By the end of Monday, Justin Welby will have symbolically left his ceremonial staff and stepped down from his role as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Having spent little time in public since his resignation, Mr Welby is expected to spend his final days as a member of the Church of England in private at his London base, Lambeth Palace.
His duties will then fall primarily to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, until a permanent successor is appointed, a process expected to take several months.
It comes as the church is debating a number of key changes, including safeguards – an issue linked to Mr Welby’s resignation and one that has led to questions about Mr Cottrell.
On Monday, the feast of Epiphany in the Christian calendar, Mr Welby will attend two services at Lambeth Palace, the Eucharist at lunchtime and the Evensong later in the day.
Although his office has not revealed who will join him in the services, he is expected to lay down his cruiser at the evening ceremony and then his own as archbishop at midnight. Time will officially end.
Mr. Welby Resigned over the church’s handling of the tragic abuser.John Smith, who said in a recently published report that since the late 1970s, more than 120 boys and young men were brutally sexually, physically and mentally abused.
The report said Mr Welby had a “personal and moral responsibility” and that he “could and should have done more” in the matter.
After initially resisting calls to step down, he resigned on November 12, saying he did so “in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse”.
But in early December, abuse victims reacted with “disgust” to a short farewell speech Mr Welby gave in the House of Lords, in which he cracked jokes. Mr Welby apologized the next day.
Mr Welby did not deliver a Christmas Day sermon at Canterbury Cathedral or broadcast a New Year’s Day message, as he usually does via the BBC.
Lambeth Palace said he would not be giving any interviews before leaving the role, which he is doing on his 69th birthday on Monday. He is stepping down exactly a year earlier than expected.
From midnight on Monday, some of his duties in London will be performed by Bishop of London Sarah Mullally and in his Diocese of Canterbury by Bishop of Dover Rose Hudson Vulcan.
The bulk of his duties will be carried out by Mr Cottrell, who himself has faced calls to resign over his handling of the abuse scandal.
Last month, a BBC investigation revealed that in 2010, just days after he became bishop of Chelmsford, Mr Cottrell was told of a series of historic sexual abuse allegations against a priest, David Tudor. was
He was also told that the church and local council had forbidden Tudor to be left alone with the children.
Mr Cottrell said in a statement: “It was a terrible situation for David Tudor to be in and to manage.”
“I want victims and survivors to know that everything was done to understand, assess and manage the risk,” he continued.
But under Mr Cottrell, Tudor twice renewed his contract as senior area dean and was made an honorary canon of Chelmsford Cathedral in 2015.
Tudor was only suspended in 2019 after a new police investigation was launched. Archbishop Cottrell says he acted as soon as he was legally able to.
Although he is taking over from Mr Welby, Mr Cottrell will remain based at Bishopthorpe Palace in North Yorkshire. He is expected to remain de facto leader of the Church of England until at least the summer.
The 17-member panel that will choose the next Archbishop of Canterbury has yet to be formalised. For the first time it will include five members based in the Anglican Church Abroad.
This turbulent period for church leadership comes at a time of threats that could tear the church apart at home and abroad.
Domestically, the issue of blessings for same-sex unions has caused friction between different factions within the church.
Although the authority to perform such blessings for members of the clergy was approved in a vote in its National Assembly, many are strongly opposed to such a move, believing it to be a fundamentalist church. It is against education.
But on the contrary, some are angry that the Church of England gives same-sex couples the same rights in the church as same-sex couples.
Deciding what form the church’s blessing of same-sex unions might take is currently being worked out, and some progressives worry that the upheaval at the top of the institution could It can help derail it.
Similar concerns have been raised about work on racial justice and climate action, which was being carried out by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.