The first sign that something was seriously threatening the unity of the Anglican Communion came on October 3, when, following the official announcement of Dame Sarah Mullally’s appointment as the next Archbishop of Canterbury – the first woman to hold the post in over 1,400 years – Laurent Mbanda, President of the Council of Primates of GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference, a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders), issued a strongly worded statement that began as follows: “The news has finally arrived after months of prayer and long waiting. But it is with sorrow that Gafcon receives the announcement today of the appointment of Dame Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. This appointment abandons global Anglicans, as the Church of England has chosen a leader who will further divide an already split Communion.”
Five months after that clear-cut stance was taken, the rift within the Communion took the form of a near-schism at the Gafcon Conference held in Abuja, Nigeria. Between the 3rd and 6th of that month, over 500 delegates, including archbishops and leaders from 27 countries, gathered for a meeting whose very title hinted at its controversial intentions: ‘Choose today whom you will serve’.
Intense
The intense three days of the ‘Orthodox Anglicans’ concluded with the ‘Abuja Affirmation’, which calls for a new order within the Anglican Church and “the repentance of those high-ranking leaders of the Anglican Communion who have denied the orthodox faith in word and deed”, and hopes for the return to the true faith of that significant number of provinces which “call themselves Anglican but have abandoned the authority of Scripture and ceased to follow Christ faithfully”.
We have no intention of breaking away from the Anglican Communion”
Gafcon is a global organisation with representatives from every continent. Its direction, however, is strongly influenced by African voices, which have gained increasing prominence over the past several decades: of the approximately 95 million Anglicans worldwide, 60 million live in Africa, the only continent where Anglicanism (just like Catholicism) is growing steadily.
In Abuja, with a few exceptions, almost all the African national conferences showed far greater support for Laurent Mbanda than for Sarah Mullally. But woe betide anyone who mentions the word ‘schism’. “We have no intention of breaking away from the Anglican Communion,” Justin Murff, spokesperson for the conservative group, told Reuters, “rather we wish to reorganise it and realign it with Scripture.” If anyone is to blame for what Murff describes as a de facto schism, it is the Western churches, not those of the Global South, who are guilty of having “broken communion” by endorsing “non-traditional biblical doctrines such as blessings for same-sex couples”.
The choice of Sarah Mullally was a historic moment for us, something we could not have imagined just 30 years ago”
These latest remarks by Murff, according to many observers, reveal the true motive underlying the rifts that may lead to a definitive split. “The issue of Sarah Mullally’s appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury,” explains Clare Hayns, vicar of St Mary’s Church, Iffley, in Oxford, “seems more of a pretext than the real reason behind the conflict. The appointment of a woman has been used as a pretext to attack what is now a well-established stance within the Church on human sexuality. Rather than misogyny, I see this as an attack on the openness towards the LGBTQ+ community. The choice of Sarah Mullally was a historic moment for us, something we could not have imagined just 30 years ago.”
Gifts
“The appointment of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury – as echoed by Rose Okeno, Bishop of Butere, Kenya, who attended Sarah Mullally’s installation ceremony in Canterbury on March 25 – highlights the gifts that women bring to leadership and reminds us that the Church is constantly growing and being renewed through the Holy Spirit. It invites us to trust that God is still at work amongst us”.
The Global Anglican Future Conference was founded in 2008 and chose Jerusalem as a symbolic venue for its inauguration. From there, at the conclusion of its first conference, it drafted the ‘Jerusalem Affirmation’ to clarify its convictions, in which, amongst other things, it states: “There is a different ‘gospel’ that is contrary to the apostolic gospel. … Many of its proponents promote a variety of sexual preferences and immoral behaviours as a universal human right. They claim God’s blessing for same-sex unions. In 2003, this false gospel led to the consecration of a bishop who was living in a same-sex relationship.”
The situation came close to, if not a schism, then a state of permanent division amongst certain African episcopal conferences”
Something similar occurred within the Catholic Church in Africa when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans (December 18, 2023), approved by Pope Francis, which permitted the pastoral—not liturgical or ritualised—blessing of irregular and same-sex couples. On that occasion too, the situation came close to, if not a schism, then a state of permanent division amongst certain African episcopal conferences. It was thanks to the mediation of Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a member of the C9, that an epoch-making crisis was averted.
Faithful
“God looks at the willing heart of his faithful, not at gender,” explains Dalcy Badeli Dlamini, Bishop of the Anglican Church of Eswatini, Southern Africa Province, who was also present at the installation ceremony. “When he chooses a person, he always asks a simple question: ‘Simon, son of John, will you follow me? Feed my sheep.’ Thus Archbishop Sarah and many of us who have been called to ministry have responded to the call. The God I serve says that there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither man nor woman, but that we are all called to ministry. Gafcon has its own convictions; for my part, I am certain that God has called me because I have heard His voice; therefore, whether God speaks through a woman or a man, what matters to me is that God speaks.”.
The choice is to remain in the Communion, but my fear is that from now on, the communion will no longer be as strong as it once was”
“The appointment of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury,” argues Ignatius Makumbe, Anglican Bishop of Central Zimbabwe, “has provoked mixed reactions and, in my view, will not help the communion. Indeed, it has widened the rifts, because the ordination of women is not a position shared, especially by African countries. As for the position of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe, the choice is to remain in the Communion, but my fear is that from now on, the communion will no longer be as strong as it once was. It will be impossible to pretend that Gafcon doesn’t exist, and I foresee that at the next Lambeth Conference (the assembly of all the bishops of the Anglican Communion held every ten years at Lambeth Palace in London, the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury; ed.) many African bishops will not attend.”
Relations
It will be interesting to see how relations – hitherto very ecumenical – between Rome and Canterbury develop. Three days after Sarah Mullally’s installation, a Vatican statement was issued announcing that the new archbishop would be received by Pope Leo XIV during her visit to Rome, scheduled for April 25–28.
Restoration of sacramental communion between our churches, sought for so many years, simply isn’t going to happen now”
The question of a possible ‘return’ to the Catholic tradition by those members – whether ordained or lay – who feel in some way betrayed by the direction taken by the Anglican leadership will need to be considered very carefully. “Whatever the Catholic Church may say officially”, as reported by Msgr Michael Nazir-Ali via OSV News, who was one of several Anglican bishops received into the Catholic Church in 2021 “restoration of sacramental communion between our churches, sought for so many years, simply isn’t going to happen now”.