Justin Welby states that he was “ overwhelmed” with the scale of abuse allegations in the Church of England.

Justin Welby the former Archbishop of Canterbury has, in his only interview, told the BBC that he was “overwhelmed” with the scale of the abuse allegations in the Church of England.

Welby explained that these feelings prevented him from acting and “rigorously following up” on reports made on John Smyth.

John Smyth is arguably the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England. He died in 2018, and it is alleged that he abused more than 100 boys and young men in the UK and Africa over decades.

The Makin 2024 review found that Welby “could and should have done more to bring Smyth to justice.”  It stated that the abuse by Smyth was on an “industrial scale and opportunities to investigate Smyth were missed.” 

This evidence was presented to Welby in 2013. Welby has stated that he “feels a deep sense of personal failure” about this.

Welby also expressed that he would be able to forgive Smyth, “Yes, I think if he was alive and I saw him, but it’s not me he’s abused. He abused the victims and survivors. So, whether I forgive or not is to a large extent irrelevant.”

Survivors feel that the Church is still overwhelmed with cases and “is no better at dealing with them now.” Mandatory reporting is still absent in the Church’s safeguarding policy. Last month the General Synod rejected a proposal that would have made safeguarding within the Church fully independent.

The Government are expected to announce in the coming weeks, their plans for a survivors and victims’ panel and have already confirmed that they will introduce mandatory reporting for these working with children to report sexual abuse.

The Church of England made a statement in response to the interview by Welby. “ In the past 10 years the Church has developed and strengthened its safeguarding policies and practices, making significant improvements in training, national safeguarding standards and external audits, and continues to do so.”

The Church of England must be held accountable for their failings and survivors of abuse must be heard. Concerns that the Church of England are failing to deal with sexual abuse within the Church has led to the development of The Church of England Redress Scheme, which hopefully will be in place this year.

There is a clear need for the Church of England to implement a fully independent safeguarding model to investigate allegations of abuse. Failure to do so, will just deepen the existing crisis in the Church of England.