First Thoughts: Should Cottrell follow Welby out the door?

To force one archbishop out over a misunderstood abuse scandal may be regarded a misfortune; to force out both looks like carelessness

Hello! I woke up this morning and top of the BBC News app was what seemed like a pretty big church news story: “Calls for Archbishop of York to resign over Church failings in sex abuse case”. But after reading the story and other details around it, I really felt like the media hadn’t quite got it right. Or at least, there is a lot of other relevant information needed to help us make sense of it all. So I’ve jotted down some of my, ahem, first thoughts on the subject below. As before, this bonus post is for paying subscribers only. But fear not, if you haven’t yet upgraded you can do so right here for just £5!

For those of you who haven’t yet seen the BBC News story, here it is in a nutshell. Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, second most senior figure in the Church of England and soon to be its de facto interim leader when Justin Welby resigns in January, is accused of knowing one of his priests in his previous Diocese of Chelmsford was a child abuser but did nothing about it.