THE former Archbishop of Wales, the Rt Revd Andrew John, has said that announcing his immediate retirement in the wake of reported failings at Bangor Cathedral had been a “painful” but “good decision for the future” of the Church in Wales. The Charity Commission, which has received a total of six serious-incident reports relating to Bangor Cathedral, has launched an inquiry. He did not know, he said, about the “drinking culture” recently reported by the BBC to have surrounded the Bangor Cathedral choir. It was a shock to hear about heavy drinking in the diocese.” Reports that people had made inappropriate jokes about children were also “unacceptable”, he said. “It pains me that these things happened under my watch, and I’ll have to live with that.
