In a stunning rebuke of her fellow clergy, the bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, has accused Church of England bishops of staying silent on the institution’s abuse cover-up scandal out of “careerism” and selfish ambitions to succeed Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby upon his impending resignation. The blistering critique exposes troubling fault lines within the church’s top leadership as it grapples with the greatest moral crisis it has faced in generations.
The condemnation comes on the heels of the damning Makin review, which detailed the church’s catastrophic failure to stop serial abuser John Smyth from assaulting over 130 boys and young men across three continents over the span of decades. In the aftermath of the report, Bishop Hartley was one of the lone voices calling for Welby to step down immediately over his role in the scandal. Her stance has apparently earned her the cold shoulder from the rest of the bishops’ bench.
“Some are certainly silent I think because they do see themselves, sadly, as potentially taking over from Archbishop Justin,” Hartley revealed in a BBC interview. “There is definitely some careerism.”
A Church in Crisis
The explosive allegations paint a troubling portrait of an institution mired in scandal and led by clerics more concerned with their own advancement than confronting hard truths and pursuing justice for victims. Hartley argued that the scale and severity of the church’s safeguarding failures warrant placing it under “special measures” and completely overhauling its approach to abuse cases.
“The credibility of the church has been shattered by this,” she lamented. “It needs a complete rethink and a review. There has to be something pretty drastic.”
Beyond demanding Welby’s immediate resignation, the bishop of Newcastle insisted that any current bishops criticized in the Makin report for their mishandling of abuse complaints must “step back” from official duties while their conduct is scrutinized. She singled out Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell for failing to alert police or safeguarding staff about a separate case of domestic abuse by a priest ten years ago.
“Anybody exercising a public role, including the archbishop of York, also needs to be subject to the same amount of scrutiny, and if necessary step back,” Hartley declared. “There needs to be a completely independent look at individuals, bishops, archbishops, who have failed when it comes to safeguarding. And there have to be repercussions from that.”
A Lone Voice for Victims
For her part, Bishop Hartley described the “isolation” she now feels from her episcopal colleagues since speaking out. In stark contrast to the silence from other bishops, she highlighted the “numerous messages of support” she has received from abuse victims’ advocates and the general public, drawing a sharp distinction between the church hierarchy’s apparent indifference and the outrage of the people in the pews.
“For the most part, the support that I’ve received has come, certainly not from my episcopal colleagues who have been and remain completely silent,” she revealed. “The level of isolation that I’m experiencing from the bishops and from the archbishops is what it is.”
The Church of England issued a statement in response to Hartley’s explosive interview, indicating that its national safeguarding team is reviewing the Makin report to assess any “ongoing safeguarding risk” and potential disciplinary actions against individuals named. It confirmed that “a number of clergy at all levels” have already had their permission to officiate withdrawn or been asked to step back from ministry pending the outcome of the review process.
A Moral Reckoning
The statement is unlikely to quell the firestorm of criticism now engulfing the church. As the institution tasked with providing the nation’s moral compass, the Church of England faces profound questions about the integrity and credibility of its leadership in light of the cascade of abuse scandals and cover-ups that have come to light. Survivors have described a culture of “inertia and dysfunction” that allowed abusers to evade accountability for decades while the church turned a blind eye or actively suppressed complaints.
For a church that claims to follow the teachings of Christ, the current crisis strikes at the very heart of its mission and purpose. The gospel accounts are replete with stories of Jesus seeking out the marginalized, rebuking the powerful, and welcoming children. His harshest words were reserved for religious authorities who upheld their own status rather than pursuing justice and meeting the needs of those they were called to serve.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea,” Christ warned his disciples in the book of Matthew.
In this moment of reckoning, the Church of England faces a simple yet profound question – will it fulfill its sacred duty to protect the innocent and pursue the truth, no matter the cost to its own power and prestige? Or will it continue to be a church that, in the searing words of one victim, “facilitates abuse, covers it up, and then does everything they have to do to protect the church and its reputation”?
As the courageous voice of Helen-Ann Hartley makes clear, nothing less than the soul of the nation’s church is at stake. The world is watching to see if it can meet this defining moment with the unflinching commitment to justice and moral clarity it has so far sorely lacked. For the sake of the victims and the faithful who look to it for guidance, one can only pray it finds the fortitude to answer this call and finally live out the teachings of the savior it professes to follow.
