Should the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell resign after facing calls to accomplish that over his handling of a sexual abuse case? The query is genuinely debatable.
The Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, has called for his resignation after a BBC investigation revealed that when he was Bishop of Chelmsford, he allowed a vicar barred by the Church from being alone with children to stay in post.
Dr Hartley told the BBC: “It completely undermines his credibility that this case was not acted on. How can you’ve gotten the ethical and moral authority to guide an establishment with that?”
Archbishop Cottrell is as a consequence of take over interim leadership of the Church of England in January following the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, after he was criticised within the Makin Review into the savage serial abuses by John Smyth.
Responding to news coverage following the BBC File on 4 Investigates radio programme his handling of the David Tudor case, Archbishop Cottrell issued a private statement on December 16 defending his safeguarding record.
“The situation I faced after I became Bishop of Chelmsford, was horrible and intolerable – most of all for the survivors and victims who had bravely come forward and shared their stories from the Eighties,” said Cottrell.Â
“This morning’s news coverage incorrectly implies that no motion was taken until 2024. That just isn’t the case. In my capability as Bishop of Chelmsford, I suspended David Tudor from office at the primary opportunity, when a recent victim got here forward to the police in 2019. Up until 2019, there have been no legal grounds to take alternative motion.”
He went on to say that “it was impossible 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 during which he was faraway from office and prohibited from ministry for all times.”
Writing in The Telegraph on December 17, Charles Moore argued that it could be a mistake for Archbishop Cottrell to resign. He believes that Christianity won’t “profit if archbishops will be kicked out like football managers”.
He wrote: “Neither archbishop is accused of iniquity, but of mishandling. The Church has indeed made dreadful mistakes about child abuse, however it have to be acknowledged that the issues involved are extremely complicated, regarding the legal rights of each victim and accused.
“Accusations cannot simply be accepted; they have to in justice be proved…Responsibility doesn’t necessarily lie on the door of probably the most megastar involved.”
Who is true – Charles Moore or Helen-Ann Hartley?
I might suggest that the balance of the argument suggestions in favour of Archbishop Cottrell voluntarily leaving his post fairly than being kicked out like a football manager.
According to the Ordering of Deacons, Priests and Bishops within the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer, reflecting as Anglicans consider the teaching of the New Testament, an ordained person at whatever level known as faithfully to proclaim the excellent news of Jesus Christ and the everlasting salvation that’s to be present in the Lord alone.
But doesn’t faithfulness to the gospel involve the minister being sensitive to the cultural context during which the unchanging biblical message is to be proclaimed?
Being sensitive to the cultural context doesn’t mean being ruled by it. For example, faithfulness to the biblical gospel demands that the Church resists the pressure to ditch its traditional teaching on marriage and sexual morality.
But there’s now such a high degree of public scandal on the Church of England’s handling of safeguarding that the query arises: can a senior minister in Archbishop Cottrell’s position and situation faithfully communicate the gospel in the current context?
It is unquestionably arguable that, despite the fact that an interim Archbishop of Canterbury was not guilty of misconduct, the background noise across the safeguarding scandal they’re embroiled in means they might struggle to realize a hearing from the general public as a minister of the gospel.
If a senior minister were to resign voluntarily under the circumstances facing Archbishop Cottrell, that may not necessarily be the top of their ministry. They could return to parish ministry – former Archbishop of York, David Hope, did just that in 2005. He told the BBC when he took up his post as a parish minister in West Yorkshire: “I’m really looking forward to engaging with people and serving the community. There’ll even be rather a lot to learn as I have never been a parish priest for 20 years and the job has modified a lot.”
The positive query now arises around Archbishop Cottrell: couldn’t the voluntary resignation of a minister from a senior position within the Church and his willingness to serve in a junior capability actually give them a renewed authority to proclaim the gospel?
Julian Mann is a former Church of England vicar, now an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.
