Africa’s Anglican prelates say Archbishop Welby’s resignation is warning on abuse

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — In his sermon on Sunday (Nov. 17), Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town, the Anglican primate of Southern Africa, warned that reports of abuse by church leaders will likely rise in the wake of the resignation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby over his handling of child abuse allegations. 

Welby quit on Nov. 12, after an investigation found that he had not reported the sexual and physical abuses committed by John Smyth, a barrister, educator and Christian camp director from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Smyth ran camps in Zimbabwe and later moved to South Africa, where he died in 2018.

Makgoba said the Smyth case, and Welby’s resignation, was a reminder for Anglicans to be on the watch for abuse.

“We must also not be naïve. The publicity around this case will generate more reports of abuse from the past, so far unknown to the church’s leadership,” Makgoba said in his sermon. “The Safe and Inclusive Church Commission has republished its contact details,” said the bishop, referring to a panel established in 2016 to offer resources on abuse. “I encourage anyone who knows of abuse to report it to them.”

The archbishop said that he was aware of Smyth’s presence in his diocese and said the bishop of an English diocese wrote to the Diocese of Cape Town in 2013, warning that Smyth was accused of abuse in Britain and Zimbabwe.

According to Makgoba, Smyth had worshipped in a parish in Cape Town briefly two decades ago and again toward the end of his life, but the church had never received any reports suggesting he abused or groomed young people in that time. Makgoba explained that without any evidence, the diocese could not take any action under canon law and did not know of any crime to report to the police.

“Consequently, I am consulting the Safe and Inclusive Church Commission, which pursues abuses vigorously, as well as our chancellors, who give us legal advice, to work out terms of reference of a review of whether the diocese, and I personally, met our obligation to keep you safe, and what we could do better,” he said.

The prelate blamed “the culture of bad decision-making, marked by secrecy, of yesteryear, in which we hid such heinous acts is what has crippled us today.”

“We cannot bury our heads in the sand in shame and become invisible as the body of Christ. We are resurrection people,” said Makgoba.

The response to Welby’s resignation among Anglican church leaders in Africa has been complicated by their criticism of Welby’s position on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ inclusion, and their membership in GAFCON, a movement of Anglican and dissenting church leaders that has repudiated Welby’s leadership because of his position on sexuality.

Over the past year, clerics in the Church of England, which Welby headed until a week ago, have approved prayers to be said for same-sex couples while not changing the doctrine of the church, which says that marriage is reserved for heterosexual couples.

On Oct. 24, after saying on a podcast that he backed same-sex marriage, Welby issued a statement clarifying that he was only expressing his personal views. On Oct. 31, GAFCON leaders meeting in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, rebuked the archbishop for supporting the blessing of such unions. The primates urged Welby to repent of the denial of his vows, in which he promised to “teach the doctrine of Christ as the Church of England has received it.”

Several African Anglican bishops regretted Welby’s resignation, including the chair of the GAFCON Primates Council, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda, who said he was saddened by the resignation and called the developments an occasion for grief and self-reflection.

Mbanda said child sexual abuse in the church was a pernicious evil that has brought devastating, long-term effects upon survivors and their families. “Yet their trauma is only exacerbated by negligence or inaction in pursuing and prosecuting perpetrators for their crimes. Such failures to act also grieve the heart of God and bring shame upon his church,” said Mbanda, in the Nov.13 statement.

Anglican Archbishop Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu of Uganda was more critical in his statement, saying, “Unfortunately, this is the same compromised leadership that has led to the fabric of the Anglican Communion being torn at its deepest level.”

Mugalu was one of the archbishops at the fourth GAFCON conference in Kigali, Rwanda, in April 2023, after the Church of England moved to allow the blessing of same-sex unions, where the primates in attendance announced they had lost confidence in Welby and the Church of England.

Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, where Welby had traveled recently to promote peace in the company of Pope Francis, is also chair of another group critical of Welby, the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches. In a pastoral statement released the day after Welby resigned, Arama prayed for Smyth’s victims, adding, “It is also a time of great personal challenge for the Archbishop himself and his family, who are coming under great strain. We continue to uphold them in prayer during this difficult time.”

Kenya Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit regretted that the abuses had gone on for too long, while condemning any act of abuse, oppression and injustices and any form of cover-up. “We call upon the Church of England to extend full support to all affected and to correct such historical wrongs and prevent a repeat of such failures,” he said in a statement.