He [John Smyth] made no attempt to deny what he’d done, instead saying: “I’m not talking about that.” . . . Instead of denials, many of my questions were met with questions: “How did you know I was here?” When I asked why his disciples had to “bleed for Jesus”, which is what he had told them, he responded: “There’s no question of that at all.” The interview was over, with my last question wondering when he would face justice. He never did

Cathy Newman, presenter, Channel 4 News, in The Sunday Times, 17 November

Conservative evangelicals have been insistently calling for Welby to go for some time now. . . I find it difficult, then, not to see a certain opportunism in the way they organised against the archbishop when Makin reported

Richard Coles, The Sunday Times, 17 November

Justin Welby is the most high-profile church leader from any denomination in the world to have stepped down as a result of the abuse crisis. . . This is a turning point. . . The fact that he has changed the culture sufficiently that it’s reached the point that he himself could be forced to step down is, in a bitterly ironic way, a kind of achievement

Alec Ryrie, church historian, Sunday, Radio 4, 17 November

As the process for finding a new archbishop begins, it is not clear who really runs the Church of England — is it the archbishops, the Archbishops’ Council, the bishops more widely, General Synod, or the secretary general of both General Synod and the Church of England, William Nye?

Helen King, General Synod member, The Observer, 17 November

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