CANTERBURY (UNITED KINGDOM)
Daily Mail [London, United Kingdom]
January 5, 2025
Justin Welby is spending his final day as Archbishop of Canterbury, as he prepares to step down over failures in handling a Church of England abuse scandal.
Almost two months after announcing his resignation, he will officially quit the role today.
It follows an independent review which concluded barrister and Christian camp leader John Smyth – thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church – might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported him to police in 2013.
The Archbishop has made few public appearances since mid-November, and did not give the traditional Christmas Day sermon from Canterbury Cathedral.
While in his initial resignation statement on November 12 he said he was stepping down ‘in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse’, he had to issue an apology later that month following his final speech in the House of Lords.
On that occasion he was accused of making light of serious safeguarding failures in the Church, with an abuse survivor branding the speech – which referenced a 14th century beheading and prompted laughter from some peers – ‘tone deaf’.
In recent weeks a major charity, The Children’s Society, also rejected a Christmas donation from Mr Welby saying that accepting it ‘would not be consistent with the principles and values that underpin our work’.
Mr Welby is said to be spending today [Monday] privately at his London residence, Lambeth Palace, attending a lunchtime Eucharist and later a service of Evensong.
It is during the latter that he will lay down his bishop’s crozier – a ceremonial long staff – in a symbolic act which marks the official end of his ministry as Archbishop of Canterbury.
From tomorrow [Tuesday], most of the official functions normally held by the Archbishop of Canterbury will be delegated to the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell while some will go to the Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally, and the diocesan functions will be carried out by the Bishop of Dover Rose Hudson-Wilkin.
Mr Cottrell has also faced calls to resign over his handling of a separate abuse case but, appearing to reject those calls in recent weeks, he has pledged to ‘do what I can’ to bring about independent scrutiny of safeguarding in the Church.
The process to replace Mr Welby is expected to take months, with an announcement about a new archbishop of Canterbury possible in autumn.
Who could be the next Archbishop of Canterbury?
The Church of England is on the search for the 106th archbishop of Canterbury.The role had been held for more than a decade by Justin Welby, until his resignation over failures in handling a church abuse scandal.
There are more than 100 bishops in the Church of England, including 42 diocesan bishops.Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell appeared to rule himself out last year, and has since faced calls to resign over perceived failures in his handling of a separate abuse case.
Here, is a look at some of the names who could be in the running.
Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London
The former nurse was the youngest person to be appointed chief nursing officer for England in 1999.
She sits in the House of Lords and was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in March 2018.
She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2005 for her contribution to nursing and midwifery.
She is married with two children and is a novice potter.
She is taking on the metropolitan functions usually held by the archbishop of Canterbury in the interim period while the post is vacant.
Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford
Born in Iran, Bishop Guli’s family fled in the wake of the Iranian revolution in 1980, when she was just a teenager.
Her brother Bahram was murdered in the revolution, and she previously spoke about how it affected her family.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs: “We’ve spent a lifetime coming to terms with it. In a sense, it was his sacrifice that brought us here. I don’t think my mum and my sister and I would have left if we hadn’t had a very good reason to.
“So he gave us the gift of a chance of a new life in this country.”
She has been Bishop of Chelmsford since April 2021 and is the lead bishop for housing for the Church of England.
She is married with three children.
Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich
The ecologist and keen beekeeper is the church’s lead bishop on the environment.
He became the 72nd Bishop of Norwich in June 2019 and is patron or president of more than 25 charities.
He is married with two children.
Michael Beasley, Bishop of Bath and Wells
The former epidemiologist was a member of the Church of England’s Covid task force during the pandemic.
He was also part of efforts by Unicef and the NHS to launch Cakhia TV – Xem Trực Tiếp Bóng Đá, Link Trực Tuyến hôm nay which raised more than £10 million in support of vaccination for low-income countries.
He is married and became the 80th Bishop of Bath and Wells in 2022.
Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester
Born in Indonesia, he studied chemistry at the University of Sheffield and then worked with the Crown Prosecution Service.
He became the seventh Bishop of Leicester in 2016.
As well as being a supporter of Leicester City and Leicester Tigers, his interests are said to include music and hill walking.
He is married and at one stage worked in Guinea in West Africa with the local church alongside his wife.
Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover
Born in Jamaica, she trained for ordination at Queens Theological College and was ordained a deacon in 1991 and a priest in 1994.
Bishop Rose was a priest in Hackney, London, for almost 17 years, and in 2007 she was appointed as a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II.
She became the first woman appointed to the position of the 79th Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons in 2010.
She was announced in 2019 as the Bishop of Dover, becoming the Church of England’s first black female bishop.
Her husband Kenneth is a prison chaplain and they have three children.
Bishop Rose will take on diocesan functions usually held by the archbishop of Canterbury while the post is vacant.
Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle
Ordained into the Church of England in 2005 as deacon in the Diocese of Oxford, she became a priest the following year – following in her own father’s footsteps as he was also a priest in the Church.
Born in Edinburgh, she spent her early years living in the Scottish Borders before moving with her family to Sunderland.
She served for a time in New Zealand before being announced as Bishop of Ripon in 2017, and she became Bishop of Newcastle following a service of inauguration at Newcastle Cathedral in April 2023.
She has been outspoken regarding the Church’s safeguarding, becoming the only bishop to call publicly for Mr Welby’s resignation and also criticising Mr Cottrell over his handling of abuse in the church.