10,000 Signatures. Is Anyone Listening?
More than 10,000 people have now signed the petition calling for the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally.
A petition does not determine whether an Archbishop should resign. But this is now about more than one individual. Ten thousand people publicly putting their names to concerns about safeguarding, leadership and accountability points to something wider: a loss of confidence in how the Church of England responds when things go badly wrong, particularly when responsibility reaches senior levels.
Crucially, this petition predates the latest Lambeth Palace controversy. The concerns were already there, including the death of Fr Alan Griffin, the experience of Survivor N and my own experience working within safeguarding in the Diocese of London.
The latest scandal did not create these questions. It simply put more eyes on them.
The Church of England has become painfully good at surviving scandal. The routine is depressingly familiar: commission a review, issue a statement, apologise, promise lessons will be learned, and wait for the noise to die down. Accountability becomes a process rather than a consequence.
But the noise isn't dying down.
People can make their own judgement about whether Sarah Mullally should resign. The Church can challenge the petition and defend its leadership. What it cannot credibly do is treat this simply as opposition to one Archbishop. Its wider significance lies in the number of people prepared to publicly question how serious concerns are handled.
That is why the 10,000 matters.
The Church can keep issuing statements about accountability. Ten thousand people are asking to see some.
~Michelle Burns
Guarding the Flock
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