All posts tagged: GAFCON

Meet the African women bishops attending the archbishop of Canterbury’s installation

Meet the African women bishops attending the archbishop of Canterbury’s installation

Published by Sam Flores

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Five African Anglican women bishops said they will attend the historic installation of the first female archbishop of Canterbury, even as GAFCON, an alliance of conservative primates strongly represented in Africa, has urged a “principled disengagement” from the traditional center of Anglican power in England. The Most Rev. Sarah Mullally, a 63-year-old former nurse, will be installed on Wednesday (March 25) at Canterbury Cathedral in England, the final step in making her the head of the Church of England and the convener of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She is ​the 106th archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to hold the office in the church’s 1,400-year history. “We are standing in solidarity with the archbishop of Canterbury,” the Rt. Rev. Rose Okeno, bishop of Butere, in Kenya, told Religion News Service, “strongly witnessing the love of Christ that transcends all social, religious, economic, cultural and political barriers, and which affirms the dignity of all ​h​umans as equal, created in his image, imago Dei.” Top row, from left: the Rt. Revs. Rose …

How a network of ordained women got Sarah Mullally to Canterbury

How a network of ordained women got Sarah Mullally to Canterbury

Published by Sam Flores

LONDON (RNS) — When Sarah Mullally is installed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday (March 25), it will be an extraordinary occasion not only for the most obvious reason that she is the first woman ever to lead the Church of England and serve as convener of the Anglican Communion: As a former chief nurse of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, Mullally is also the first archbishop of Canterbury to have led a major public agency in the country. In the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent on Wednesday, along with royals, politicians, clergy from around the world and schoolchildren, will be representatives from the NHS, testifying to Mullally’s accomplishments before she was ordained in 2002. In another first, at least in recent memory, she took part in a pilgrimage, walking the 87 miles from St Paul’s Cathedral in her London diocese, where she has been bishop since 2018, to Canterbury. But it is Mullally’s gender that will be the most remarked upon part of her ascent, from her birth in Woking, …

Conservative Anglican bishops seek ‘disengagement’ from Canterbury without naming rival leader

Conservative Anglican bishops seek ‘disengagement’ from Canterbury without naming rival leader

Published by Sam Flores

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Weeks before the Rt. Rev. Sarah Mullally is officially installed as the first female archbishop of Canterbury, a group of conservative Anglican prelates known as GAFCON renamed their body the Global Anglican Communion and elected a set of leaders to exercise “principled disengagement” from the archbishop and the historic center of Anglicanism in England. The four-day Global Anglican Future Conference meeting in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that ended Friday (March 6) was expected to elect a rival to the Archbishop of Canterbury — its own “first among equals” among its bishops to convene and guide them. Instead, it elected Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, the Anglican primate of Rwanda, as the chairman of the newly constituted Global Anglican Council, a body consisting of primates, advisers and “guarantors.” Archbishop Miguel Uchôa, the archbishop of the Anglican Church in Brazil, will be deputy chairman, and Bishop Paul Donison, a Canadian-born American bishop, the general secretary.  “We recognize that there is still much work to be done by the Global Anglican Council …,” said the communique …

Conservative Anglican leaders meet in Nigeria to elect a leader, fueling concerns of schism

Conservative Anglican leaders meet in Nigeria to elect a leader, fueling concerns of schism

Published by Sam Flores

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Conservative Anglican leaders gathering in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, are planning to unveil a new leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, even as Archbishop Sarah Mullally is set to be installed as the first female leader of the body later this month. The Global Anglican Future Conference, a conservative Anglican movement better known as GAFCON that has encouraged its provinces to cut ties with Canterbury and that rejects Mullally’s election, called the meeting to reorder the communion. During the four-day gathering, which began Tuesday (March 3), the global network of 10 provinces — representing at least half of the world’s Anglicans — plans to formalize the Global Anglican Communion, which it announced in October, and to elect a new leader. Mullally’s election in October further widened a rift within the 85 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, which since the 1990s has struggled with controversies around female leadership and same-sex marriage in the church. Conservative bishops and clerics with GAFCON accuse Mullally and other leaders of the communion of abandoning the inerrant Word of God …

Conservative Anglican leaders meet in Nigeria, facing debate on a possible breakaway

Conservative Anglican leaders meet in Nigeria, facing debate on a possible breakaway

Published by Sam Flores

Anglicans worldwide are grappling with foundational questions: Can they stay together? Should they? Or have their theological differences frayed centuries of unity beyond repair? The outlook for the Anglican Communion, one of the world’s largest families of Christian churches, remains uncertain, but some answers may emerge by the end of this week. Conservative leaders of numerous Anglican churches are gathering in Nigeria on Tuesday for a four-day meeting. They’ll discuss a plan that could result in a historic split in one of the world’s largest Christian communions. At the same time, representatives of the historic Anglican Communion on Monday announced a revised restructuring plan of their own. It would decentralize its leadership away from its longtime base in England and potentially enable cooperation despite strong theological disagreements. It’s uncertain whether such a plan will sway members of Gafcon, or the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. Their gathering in Abuja, Nigeria, is bringing together numerous primates — national Anglican leaders — and other bishops, clergy and lay people. This group — mostly from nations of the …

Sarah Mullally lays out agenda in first major speech as archbishop of Canterbury

Sarah Mullally lays out agenda in first major speech as archbishop of Canterbury

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The new archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, made her first presidential address to the Church of England’s governing body Tuesday (Feb. 10) with a promise to make a major priority of protecting church members from sexual abuse — the issue that caused the downfall of her predecessor, Justin Welby. The church, she said, had “too often failed to recognize or take seriously the abuse of power in all its forms,” and in the past it had fallen “tragically short” on accountability. Mullally, who in October became the first woman appointed to head of the Church of England, promised: “I am committed to bringing an approach of seriousness and focused direction to all matters relating to safeguarding in all contexts in the church. This approach must be trauma-informed. Put victims and survivors at the heart of all we do and be committed to proper independence.” The former chief nurse of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service before being ordained, the archbishop served notice that she would focus on putting procedures in place. “Robust and …