The banality of Welby

Justin Welby has failed in his constitutional duty to provide moral leadership over the John Smyth abuse scandal. He must resign, says James Price

Benjamin Franklin once joked that the only difference between Anglicanism and Catholicism was that: “the Church of Rome is infallible, whilst the Church of England is never in the wrong”. Revelations in recent decades have proven both of these to be untrue. Worse still for organisations that claim moral leadership in society, as well as in the hearts of men, the depths of their failings have included the very worst crimes one can imagine: the abuse of children.

Now a new report has concluded that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the senior primate, primus inter pares, His Grace, The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby, knew about the worst child abuse scandal in the Church of England’s history, but didn’t report it. 

In his own words: “The report is clear that I personally failed to ensure that after disclosure in 2013 the awful tragedy was energetically investigated”. That “awful tragedy” was the systematic sexual abuse of over 100 children. The perpetrator was a man called John Smyth QC, a barrister who acted for morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse and ran a series of bible camps. Once discovered, he was allowed to escape to Africa (itself a dreadful calumny that let him loose on more victims).

One of the ‘voluntary dormitory officers’ in the camps where these most wicked of crimes took place was Justin Welby. The recent revelations have led an increasing number of vicars to call on Welby to resign, something he has so far steadfastly refused to do. I would direct you to the powerful, and dare I say righteous, calls for this by friends of mine in the clergy like Fergus Butler-Gallie, Marcus Walker and Giles Fraser. 

Their bravery in calling for the resignation of their own boss demands our respect. And they know the burden of leading parish congregations and the strains of a role that requires the kind of moral leadership of the priesthood better than I could ever convey. In Walker’s case, he is Rector of a church here in the City, and in Fraser’s he was Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral. 

But beyond that, why should this awful case matter to a busy City AM reader beyond the abhorrence we all share at these grotesque crimes? It is because the Church of England is still the established church of the land, and the Archbishop of Canterbury plays a crucial constitutional, institutional and civic role. We saw that clearly in the funeral of Elizabeth II and Coronation of Charles III. 

We see it, too, in the frequent interventions that Welby makes in all manner of political issues du jour. His own institution is dying. Under his leadership churches are closing, pews are emptying and hymns are left unsung. But rather than try to save the parish, Welby spends money on studying colonialism and reparations, lectures the government on the necessity of letting seemingly infinite numbers of bogus asylum seekers into Britain, and opines on fiscal and domestic policy galore. He uses his office to lecture others on morality, whilst he himself failed to disclose the most obvious evil.

Hypocrisy

At a time when both the last government and its successor are deeply unpopular, and when complicated social, cultural and spiritual questions around national identity and character abound, we need our institutions to step up and help the nation to parse and process these issues. Instead, the figure charged with delivering moral leadership and guidance has clearly failed and his hypocrisy stands plain for all to see. 

Some say that politics (and business) lie downstream of culture. Recent City trends like DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), or ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) have been both controversial and widely popular, and all move away from Milton Friedman’s dictum that the “business of business is business”. But if the moral leader of the Church of England is found to be unfit for the charges of spiritual leadership (from which DEI, ESG and all the rest at least indirectly flow), what hope do the rest of us have of evaluating the morality of our individual or collective actions? 

James Price is a former government advisor