A FLASH YouGov poll taken last week suggests that two-thirds of the general public consider that Justin Welby was right to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury following the publication of the Makin report.
The independent review by Keith Makin concluded that the “prolific, brutal and horrific” abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, a Reader within the Church of England, was covered up by “powerful evangelical clergy”, and listed the Archbishop amongst those that did not act in 2013 (News, 8 November). Archbishop Welby resigned five days later (News, 15 November).
In the poll of 4541 UK adults conducted on Thursday, and published the subsequent day, 62 per cent said that, from what that they had seen and heard, the Archbishop had been right to resign. One third (34 per cent) didn’t know; 4 per cent believed that he was unsuitable to resign.
Except for the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley (News, 11 November), this view has been expressed by bishops only for the reason that resignation was announced (News, 12 November). In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen, said: “He did the honourable thing.”
Archbishop Welby’s son, Tim Welby, in an interview with the identical paper, agreed, saying that his father had been “right to resign”. His position, he said, “became untenable, just because so many individuals were calling for his resignation”.
Also on Thursday, in one other YouGov poll, 5856 UK adults were asked whether or not they had a “favourable or unfavourable opinion” of the Archbishop: 42 per cent said that that they had not heard of him; 31 per cent said that that they had a “very” or “somewhat” unfavourable view of him; 21 per cent were neutral; and 6 per cent had a really or somewhat favourable view.
A wider YouGov poll was taken per week earlier, on 6 and seven November — the day that Makin report was published — in regards to the place and influence of each the Archbishop and the Church of England more generally. The results were also published on Friday.
Of the weighted sample of 2177 UK adults, 78 per cent didn’t know who the present Archbishop of Canterbury was. Half of respondents said that “religious leaders akin to the Archbishop of Canterbury” should “keep out of political matters”. One third (33 per cent) said that these leaders should “express their views”.
More generally, 57 per cent said that the Church of England had “not very much” or no influence on the Government, and 73 per cent said that the Church had not very much or no influence on “the best way most individuals in Britain live their lives”.
Most were supportive of the suggestion that the Government not has an influence over the appointment of senior posts within the C of E: 58 per cent, compared with 11 per cent who were opposed, and 31 per cent who didn’t know.
Last week, MPs rejected an amendment to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill from the Conservative MP Gavin Williamson to abolish the parliamentary seats for the Lords Spiritual (News, 14 November). In the YouGov poll, 61 per cent said that bishops should not be given seats within the Lords.
In answer to other questions surrounding the consequences of disestablishment, 55 per cent said that the Church should not receive state funding; 39 per cent supported governance of C of E schools’ being passed to local councils; and 49 per cent opposed C of E marriages counting only as religious marriages (due to this fact requiring an additional civil marriage with the intention to be legally married, as is the case for the RC Church in France).
