"It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.

"It is my duty to honour my Constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.

CEEC grieves for those who have suffered abuse at the hands of those who, in positions of authority, were trusted and respected within the church. We are thankful to those for whom it has taken great courage to speak up and tell their own stories and for whom this has inflicted further pain and trauma. We are deeply grateful for their bravery and pray for those victims especially at this time.

"His victims were subjected to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks," says the review, led by Keith Makin, an expert in safeguarding. "The impact of that abuse is impossible to overstate and has permanently marked the lives of his victims. John Smyth's own family are victims of his abuse."

The Alliance, a collaboration of CofE groups adhering to biblical teachings on sexual ethics, have written to the archbishops and bishops expressing their concerns, as reported by Anglican Ink. They complained that "the correct constitutional process has not been followed for departing from current agreed doctrine or for a change of liturgy."