Why did Justin welby resign
Executive summary
Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury because an independent review into decades-old abuses by John Smyth found he had failed to ensure a proper investigation and had not acted promptly to report allegations when they were brought to church officers’ attention, sparking intense public and clerical pressure that made his position untenable [1] [2] [3].
1. The immediate cause: the Makin review’s criticism of Welby’s handling of the Smyth case
The resignation followed publication of an independent inquiry — commonly called the Makin report — which concluded that Welby “could and should” have ensured formal reporting to police and other authorities over allegations that John Smyth assaulted boys at Christian camps, and that Welby’s follow-up in 2013 was insufficient, a failure the report singled out for criticism [1] [4] [3].
2. The political and institutional pressure that forced a decision
After the report’s release, calls for Welby to step down mounted rapidly: petitions gathered thousands of signatures, members of the Church’s governing bodies and commentators demanded accountability, and commentators described this as the first time an Anglican archbishop had resigned over an abuse scandal — a level of institutional and public pressure that he ultimately acknowledged he could not withstand [1] [3] [5].
3. Personal accountability versus contested findings
Welby framed his resignation as taking “personal and institutional responsibility” for the Church’s failures and the “long-maintained conspiracy of silence” exposed by the inquiry, while also later arguing that parts of the Makin report were wrong or incomplete — saying he learned fuller details only after the report and disputing the timing of what he knew in 2013 — a defence reported in interviews and by The Independent [3] [4].
4. The timing and formal process of stepping down
Although the report and outcry came in November 2024 and he offered his resignation on Nov. 12 after first apologising publicly, the practical end of his active ministry was phased: Lambeth Palace announced dates for formal transition and delegation of duties to the archbishop of York, and official end dates were to be set with the Privy Council, with some reporting that his resignation concluded formally in January 2025 [1] [6] [7].
5. Broader implications for the Church of England and global Anglicanism
Welby’s resignation underscored deeper demands for safeguarding reform; advocates and survivors called for “complete reform” of Church safeguarding structures, and some Anglican provinces — particularly in Africa — had already signalled diminished confidence in his leadership, meaning the resignation has institutional as well as symbolic reverberations across the global Communion [1] [8] [3].
6. Multiple narratives: shame, accountability, and procedural dispute
Reporting shows two overlapping narratives: one that Welby failed to act quickly enough to bring a serial abuser to justice and therefore must face consequences, and another in which Welby and some supporters stress his apology and ongoing work to reform safeguarding while disputing aspects of the inquiry’s timeline and evidence — an implicit agenda in coverage that ranges from demands for moral accountability to institutional self-protection [9] [4] [10].
7. What the resignation signals about leadership standards
By stepping down, Welby set a precedent that top clerical leaders can be held to account for historic safeguarding failures; whether that yields structural change depends on the Church’s follow-through on independent scrutiny and discipline, matters widely urged by journalists, survivor groups and bishops in the wake of the report [5] [11] [3].