Introducing the Second Anglican Schism: or, the Realignment

In today’s news, the Anglican Communion has been ‘reordered’ by GAFCON (the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans), an organization which they themselves consider to represent a signficant number of Anglican followers worldwide. The occurrence of this ‘Realignment,’ as called by its proponents, has been a long time coming, representing a break in political ideology on behalf of the Church of England thereby culminating in a theological dissonance which, now with the recent appointment of the first ever female archbishop, has encouraged a religious schism of global proportions within the five-hundred-year-old institution that is the Anglican Church.

On October 3rd, the Church of England announced to the rest of the Anglican world that the next Archbishop of Canterbury would, in fact, be a female, Sarah Mullally. The 63-year-old cancer nurse-turned-bishop began training for ministry in 1998, was ordained a priest in 2002 and penultimately consecrated as the Bishop of London in 2018. Not only does this appointment represent the first female archbishop, but as well with the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. This is significant within the Anglican Church because, for over a century and a half, the See of Canterbury functioned as the Primate of All England, an institution which represents one of the foremost pillars of the Anglican Communion. Having retained this importance as one of the four ‘Instruments of Communion,’ its succession on behalf of a female archbishop has greatly aggrevated those within the Communion who uphold the religious doctrines which necessitate a male-only episcopacy.

Furthermore, Bishop Mullally is known to have taken numerous positions on Church issues that are likely considered by the majority of those within the Communion to be politically extreme or otherwise unfounded by Anglican doctrine. For example: she is a proponent of the liberal initative to extend matrimonial blessings to same-sex couples, and apparently holds the belief that it is the responsibility of the Church of England to defend the immigration rights of those seeking refugee status. These issues, while contentious, are not particularly extreme within the political climate of the modern-day United Kingdom, however may very well be received as such by the whole of the Anglican practice from around the globe. For context, the Anglican Church extends beyond many outward reaches of the former British Empire; it spans across continents such as Africa and South America, whose inhabitants are unlikely to possess a set of political beliefs in alignment with those of mainland Britons.

Some African followers, such as the Church for the Province of Central Africa, began to permit the ordination of women into the priesthood in 2023, however continue to prohibit their consecration into bishops. On the other hand, the Archbishop of Uganda praised his country’s anti-homosexuality law, which was ratified that very same year. Therefore, the particular Church issues of homosexual acceptance and woman priesthood do not always go hand-in-hand, and there are many African, female Anglican priests who disavow homosexuality within the clergy. The appointment of Mullally to the office of Archbishop thus raises more than one issue with the majority of Anglican followers regardless of whether or not their practice is considered explicitly ‘conservative.’

And yet, in spite of this dissonance, many-a native English have expressed their frustration with the Church’s prevailing liberal attitudes, some of whom having done so for many years now, and with little recognition by either State nor religious authorities to any significant regard. The Church of England’s decision to allow non-celibate gay clergymembers has undoubtedly sparked a flame of schism within conservative Anglicans, especially considering the Reformation roots of the very institution that is the Church itself. This event will come to be marked as significant to the history of the Anglican faith, and may perhaps be lumped in with a series of impending, knee-jerk reactions to the prolonged dominance of Liberal attitudes that has undeniably brought about feelings of disillusion, not only amongst young English but also, most evidently, of Anglicans worldwide.