Recent police investigations have implicated the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, revealing that he had knowledge of extensive physical and sexual abuse committed by a volunteer at Christian summer camps.
In response, some members of the General Synod, the Church’s national assembly, have started a petition urging Archbishop Welby to resign, claiming he has “lost the trust of his clergy.” By late Monday morning (London time), the petition had gathered more than 1,800 signatures on Change.org.
The calls for Welby’s resignation intensified after Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle and a senior clergy member, publicly stated that his position is “untenable.”
Pressure on Welby has been mounting since Thursday, following the Church’s release of an independent report on John Smyth, who sexually, psychologically, and physically abused around 30 boys and young men in the UK and 85 in Africa over a span of five decades.
Source: Africanews
