The 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury has surrendered his Permission to Officiate, which makes him the second archbishop to resign this year amid abuse scandals.
The BBC had asked Lord Carey for comments about the case of the Rev. David Tudor, who was suspended and reinstated after one of many cases of his abusing girls, starting as young as 11, in one case.
“I am in my ninetieth year now and have been in active ministry since 1962 when I was made Deacon and then Priested in 1963,” Carey said in a statement.
“It has been an honor to serve in the dioceses of London, Southwell, Durham, Bristol, Bath and Wells, Canterbury, and finally Oxford.
“I give thanks to God for his enduring faithfulness but want to recognise the remarkable contribution of Eileen, whose faithfulness and support has been outstanding.”
Carey initiated his surrender of the license on December 4, The Telegraph reported. Carey said he did not remember Tudor’s name, but the BBC reported that Carey agreed to allow Tudor’s return to ministry in 1993.
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle, has called on the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, to join Carey in resigning because of how Cottrell handled Tudor’s case in 2010.
“It completely undermines his credibility that this case was not acted on,” she told the BBC’s File on 4 Investigates. “How can you have the moral and ethical authority to lead an institution with that?”
Archbishop Cottrell has told the BBC that he inherited Tudor’s case and was told there was nothing more he could do about Tudor’s abuses before 2010.
“When I joined the Chelmsford diocese in 2010, I worked closely with its very professional safeguarding team to ensure the risk was managed,” Cottrell said in a statement released after the BBC’s initial reporting.
“But it was not possible to remove David Tudor from office until such time as fresh complaints were made, which happened when a victim bravely spoke to the police. Once this happened in 2019, I acted immediately. I suspended David Tudor from all ministry pending the investigation and subsequent tribunal hearing in which he was removed from office and prohibited from ministry for life.”
As with Bishop Hartley’s call for the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign, no bishops have joined her in pressing for Cottrell’s resignation, Church Times reported.
“We can keep having resignations, but that isn’t going to solve our problems,” said the Rt. Rev. Julie Anne Conalty, Bishop of Birkenhead and the deputy lead bishop for safeguarding in the Church of England, told the BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Joanne Grenfell, Bishop of Stepney and the lead bishop for safeguarding, also stressed reform rather than resignations.
“Alongside better safeguarding structures, which are already being revised, we need issues of clergy conduct more broadly to be tackled,” she told Church Times. “This must include better use of effective disciplinary and capability processes, and the proper use of risk assessment, so that people are not allowed to continue in ministry when unacceptable risk is present.”
An independent review of how bishops handled Tudor’s case has been commissioned, Church Times reported, and the Rt. Rev. Dr. Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford, welcomes this study.
“I understand the desire to respond quickly and decisively,” she said in a statement. “At the same time, and even more importantly, we must respond well.
“I know that in situations like this, turning to process can be perceived as an easy way out, but it is poor process, or an absence of process, that has led to many of the Church’s failings in the past, and we must not repeat those mistakes now.”
Douglas LeBlanc is the Associate Editor for Book Reviews and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. John’s Parish Church on Johns Island, South Carolina.