy Council, the Lambeth statement said. Welby’s eventual successor will be named by King Charles III with advice of England’s prime minster she's now turning her attention to spring dresses and boy worn on Thursday's edition of the ITV show has already gone into my basket and ordered - that's how cool it is I thought I had all the styles of denim dresses there were to own but Sian's dress is giving a new vibe it's the sharp collar and nipped in waist that give it a more tailored look than you'd expect from a denim dress it adds to the smarter feel while the mid-blue rinse keeps it cool too It really taps into the current high street trend of tailored waist pieces; you'll find that cinched in waist look on jackets and shirts along with dresses like Sian's The website suggests to wear the dress with suede ballet flats but I like how Sian has added some height with a pair of heeled suede boots The mum-of-one's Dune London boots have a pointed toe with stiletto heel If you're a jeans wearer like me, a denim dress is a great piece to add to your wardrobe for when you want to stretch your style. It's a favourite look among celebrities like Cat Deeley, Amanda Holden and Lorraine Kelly and can be as easily worn everyday as it can a special event By entering your details, you are agreeing to HELLO! Magazine User Data Protection Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information, please click here the Church of England’s governing body [Episcopal News Service] The Church of England’s General Synod is meeting in London this week for the first time since the resignation last month of former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby the process for selecting Welby’s successor is advancing and eventually will involve both England’s prime minister and King Charles III Until a new archbishop is chosen, Welby’s former duties are being delegated to other Church of England leaders, with Archbishop of York Steven Cottrell filling most of the position’s responsibilities as head of the church. Cottrell, though, is also facing criticism over a separate, unrelated abuse case He is accused of allowing a priest to remain in his post despite the priest being accused of sexual abuse involving two girls On the first day of General Synod, Feb. 10, a lay member forced a vote seeking to block Cottrell from giving his opening address to the church’s governing body. That proposal was overwhelmingly defeated, and Cottrell spoke for about 20 minutes acknowledging the “difficult and challenging times” facing the church “I believe in and love the Church of England,” Cottrell said sadness and regret present in this chamber not least among victims and survivors of abuse and those who valiantly support them but also among women in our church who are still victims of discrimination The other three are the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops the Primates’ Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council At the ACC’s meeting in Ghana, members from 38 provinces approved a resolution on “good differentiation” that endorsed efforts “to explore theological questions regarding structure and decision-making to help address our differences in the Anglican Communion.” The Anglican body assigned to discuss those questions released its latest draft report in December 2024 proposing two key changes: The Anglican Communion’s membership would be defined as all provinces with “historical connection” to the See of Canterbury rather than being “in communion” with that office And the archbishop of Canterbury would no longer be the ACC president the presidency instead rotating among leaders from the communion’s five regions The ACC is expected to take up the proposals when it meets next in February 2026 in Northern Ireland The process for selecting a new archbishop of Canterbury and all Episcopalians and Anglicans worldwide have been invited to provide input “We want to hear from you,” the Church of England says in an invitation on its website Those interested in giving their input are asked to complete an online form by March 28 “Whether you are based in England or anywhere in the Anglican Communion This consultation invites you to share your thoughts on what qualities and vision the future archbishop should embody.” The Crown Nominations Commission has 17 voting members and is chaired by a lay leader appointed by the prime minister Three lay and three clergy members of General Synod serve on the commission as well as three representatives of the Diocese of Canterbury The commission also includes one member from each of the Anglican Communion’s five global regions The other two voting members are the archbishop of York and an additional bishop elected by the House of Bishops Nonvoting members include the prime minister’s appointments secretary and the secretary general of the Anglican Communion and then two-thirds of the commission must agree on a nomination for it to advance The nominee’s name is presented to the prime minister who then confirms that the nominee is willing to serve as archbishop of Canterbury Once the prime minister accepts a nominee, that person is recommend to the king, who grants a license for Canterbury Cathedral’s College of Canons to elect the archbishop of Canterbury the king assents to the result of the election and the new archbishop