Disgraced Archbishop of Canterbury Officially Ends Reign, Needs Permission From Bishop To Do Anything
The head of the Church of England and the entire global Anglican community, Justin Welby, officially concluded his position Monday at midnight, handing in his crozier and bringing an ignoble end to his reign as the disgraced 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.
Welby resigned in November after an investigation found that he’d failed to inform police about a serial sexual abuser who’d made Anglican church camps his hunting ground.
According to the Sunday Times, Welby cannot perform any of his priestly duties, such as officiating church services, unless he seeks and receives special permission from a bishop.
Welby, who led 85 million Anglicans in 165 countries as the Archbishop of Canterbury, was not forced to leave over eagerly cheer leading the denomination to support gay marriage and gingerly holding her hand as she descends into wokeness and sin, but rather because a recent report (which took five years to publish) concluded that church leadership failed to warn law enforcement and other members about the predations of John Smyth, a monstrous old pedophile who died in 2018 after molesting and physically abusing hundreds of boys over five decades.
The report concluded that upper echelons of church leadership, including Welby, had a firm knowledge of Smyth’s predations but said nothing, allowing him to continue to molest and abuse untold amounts of boys and young men for years to come. The Sunday Times reports:
When a priest leaves office or retires, they may not officiate at services or act as a priest unless they have been granted permission to officiate by a bishop. This allows them to carry out priestly duties in that bishop’s diocese.
Welby will, therefore, not be able to officiate as a priest after Monday. A source said he would not “immediately or automatically” be granted permission to officiate but could apply “following a period of discernment … in conjunction with a diocesan bishop”.
It remains to be seen whether any bishop would grant Welby this permission so soon after his resignation over a safeguarding scandal.
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