Bishop calls for more ‘awareness’ after Archbishop of Canterbury resigns

Описание: The Bishop of Blackburn, Philip North, calls for more “awareness” around sex abuse as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, resigns over the Church of England’s failure to alert authorities to the abuse of boys by John Smyth.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has announced he will step down from his role "in the best interests of the Church of England", after facing mounting pressure to quit over his handling of the John Smyth abuse case.

Last week, a review concluded that barrister John Smyth QC had abused more than 100 children and young men in the UK and Africa over five decades. Smyth is thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church.

Smyth died in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police. He was 75 years old at the time of his death.

The review found Welby, who knew Smyth through his attendance at Iwerne Christian camps in the 1970s, “could and should” have formally reported the abuse.

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SHOTLIST
SOUNDBITE (English) Philip North, Bishop of Blackburn: "I think, you know, I think he's made a great contribution to the church. He brought a very clear focus at the beginning on evangelism, on prayer and on reconciliation. He's brought, faith into the public square and has enabled the church to engage with some of the major global issues that we face, particularly around the environment and global conflict. And he's been a great reconciler. And, also, he's helped us to address some of the tougher issues, particularly on diversity in the church -- and also, ironically, safeguarding. You know, we have seen progress in the area of safeguarding and it's an irony that it's that that eventually has led to his downfall."

SOUNDBITE (English) Philip North, Bishop of Blackburn: "I think that one thing that makes me quite depressed tonight is that again and again the church has been told to improve in certain areas and yet another report comes out measuring limited progress. Now it must be said that on the ground, our local churches are working tremendously hard, and there really is cultural change in the local church, but they're being let down I think, by failures at the centre. And the learning from making is really clear. There's something about being a survivor centred, trauma informed church and really listening to the voices of survivors in the way we haven't always. There's something very important about disclosures and making timely disclosures and disclosing even when you think someone else has disclosed. And there's also I think warnings about about the way in which the structure of the church makes it easy for powerful, well connected individuals to groom others into abuse. We've got to be much, much more aware.Of those kind of feelings. So I think I, along with many leaders, will be paying a great deal of attention tonight the way the culture that we set and the way we use power ourselves."