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Justin Welby, the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, has resigned after an investigation found that he failed to inform police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.
Pressure had been building on the Archbishop of Canterbury after release of the finding kindled anger about a lack of accountability at the highest reaches of the church.
Some members of the General Synod, the church's national assembly, started a petition calling for Welby to step down, saying he had "lost the confidence of his clergy".
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"I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honoured to serve," he said in a statement.
The strongest outcry came from the victims of John Smyth, a prominent attorney who abused teenage boys and young men at Christian summer camps in Britain, Zimbabwe and South Africa over five decades.
Andrew Morse, who was repeatedly beaten by Smyth over a period of five years, said that resigning was a chance for Welby to start repairing the damage caused by the church's handling of historical abuse cases more broadly.
"I believe that now is an opportunity for him to resign,'' Morse told the BBC before Welby stepped down.
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"I say opportunity in the sense that this would be an opportunity for him to stand with the victims of the Smyth abuse and all victims that have not been treated properly by the Church of England in their own abuse cases."
Welby's resignation comes against the backdrop of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England.
A 2022 report by the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse found that deference to the authority of priests, taboos surrounding the discussion of sexuality and a culture that gave more support to alleged perpetrators than their victims helped make the Church of England Church of England "a place where abusers could hide".
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