Northampton rector says Archbishop acted ‘too slowly’ in church abuse scandal and position is untenable

Father Oliver Coss says the Church of England needs to be able to demonstrate its culture has dramatically changed

By Sarah Ward

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The vicar of a Northampton church has joined calls for the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign following a damning report into a child abuse scandal.

Father Oliver Coss, who is the rector of All Saints Church in Northampton, says he agrees with the Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley, who yesterday said Archbishop Justin Welby’s position was no longer tenable.

Last Thursday a report was published about the horrific physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by John Smyth QC against more than 100 boys and men, often at Church of England youth camps in the late 1970s and 80s.

The report found that an internal report written in the 1980s detailed the abuse but Smyth was not dealt with and instead encouraged to move abroad, where he committed more abuse. He died in 2018 before being charged for the offences.

The Archbishop of Canterbury knew about the abuse in 2013 and the new report, written by Keith Makin (former chair of the Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children’s Board) said the response by the church was ‘wholly inadequate and amounted to a cover up’. After Channel 4 News exposed the scandal in 2017, the archbishop did not meet the victims until 2020. Mr Welby last week apologised for that, but said despite considering it, he would not stand down.

But Father Coss thinks that while the report ‘did not find a smoking gun that would be a disgraceful exit implicit’ he said now would be the right time for him to go ‘to serve the victims’.

Father Coss says changes need to be made.

He said:

“I think now there have been calls from diocese and a bishop within the Church of England, once there are fellow senior bishops saying his position is untenable, then I would join with her in that view. Because I think you can’t hold the Church of England where you don't have the support and goodwill and I think he at the very least needs to consider his position.

“I don't think he has acted wrongly, he has acted very slowly and I think that acting very slowly can be just as bad as acting wrongly.

“He has an immense role and I think an Archbishop of Canterbury needs to focus on the wellbeing of what is going on in this church first.”

He also raised concerns about senior Anglican clergy named in the report, who may have a role in choosing the new archbishop, and said there should be disciplinary action taken.

He said the current’ unjust’ structures needed to be removed.

“There are proposals that have been put to the Church of England General Synod by professor Alexis Jay and the early indications are there is a fair amount of dither and delay in responding to those suggestions.

“But I think we need to be able to demonstrate to people that we are prepared to dramatically change our culture. Dramatically change very quickly, otherwise we will just carry on having more reports just like the Makin review and just like other reviews that have gone on. The institution needs to show itself able to process complaints, to see that justice is done and to make restitution.”

He said he is determined to help bring about change:

“I have been working within the Church of England for 17 years now and there have been a number of occasions where I have come up close against people who have perpetrated some terrible crimes in the Church of England and I think that has made me even more determined to try and address the potential of what is to be a healthy church and deal with these things well.

“In a funny sort of way, ‘protecting the work’ [the phrase used by some in the church to keep quiet about the abuse] becomes about becoming the kind of church that will zealously pursue a safeguarding culture and I am unapologetic in the face of it. We have got an awful lot of ground to make up and that comes about from my own desire to see churches grow as healthy places.”