Conservative Anglicans to elect new leader instead of female archbishop

Sarah Mullally. Photo: thecatholicherald

The Global Anglican Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON), which claims to represent 85 per cent of the world’s practising Anglicans, is holding a meeting in Nigeria's capital Abuja, where it intends to elect its own leader of world Anglicanism. As The Catholic Herald writes, the appointment, which will happen just weeks before the installation of Sarah Mullally as the 36th Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, is seen as a direct challenge to her leadership.

The GAFCON movement was created in 2008 at a conference in Jerusalem as a reaction to liberalization in the Anglican Church. Representatives of this movement unite the majority of practicing Anglicans in the world, especially in Global South countries. Although GAFCON is more of a movement than a separate church structure, some provinces within it have already distanced themselves from Canterbury's leadership.

At the current meeting in Abuja, which is taking place in the format of a "mini-conference" of bishops and leaders, there are also plans to rename the association to Global Anglican Communion and elect their own primus inter pares – "first among equals." Thus, conservative Anglicans will effectively refuse to recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury as the spiritual leader of world Anglicanism.

Disagreements within the Anglican Communion have intensified over recent decades due to liberal reforms, including the ordination of female bishops and recognition of same-sex "marriages." Many churches in Africa and other regions maintain traditional teaching on marriage and priesthood and have sharply criticized the election of Sarah Mullally.

As the UOJ wrote, a scandal occurred at the Anglican archbishop's enthronement.

Read also