‘Betrayal of trust’

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This article was published 15/11/2024 (389 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury over the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Church of England has had shock waves in Manitoba.

Rev. Edmund Laldin, who is the priest at St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in East Kildonan, is disappointed by how Justin Welby, the archbishop, failed to deal with the sexual abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, who led Christian summer camps in England and Africa.

He is also sad about how it may have affected sexual abuse survivors in Manitoba who may be re-traumatized by the news.

“There was a betrayal of trust,” said Laldin of Welby’s failure to act, adding it will affect people here spiritually, emotionally and psychologically.

While the Church of England is legally separate from the Anglican Church of Canada, Laldin said “we have to deal with it. We can’t walk away.”

He hopes parishioners in his church or other members of an Anglican congregation in the province, will reach out to the Diocese of Rupert’s Land or their local clergy if they need to talk.

“A bearer of a sacred office has betrayed the trust of the people,” Laldin said. “It needs to be acknowledged.”

On Nov. 7, the Church of England released results of an independent investigation into Smyth, who had subjected about 30 boys and young men in England and more than 85 in Africa to “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks.”

From the 1970s until his death while under investigation in 2018, the report said, Smyth carried out abuse that was “prolific, brutal and horrific.”

The investigation also found in his role as archbishop, Welby knew about the abuse but did not inform the police or authorities in England or Africa.

Welby faced calls to resign from victims of Smyth as well as some members of the Church of England’s General Synod, who started a petition calling on Welby to step down because he had “lost the confidence of clergy.”

Andrew Colman, the priest at Saint Benedict’s Table, an Anglican church that meets Sunday evenings at All Saints Anglican Church downtown, also weighed in.

In a letter to his congregation, Colman said “my prayer for all who have suffered is that they find justice, healing, comfort and peace” from God and from the “communities that surround and support them.”

Colman said the Anglican Church in Canada is committed to making the wider church a “safe place for all,” as is Saint Benedict’s Table.

“We pray for the humility, courage and wisdom needed for this all-important work,” he said.

In her letter on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada, Acting Primate Archbishop Anne Germond said her heart was broken “for the children and young people who were abused by Smyth and further victimized by the lack of meaningful action on the part of the church.”

She noted the archbishop of Canterbury visited Canada in 2022 to listen to residential school survivors and to issue apologies for the church’s role in the abuse at residential schools. She said she mourned that the news “will add to the pain of survivors, and we hold them in our prayers.”

The Diocese of Rupert’s Land, which has about 12,000 Anglicans in 65 parishes in the province and northwestern Ontario, has developed “very strict” screening for all clergy, staff and volunteers and put into place policies for reporting any abuse, Laldin said. “All the checks and balances are in place,” he said.

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