Bishop brands Archbishop of York’s behaviour ‘abhorrent’ ahead of Synod opening A bishop has said the Archbishop of York is “the wrong person” to be leading the Church of England, as he prepares to address a major gathering in place of Justin Welby who quit over safeguarding failures.
Mr Cottrell, who took over most of Mr Welby’s responsibilities when he resigned as archbishop of Canterbury, has so far resisted calls to quit, previously saying he would “do what I can” to bring about independent scrutiny of safeguarding in the Church.
Mr Cottrell told the Times newspaper last week that he believes “many people, both within the Church and outside the Church, are disgusted by what they read and we would be very foolish if we didn’t take account of that”.
Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley, who has previously called for the Church’s current temporary leader Stephen Cottrell to resign, said it is inappropriate for him to be in the role and to be “leading change that the Church needs at this time”.
An advocate for abuse survivors has called on Mr Cottrell and other senior leaders in the Church to show “radical humility”, as the handling of abuse cases once again comes under the spotlight during debate this week.
