Conservative Anglicans meeting in Nigeria’s capital Abuja have pulled back on plans to elect a rival “primus inter pares” – the Latin term meaning “first among equals” and describing the Archbishop of Canterbury’s position within the worldwide church, where Sarah Mullally is considered the ceremonial leader.
Electing another person with the same title would have been seen by many as an open challenge to the leadership of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury just weeks before she formally begins the job.
Instead, the group, known as Gafcon, says it is leaving behind old structures and old titles, and is now unveiling a new leadership council with Rwanda’s Archbishop Laurent Mbanda as its leader.
Reporters reacted with some puzzlement to news of the appointments as they were announced on Thursday, with some suggesting it still amounted to an act of defiance.
Asked repeatedly whether Gafcon members still recognised the supreme authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, spokesman Venerable Canon Justin Murff said: “The Global Anglican Council recognises Archbishop Laurent Mbanda as its leader.”
“Sarah Mullally is the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
There are some 95 million Anglicans around the world with the Archbishop of Canterbury as their spiritual figurehead.
Later this month Archbishop Mullally will be formally installed at a ceremony in Canterbury.
But her appointment has divided opinion in Nigeria and elsewhere, with many conservative Christians believe that only men should be consecrated as bishops.
At Thursday’s press conference, Gafcon insisted doctrine was at the heart of their differences with the Church of England, not gender or sexuality.
“The issue is not same-sex marriage, nor is it about the female Archbishop. It is whether scripture or contemporary culture governs the life of this church,” Venerable Canon Murff told assembled journalists.
Yet he also said Archbishop Mullally had “repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality”, because of her support for same-sex unions, a position Gafcon sees as “contrary to Holy Scripture”.
He added that when it came to female leadership, “the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopalism”.
Gafcon has members from across the world – including Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australasia – and claims to speak for the majority of the Global South, although that is contested.
Two-thirds of the world’s Anglicans are in Africa, but opinion is not monolithic, and there are six female bishops on the continent.
Archbishop Laurent Mbanda’s career spans multiple countries and decades – including a childhood as a refugee in Burundi and years in the US, where he studied theology and started a business sending recycled clothes to African countries.
He even penned an autobiography – From Barefoot to Bishop: A Rwandan Refugee’s Journey – enthusiastically described by the Church Times website as a “remarkable” account of his beginnings. Thursday’s move is the culmination of decades of divisions over theological differences on matters such as LGBTQ clergy, and same-sex blessings, an issue over which they broke with Justin Welby, the previous Archbishop of Canterbury.
Gafcon was formed in 2008 as a response to these issues. It accuses the Church of England of abandoning Biblical teachings in favour of modern culture and imposing its views on the rest of the world. This is in contrast with those who believe the Church has not done enough to reflect the times in which we live.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the Anglican Communion Office in London expressed disappointment that Gafcon had bypassed “the formal and encouraging years-long process of global consultation and discernment about Anglican identity, structures and leadership.
“We recognise that there’s pain and division in the family, but Christ calls his Church to be one.”
The Anglican Communion will discuss proposals on how to deal with their differences at a conference in Belfast in June.
Gafcon will not attend, because it no longer recognises the body. But there is another group of conservatives – the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), which is willing to engage and discuss the proposals.
Where this leaves the relationship between Gafcon and the Church of England is not clear.
Neither is what it means for the shared ties of Anglicans around the world.
Gafcon may not have elected a leader to replace the role traditionally held by the Archbishop of Canterbury but this is still a parallel leadership structure, and a deepening of the rift between them and the Church of England.
By BBC News
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