of Canterbury officially takes office at a Confirmation of Election ceremony held at St A separate installation service is held later at Canterbury Cathedral Toggle Sensemaker Daily Justin Welby is first Anglican leader to resign in church’s history Phoebe Davis “For nearly twelve years I have struggled to introduce improvements,” Justin Welby said on resigning yesterday as Archbishop of Canterbury. “It is for others to judge what has been done”. So what? Others did, and found him wanting. By his own account, Welby found himself wanting, too. Yesterday he became the first holder of his post in its 1300-year history to resign because of a scandal: the cover-up, on his watch, of the “prolific, brutal and horrific” abuse of more than 100 boys across three countries and five decades. From all the evidence Welby struggled over his decision. In the end, it was The abuse. A review leaked last week found that Smyth may have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England. There is evidence he began his abuse as early as 1971 and it continued right up to his death in 2018. This included: The cover-up. The 250 pages of social services director Keith Makin’s report provide an excruciatingly detailed account of how church officers repeatedly did not stop, and at times enabled, Smyth’s persistent abuse of boys and young men. Such as Did Welby know? The review found that although Welby “may not have known the extreme seriousness of the abuse” when he was told in 2013, it is “most probable he would have had at least a level of knowledge” Smyth was “of some concern”. Crucially, he failed to ensure police were properly notified. Context matters. Anglican sex abuse scandals have been dwarfed in number and scale by those in the Catholic Church, but Leading the Anglican communion through these and other reviews was a priority for Welby from the start. Radical transparency was not his default solution. As recently as April 2019 he claimed in a Channel 4 interview that neither Smyth nor the Iwerne Trust which ran the Christian camps was “Anglican” – a claim he has since retracted. Welby’s actions since 2013 led victims to tell the Makin review they felt a sense of “personal betrayal” due to his connection with them through various Church networks. “He represents more than a remote figure to them,” Makin writes. Another view. Welby has taken responsibility but wasn’t solely responsible. The review points to a host of other “enablers” in the Church community who could, and should, have acted to stop Smyth. What next? Much like the victims of ex-Harrod’s boss, Mohammed Al-Fayed, justice in the criminal courts is hindered by Smyth’s death. The Crown Nominations Committee will recommend a successor to Welby, and will face pressure from some quarters to propose a woman. What’s more… The Church Times reports survivors have “little confidence” the CofE will take more notice of Makin’s recommendations than of the many previous safeguarding reports. A free newsletter from Tortoise. Take once a day for greater clarity. Google Play Store Follow: Why is the Church of England so often led by an idiot do not want someone too cunning looking over their shoulders Or is it simply that as the Church’s importance in British life dwindles seemingly by the minute and fewer and fewer turn up on a Sunday morning the reservoir of possible talent narrows until you are left with somebody like Justin Welby — Ed Davey in a dog collar and a nice frock I suspect that the departing archbishop was a kindly man — at least by his own lights upper-middle-class bien-pensant manner that is too often mistaken for godliness by the C of E But he was surely not the brightest of even the recent incumbents (that would be Rowan Williams) Eventually forced to resign, after a long while of hanging on by his fingertips in a somewhat inelegant manner, Welby delivered himself of a speech in the House of Lords that succeeded only in infuriating half of the synod and all of those people who suffered at the hands of that bona fide psycho the church reader John Smyth all of which suggested he did not give a monkey’s about the abuse perpetrated by Smyth and in any case was not remotely responsible for having kept the allegations from the police and the public eye It was one of the least humble speeches you could wish to hear He joked about his predecessors having their heads cut off and intimated that and it was then the peasants — the revolting peasants at the time — who played football with it at the Tower of London those who had been unfortunate enough to come within John Smyth’s weird orbit of brutal sado-noncing were expecting something in the way of contrition Having accepted “personal and institutional responsibility” for the failure to bring Smyth’s crimes to light in his resignation statement saying: “The reality is that there comes a time if you are technically leading a particular institution or area of responsibility Sometimes the person at the top is forced to depart as a consequence of the failures of those below him (although more often those lower down cop disproportionate blame) He was not “technically” the head of the Church: he was head of the Church And all the evidence suggests that he knew plenty about John Smyth but did absolutely nothing about it He has since apologised for his House of