C of E may rethink top role, says senior cleric

The Church of England may need to rethink the role of archbishop of Canterbury in response to its "unprecedented crisis" over an abuse cover-up, Justin Welby's second-in-command has said.

- Harriet Sherwood

In an interview with the Guardian, Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, said he would welcome a woman taking over from Welby. But he warned that the responsibilities of the job may need to be shared more widely in future.

Cottrell was speaking after Welby announced he would stand down in the aftermath of a damning report that concluded he had taken insufficient action over one of the C of E's most prolific serial child abusers.

The church was in "unprecedented crisis", after the report detailed the scale of John Smyth's abuse and the C of E's failures and cover-up, Cottrell said.

Welby's decision to resign was "right and honourable for the sake of the church" and followed consultations with his closest colleagues and advisers, he added. "We're now in a period of transition and reflection," Cottrell said. "One of those reflections will be what sort of person we're looking for to be the next archbishop of Canterbury, and what our expectations are of that person.