THE former Archbishop of Wales, the Rt Revd Andrew John, has said that announcing his immediate retirement in the wake of reported failings at Bangor Cathedral had been a “painful” but “good decision for the future” of the Church in Wales.
The then Archbishop John made the announcement on 27 June, three days after the Representative Body (RB) of the Church in Wales met in Cardiff to discuss events in Bangor, after two reports that recorded concerns about “weak financial controls” and “inappropriate behaviours” (News, 27 June).
The full motion agreed by the RB, published last week, called for a “cultural audit” of the Church in Wales, and a “change in leadership, procedures and governance in the Diocese of Bangor” (News, 4 July). The Charity Commission, which has received a total of six serious-incident reports relating to Bangor Cathedral, has launched an inquiry.
In an interview with BBC Radio Cymru’s Bwrw Golwg on Saturday, Bishop John said: “It has been very painful, and my mental health has suffered in a way I’ve never experienced before, but that’s a consequence of having to make big decisions.”
He had, he said, little choice in the matter. “Being present at the meeting, and [to] have people more or less calling for your resignation was like being in a nightmare. I know the people who were in that meeting.
“I don’t think I had a chance to explain the changes we’ve made, and how complicated things are, but, having heard from them, I don’t want to be a problem for them either. I think it’s a good decision for the future.”
Bishop John regretted, he said, that he had been unable to be more open with the press to explain what had happened, including the improvements which he said had been made. He did not know, he said, about the “drinking culture” recently reported by the BBC to have surrounded the Bangor Cathedral choir.
“The idea that they went out after important services, that they went out until late saddens me. It gives a bad impression of the diocese. It was a shock to hear about heavy drinking in the diocese.” Reports that people had made inappropriate jokes about children were also “unacceptable”, he said.
Bishop John acknowledged that a “lot of mistakes had been made” around the financial management of the cathedral, but he was not, he said, “unhappy” that about £20,000 had been spent on two trips to Rome and one to Dublin. “It’s not extravagant, with 20 people travelling.”
Generally, he said that he should have paid more attention to the cathedral and diocesan structures. “It pains me that these things happened under my watch, and I’ll have to live with that. Bangor is a fantastic diocese. The damage done to the diocese, because I didn’t pay enough attention to problems, is a burden I’ll carry.”
Change would take years of collaborative working across the Church in Wales, he said. While he did not feel that he had been mistreated, he had been “shocked” by social media comments, which had been “very difficult to see”.
He concluded: “I’m a bishop and a leader in the Church; these things have happened during my tenure, so it’s only right to give someone else the opportunity to take responsibility for the future.”