Lords speech — but it’s too late His tenure was characterised by a predilection for grandstanding on political issues and a marked absence of God Read it all in the Sunday Times former archbishop of Canterbury says more cases were arriving every day and he ‘got it wrong’ has said his failure to take effective action over a serial sadistic abuser was because he was “overwhelmed” by the scale of the abuse crisis in the Church of England In his first interview since resigning last November Welby said: “Every day more cases were coming across the desk that had been in the past He also said there was a “rush to judgment” of public leaders “There is an absence of forgiveness; we don’t treat our leaders as human Welby became the first archbishop in more than 1,000 years to quit after an independent review found that he should have taken more robust action over allegations of abuse by John Smyth announced days after the review was published in November An independent review by Keith Makin into the abuse concluded Smyth could have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally reported it to police a decade ago Welby and other senior figures in the C of E were told of allegations that Smyth had abused dozens of boys who attended evangelical Christian holiday camps Welby had volunteered at the holiday camps in the late 1970s but said he was unaware of the allegations at the time The Makin review said Welby was informed of the abuse allegations in 2013 but failed to take action and that it was “unlikely” he would have been unaware of rumours surrounding Smyth when he was volunteering at the camps The review said: “[Welby] may not have known of the extreme seriousness of the abuse but it is most probable that he would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.” Free newsletterGet the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning Welby said: “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.” told the BBC: “The archbishop suggests he was just too busy No one should be too busy to deal with a safeguarding disclosure The archbishop has never answered why there were not enormous red flags when told about horrific abuse.” Welby’s successor as archbishop of Canterbury is expected to be announced in the autumn after a lengthy and opaque selection process led by the UK’s former spy chief The archbishop of Banterbury could have used his speech to express remorse to victims of abuse But then there wouldn’t have been any room for lolz sentencing guidelines for people with auto-satirical body art is one of only about three subjects that Justin Welby didn’t make some public comment about in his tenure as the archbishop of Canterbury a sadistic monster who he had once hugely admired begged repeatedly – and for years – for an investigation which the Church of England did not instigate Many of them now state the church’s ignoring of their trauma was equal to the abuse itself but the verdict on Welby and other senior church figures of the official independent review into the church’s handling of Smyth – is the terrible sin of omission here The allegations against Smyth were first investigated and publicly aired not by the Church of England from whose 2017 report the precious-little-justice in this case has flowed To pick one date, speaking of diary secretaries, it really is mad to think that Welby spent 1 October 2014 blogging about the importance of listening to victims of abuse and declaring them never to blame – when he could have spent it talking to victims of Smyth’s abuse and telling the authorities about the man to blame During the years he knew about many British victims of Smyth Welby found time to address a vast range of topics The legitimacy of fear in the Brexit debate the broken economic model … All of these things – and so many more – over which Welby had no operational control were given a hose-down of his reflections while Smyth moved on to abusing at least 85 more boys (at current estimate) in African nations This was a horror that Welby could have actually done something direct to prevent Smyth eventually died in South Africa in 2018 as a free man despite finally being under investigation by Hampshire police For all his evil suggestions to boys that his torturous beatings were a way of avoiding brimstone I assume Smyth never even actually believed there was a hell or he wouldn’t have spent a lifetime booking his spot in it the live story since Welby’s resignation should be the speed with which this entire archbishop-felling affair is already being swept under the church’s vast carpet despite victims working desperately to stop that Yet why should it be up to victims to have to keep pushing in order to keep the matter prominent Why should it be up to people who have already been through the most hideous things to have to somehow find the strength to push for a huge and evidently self-interested institution to make serious changes Before he tendered his resignation, allies of Welby defended him with the jaw-dropping argument that other senior church figures knew far more about Smyth’s abuse than Welby and for a lot longer What is being done to hold them to account Every one of those supposedly godly figures should be facing consequences because the Church of England is somehow still in charge of its own safeguarding arrangements