Welby's flippant Apology in Farewell Speech Fails the Test of Authenticity

“In these 12 years, I cannot think of a single moment when I have come in here and the hair on the back of my neck has not stood up at the privilege of being allowed to sit on these Benches….” said Welby. He admitted a head had to roll.

Abuse victims say they were “dismayed” and “disgusted” by the speech, saying it made no mention of remorse for survivors and struck too “frivolous” a tone with jokes. It revealed their frustration at the tone of Welby’s occasionally jovial farewell speech, delivered during a debate on homelessness in the House of Lords on December 5.

The archbishop was roundly blasted on social media.

Mark Stibbe, who was abused by John Smyth as a teenager and led public calls for his resignation told The Times he was “dismayed” by Welby’s remarks, and wondered if the archbishop was “now questioning his personal responsibility.”

“I object to the use of such a frivolous tone in such a serious matter — a matter that has been, and continues to be, a matter of life and death to some,” he said.

Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley of Newcastle, the only fellow bishop who publicly pushed for Welby’s resignation in early November said she was “deeply disturbed by the language of ‘a head had to roll’”.

“It was, in my view unwise to say at the very least. To make light of serious matters of safeguarding failures in this way yet again treats victims and survivors of church abuse without proper respect or regard.”

Graham Munro wrote, “Tone deaf. Offensive to victims, and just awful. Welby ducks all personal responsibility, pities his diary secretary (not victims), jokes about heads rolling. Not a word of sympathy for victims of the most brutal abuser the church has ever known. Appalling.”

The Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, added her voice of condemnation.

She said she was “deeply disturbed” by some of the archbishop’s language.

“To make light of serious matters of safeguarding failures in this way yet again treats victims and survivors of church abuse without proper respect or regard,” she said.

She added that she was “disappointed” to see other bishops in the House of Lords laughing at some of the jokes.

Bishop Hartley was the most senior member of the clergy to call for Welby’s resignation after the Makin report was published. She has since told the BBC she has been “frozen out” by her Church of England colleagues.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has been slammed as “utterly insensitive” by the Church of England’s lead bishops for safeguarding.

Premier Christian News has learned that following Most Rev Justin Welby’s farewell speech to the House of Lords yesterday, Rt Rev Joanne Grenfell, Rt Rev Julie Conalty and Rt Rev Robert Springett were contacted by several victims and survivors about the “distress and anger” his words had caused.

Stung by the criticism, Lambeth Palace issued a personal statement from the archbishop on December 6. In it, he said: “I would like to apologise wholeheartedly for the hurt that my speech has caused.

“There comes a time if you are technically leading a particular institution or area of responsibility where the shame of what has gone wrong, whether one is personally responsible or not, must require a head to roll,” he said. “And there is only, in this case, one head that rolls well enough.”

“I understand that my words — the things that I said, and those I omitted to say — have caused further distress for those who were traumatised, and continue to be harmed, by John Smyth’s heinous abuse, and by the far reaching effects of other perpetrators of abuse.

“I did not intend to overlook the experience of survivors, or to make light of the situation — and I am very sorry for having done so.

“It remains the case that I take both personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period after 2013, and the harm that this has caused survivors.

“I continue to feel a profound sense of shame at the Church of England’s historic safeguarding failures.”

In other revelations about Smyth, Private Eye reported this:

Serial abuser, John Smyth, who recruited and beat young men through the Iwerne Christian Camps, has earned a unique place in infamy, leading to the downfall of at least one archbishop. But Smyth is by no means the only individual associated with that network whose improprieties, sexual or otherwise, have brought them to the attention of the authorities.

A catalogue of bullies and abusers, many of whom went into educational careers, are linked with the !werne movement; some have been convicted, while others have left jobs under mysterious circumstances.

The late Simon Doggart was a victim of Smyth who turned into an accomplice in the beatings. He went on to be head teacher at Caldicott School, where he was criticised for his mishandling of disclosures of sexual abuse at the school.

Another, Tim Harbord, taught English and history at the exclusive Colet Court School when he wasn’t leading lwerne Camps. He was arrested in 20I3 on suspicion of sexual grooming of a child, and again in 2014 on suspicion of sexual assault, Shortly after the second arrest he took his own life.

Michael Clarkson taught classics at ~Shrewsbury School. He was found guilty in 2008 of “unacceptable professional conduct” after offering his room for children to have sex during a school trip and covertly filming them. That might have been the end of his teaching career, but another lwerne alumnus rode to the rescue in the shape of Rev’d Tim Hastie-Smith, head of Dean Close School in Cheltenham, who gave the disgraced Clarkson a teaching job, saying that his school believed in “offering forgiveness and giving people a second chance”.

Hastie-Smith was forced to stand down and Clarkson was banned from teaching, but even that didn’t disqualify them from involvement in the lweme Trust, which Clarkson worked for as an IT consultant. Meanwhile yet another lwerne alumnus, Keith Civval, chair of the council of Scripture Union, which ran the Iwerne Camps, gave Hastie-Smith a tasty job as its national director.

One leader in the network recently completed a jail term for possession of indecent images of children. Police are taking no further action against another long-standing leader over his predilection for sniffing the feet of primary school children.

END

Welby’s flippant Apology in Farewell Speech Fails the Test of Authenticity
Smyth’s abuse victims dismayed and disgusted by archbishop’s speech

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
December 6, 2024

Once again, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has shown himself to be a markedly poor leader in a trite farewell speech in the House of Lords that was more jovial than penitent.

Victims of the sadistic behavior of John Smyth and a number of fellow bishops condemned the speech which they say made light of serious safeguarding failures. One blogger said Welby was determined to be the hero of his own story – using the power he had to address the nation to gaslight every survivor of church abuse in the country.