By Muvija M

LONDON (Reuters) – Justin Welby spent his 11 years as Archbishop of Canterbury trying to prevent the global Anglican communion from fracturing, often struggling to please liberals or conservatives while fighting for gay rights and female clergy.

But he was ultimately brought down by an issue of the church’s past rather than its future: the failure to investigate an abuse scandal that stretched back decades.

Welby, a former oil executive, was an outspoken leader who publicly addressed issues ranging from same-sex marriage to British immigration policy, Israel’s war in Gaza, reparations for slavery, climate change and his own mental health problems.

“If I were allowed to read my own Twitter, that wouldn’t help me at all, in fact, it would hurt me a lot,” he said this year. “I believe it when people say I’m… the worst archbishop in history.”

Welby eventually ran into trouble with the publication of an independent report commissioned by the Church which found that a man who ran summer camps for Christian youth, John Smyth, had been the most prolific serial abuser associated with the Church of England.

Welby said he had “no idea or suspicion” of the allegations before 2013, the year he became archbishop. But the independent Makin Report, published on November 7, concluded it was unlikely he would have been unaware of concerns about Smyth’s behavior in the 1980s.

Having initially resisted calls to resign, Welby resigned on Tuesday, saying the past few days had “renewed my deep sense and sense of shame at the Church of England’s historic safeguarding failures”.

“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our deep commitment to creating a safer church. In stepping down, I do so with sadness for all victims and survivors of abuse.”

Church commentators said they could think of no historical precedent for an archbishop resigning over scandal.

Educated at Britain’s most prestigious private school, Eton, Welby worked in the oil industry for more than a decade before being ordained a priest in 1992. He was appointed senior prelate of the Church of England in 2013, becoming the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans in 165 countries.

He was praised for overseeing the momentous state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, at Westminster Abbey before a congregation of world leaders and royals and a vast television audience.

“That was such a solemn moment that I can’t find a word to describe it. It was so profound that it marked a moment of change in history,” he said.

He also presided over Britain’s first coronation in almost 70 years, that of King Charles III, who as monarch also became supreme governor of the Church of England. And he officiated Prince Harry’s marriage to American actress Meghan Markle.

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Welby was hailed by his fans for his vocal campaigning on social issues such as fighting poverty, and had been very open about his own past, even discussing his parents’ struggle with alcoholism and his own temptation to self-harm.

In 2016 she was told that her biological father was actually Anthony Montague Browne, the late private secretary to wartime leader Winston Churchill, who had impregnated her mother on a “drunken night”.

He said he was “relatively indifferent” to that revelation since his identity was “in Jesus Christ, not in DNA.”

His time at the head of the Anglican communion was turbulent as he was forced to navigate a schism that erupted when he allowed women to become bishops and allowed churches to bless same-sex couples.

He said he had decided not to carry out such blessings himself, out of responsibility to the church at large, adding: “This is where you have to be political.”

But the move angered the conservative branch of the global communion, especially African churches where homosexuality is taboo, and a conservative group of Anglican church leaders said last year they had no confidence in him.

In 2021, he apologized for saying that political leaders who failed to act on climate change were making a bigger mistake than those who ignored warnings about Nazis.

And a year later he apologized for the Church’s past role in the slave trade and pledged to invest 100 million pounds ($130 million) to address its links to slavery.

When asked this year on a podcast about his thought process before weighing in on such topics, he said, “My first rule is don’t do it, unless… you can’t help it.”

Welby has also said that he wants the Church to be “simpler, more humble, bolder and Christ-centered.”

“It must be recognized that in each era the Church is unable to see its own defects as it should,” he said, “so there must be a constant willingness to learn.”

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(Additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; editing by Kate Holton and Kevin Liffey)