The Church of England is more concerned with protecting its reputation - Robert Beaumont

As a mere churchwarden, I felt both nausea and anger. So, I struggle to imagine what the victims of Smyth’s vile abuse felt when they heard Welby’s valedictory garbage.

My relationship with the Church of England was already strained. As the churchwarden of a little church struggling to survive, I was consistently amazed and incensed at the Cof E’s lack of interest in its parishes, which, surely, are its lifeblood. Each month we have to find nearly £400 for our Parish Share which disappears into a large black hole or finances vanity projects like the Archbishop of York’s personal adviser (salary £100,000 a year).

My hard-working and selfless church council organises quiz nights, garden fetes, bridge afternoons, home grown produce stalls, history evenings and scarecrow competitions in a bid to pay this exorbitant charge. They do so out of a sense of duty, of love for our community and a desire to keep our lovely church (built in 1861) open. They know, sadly, that the Church of England, with one or two notable exceptions like the magnificent Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, couldn’t care less if it closed.

Then there’s safeguarding – a concept seemingly alien to both Welby and Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York. I find this strange since I, as a mere churchwarden of a tiny church, have to undergo online sessions, during my busy working day, to ensure I know it’s wrong to assault or intimidate any members of my congregation. Neither action, of course, had ever crossed my mind.

But both Welby and Cottrell have presided over appalling breaches of safeguarding protocol. Welby has paid the price and in any other walk of life, Cottrell would have too. To be fair, Stephen Cottrell, who looks and behaves like everyone’s favourite uncle, is more of an innocent abroad than the savvy, unctuous Welby, but his description of convicted abuser David Tudor as a “Rolls Royce of a priest” when he knew of Tudor’s predatory behaviour and subsequent convictions is utterly unforgivable.

And then there is Cottrell’s insistence on the appointment of the wholly unsuitable Dr John Perumbalath as Bishop of Liverpool, despite clear safeguarding concerns. The latter’s enforced resignation was a car crash waiting to happen.

This is where it gets personal. One of the victims of the ex-Bishop of Liverpool’s unwanted attention was the Bishop of Warrington and former Archdeacon of York, the Rt Rev Bev Mason. When I first became a church warden Bev, as she always wanted to be known, was incredibly kind and helpful to me.

It is clear that the current hierarchy of the C of E is more concerned with protecting its reputation than the suffering of those who have been abused under its watch. This is the complete antithesis of Christianity. It is said that the Church of England has to renew and reinvent itself every 500 years to survive. This time, with its trashed reputation and plummeting congregations, I fear it could well be too late.

Robert Beaumont is the churchwarden of St John’s, Minskip, near Boroughbridge.