Since it’s sure to be the topique du jour at Synod, I wanted my own position on Welby, Cottrell, Hartley, safeguarding, and rumour to be a matter of public record (even though nobody can be at all interested).
First, it seems entirely possible to me that, despite being immersed in Iwerne camp culture and exercising official roles therein, Justin Welby may not have known about John Smyth’s vicious habit. Possible, though not likely — but he attests that he didn’t, so I’ll take him at his word. It’s also possible that he was entirely unaware that such media venues as Private Eye had followed and reported the sad, cruel history of this story for many years. I myself am often left out of the loop for the goss, for reasons unclear to me (it just can’t be any personal sanctity or innocence; my guess is that it’s somehow bound up with my autism in a way that makes me seem like the sort of person Not To Tell). So I know from experience that sizzling sub rosa stories may simply not get to people whom one would think inescapably likely to have heard. I don’t hold Justin Welby responsible for what he wasn’t told or didn’t know. (This is no doubt a great comfort to him.)
The most recent reporting on the police angle suggests that they handled the case according to their own protocols. Whatever one thinks of those protocols, it appears there wasn’t a lapse on that front.
Relative to the case for Archbishop Welby’s resignation under pressure, I do think there’s a basis. Look at it this way (as I must): if in my ecclesiastical posts I had even the shadow of a hint that young people or vulnerable adults were being abused — or anyone being tormented in the way that Smyth tormented the men in his sphere — and I didn’t alert independent authorities according to stated regulations, and then follow through to make sure something was being done, I would have been sacked. I know this; it’s not some vague estimate. Granted that the [then] Archbishop of Canterbury had at some point been informed about Smyth’s activities, and granted his own very close identification with Iwerne and other Smyth-adjacent circles in the CoE, I would have expected that (if he had a line manager to make the decision) he would have been subjected to consequences comparable to those I as a theological educator-priest would have faced. Being an archbishop should provide no insulation from the consequences of actions (or inactions).
As to Archbishop Cottrell, of whom I’ve heard many positive things, roughly the same criterion applies. If I knew that somebody had been acquitted on a technicality (and I do not dispute the importance of technicalities), but had been excluded from schools on the basis of a past record of conduct, I would jolly well not endorse that person or nominate him for ecclesiastical privileges and honours; indeed, I would endeavour, within the bounds of canon law, to make said person as unwelcome as I could. And I would not have praised them publicly. And I would have mad esure that a paper trail demonstrating the very highest standards of safeguarding vigilance accompanied every future such situation I handled thereafter, ensuring that I had fulfilled the highest standards of safeguarding incumbent on me, such as that which resulted in the appointment of the Bishop of Liverpool.
Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley was a student of mine at Princeton Theological Seminary. I have known her for [mumbles] years, and have never had reason to doubt her integrity. Andrew Brown’s vile aspersion that she spoke out with a view to her own advancement is so preposterous — even were Bp Helen-Ann an ambitious church climber — that I seriously cannot imagine what Brown was thinking. Perhaps he has never heard about the abuse women, particularly women clergy, encounter when they raise their heads above the parapet. Perhaps he thought Bp Helen-Ann so stupid that she anticipated cheers of adulation from the College of Bishops. Whatever the case, I can scarcely imagine that any other diocese in England would accept her as bishop, however enthusiastically she has been received in Newcastle, and however thankfully survivors of abuse have heard her speak out on their behalf.
To sum up an overlong post: Justin Welby knew more than his inaction warranted. Stephen Cottrell has known more than his inaction warranted. Helen-Ann Hartley has simply been saying sensible things about horrible situations. Safeguarding requires more than adhering to rules and letting matters drop.