The Church of England must repent, the leading priest said at Christmas. By Reuters

By Muvija M

LONDON (Reuters) – The Church of England’s second-highest priest, Stephen Cottrell, will deliver a Christmas sermon next Wednesday for repentance and child abuse at the institution, which has been rocked by scandals.

This year’s celebrations have been overshadowed by accusations that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has secretly stepped down, and that Cottrell, the second Archbishop of York, is looking forward to further infirmities.

In addition to the 16,000 churches in England, the church that founded the Roman Empire is the mother church of 85 million Anglicans in more than 165 countries.

At York Minster in northern England, Cottrell said, “At this time, this Christmas, the Church of God herself should come to the barn, take off her beauty and kneel in repentance and worship and be transformed,” according to reports shared by his office. .

Welby, who stepped down in November after reports that he did not do enough to stop serial abuser John Smith, will not deliver the main Christmas sermon at the historic Canterbury Cathedral.

“At the center of the Christmas story is a vulnerable child, who is tried and destroyed by (King) Herod’s wrath, because he cannot be a rival to any tyrant,” says Cottrell.

“The Church of England – the Church of England I love and serve – must see this vulnerable child step down to show the power of love. Because in this vulnerable child we see God.”

Welby will officially step down on January 6, and the process to choose a successor is expected to take up to six months.

Cottrell, who until then effectively led the church, called for the resignation of the Reverend David Tudor following a BBC report that the church had banned him from living alone with children and had allowed him to continue his work despite knowing that he had paid compensation to one individual. A victim of sexual assault.

Cottrell apologized for failing to act sooner when he was Bishop of Chelmsford, saying the conditions he inherited were “horrific and intolerable” and that he had suspended Tudor at the first opportunity.

The British public, increasingly religious and church-mediated, was a bitter critic.

David Greenwood, a lawyer handling abuse claims, said in a statement that the revelations had “shaken confidence in the church’s ability to fulfill its duty to protect and care for its parishioners”.