Church scandal victims want more resignations

The most damaging sex and violence scandal to hit the Church of England, or C of E, for centuries should force more resignations, victims have said.

After Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby stood down on Tuesday over the scandal and its cover-up, a C of E bishop conceded on Wednesday that "in some ways, we are not a safe institution".

Julie Conalty, the Bishop of Birkenhead, who is second-in-command of the C of E's safeguarding committee, told the BBC: "We have this institutional problem where we are not putting victims and survivors at the center."

She spoke after Welby, who presided over the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the crowning of King Charles III, stood down following the release of a report into sexual and physical abuse at Christian camps run by barrister and church insider John Smyth.

Smyth's abuse of around 100 boys and young men in the 1970s and 1980s was well known to C of E leaders by 2013 when Welby took over the top job and should have been reported at the time, the report said.

Welby, who has insisted he thought police were told, said on Tuesday he stood down because it was "in the best interests of the Church of England".

But many of Smyth's victims want more resignations, especially among those involved in the cover-up that began in the early 1980s when complaints were first made to the Iwerne Trust that Smyth ran.

The abuse was detailed in a report sent to senior C of E officials in 1982 but still the police were not told.

The Makin Review, which looked into the case decades later, said the church "participated in an active cover-up" to prevent its reputation being damaged.

It was not until 2012 that the allegations resurfaced, shortly before Welby, who had known Smyth for decades, was named Archbishop of Canterbury.

The report said the church could have belatedly done the right thing then, but still failed to do so.

If it had told police what it knew, the report said, "Smyth could have (been) brought to justice at a much earlier point".

The police finally started an investigation in 2017, after a television documentary exposed the allegations.

Smyth died in South Africa in 2018 without facing justice.

Survivor Richard Gittins told Sky News he hopes the police will now question bishops "who kept the stories to themselves".

And Mark Stibbe, a fellow survivor, told Channel 4 News more bishops should stand down.

Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Welby's resignation is insufficient to "solve the church's profound failure".

She said it must now "commit to changing the culture of the old school: a culture that put the reputation of the church before the protection of the vulnerable".

"Now is the time for fresh thinking and generous Christianity," she said.