Justin Welby says he carries personal alarm amid increasing threats in church

Social media showed that society had ‘lost [its] moral compass’, Welby said. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

The archbishop of Canterbury carries a personal alarm amid increasing threats and abuse in the Church of England and parliament, he has revealed.

He had heard “hate speech” in the past few weeks between members of the church and towards the members, and between and directed at members of parliament, he told the Spectator.

“We certainly – particularly bishops who are women – have had an enormous increase over the last year or two in abusive language,” he said.

It is the second time in the past two weeks that Welby has spoken publicly about abuse within the church.

Addressing a meeting of the church’s ruling body, the General Synod, in February, he expressed dismay that enmity and division in society had found their way into the church. Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s London headquarters, had been deluged with “expressions of hatred, normally coming from within the church”.

Social media showed that society had “lost [its] moral compass”, Welby told the Spectator. “More can be done legally, I’m sure it can. Rigorous prosecution of threats, rigorous prosecution of abusive use of social media.”

Welby, who sits in the House of Lords in one of 26 seats reserved for Church of England bishops, has been accused of taking a political stance on issues such as the proposed deportation of refugees to Rwanda.

In January, he told the Lords that political leaders were seeking to “outsource our moral and legal responsibility for asylum seekers and refugees”. He said the government was “leading the nation down a damaging path” with its Rwanda bill.

In the latest interview, he said the demand to not be political “means be political, but not in a way I don’t like”.

Bishops in the Lords did not take party sides, he added. “If you go back to the Blair government, and look, for instance, at the attitude of the bishops around the invasion of Iraq, you will find absolute, almost universal dislike of that, and speaking against it. And on numerous other issues, we were as objectionable to Labour last time they were in office as we have been to the Tories this time.

“There’s a lot of what the government says which I entirely agree with. The boats must be stopped. We must limit access to our borders. Three-quarters of a million in any year seems to me to be far too many. And so we must have good border control. And we must pursue, go after the traffickers. That I totally agree with … We just don’t agree with the means.”

Welby, who is to retire when he reaches the age of 70 in two years, said there were times when he felt like quitting – “normally when you spend three days talking about the nature of human sexuality. But that’s always been the case.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s an impossible job. But it’s a complicated job, with huge international dimensions and enormous moments of pressure. But you do have moments – I don’t have many moments – when I’ve said, ‘I can’t do this.’”