The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Dr George Carey, has asked the Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, the Very Revd Dr Brandon Jackson, and Canon Rex Davis, the Sub-Dean, to resign following years of bitter and public feuding.

Canon Rex Davis refused to resign and challenged the Archbishop to bring a case against him if one existed in ecclesiastical law. Both men are able to stay in office until they are are 70, another eight years in the case of the Dean and seven years for the Sub-Dean.

Dr Carey had hoped that his intervention in the Lincoln affair would be entirely private but a journalist heard about it and so Dr Carey spoke out publicly on the issue. He said that the situation at the Cathedral had "greatly shamed" him. "Wherever I have gone in the world, people have asked me about his scandal at Lincoln. I feel it very deeply, and I think the entire Church does. This situation constitutes a scandal dishonouring the name of the Lord."