Wokery has enabled another Great Schism

In 1054, the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western churches split Christendom in two. The rift followed a series of theological, cultural and political conflicts that proved intractable. A thousand years hence, it seems the Anglican church is itching to follow suit.

In a letter released to supporters on Thursday, the Most Reverend Dr Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda formally denounced Canterbury’s authority. He did so on behalf of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a coalition of conservative provinces almost entirely in Africa and Latin America. Representing the majority of Anglicans worldwide, GAFCON has now declared itself the true Anglican Communion. ‘We cannot continue to have communion with those who advocate the revisionist agenda, which has abandoned the inerrant word of God as the final authority’, wrote Dr Mbanda.

GAFCON has also barred its member provinces around the world from participating in any meetings called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and encouraged them to ‘remove any reference to being in communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England’ from their constitutions.

GAFCON’s announcement comes just two weeks after Sarah Mullally was revealed as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury – a decision that drew mixed opinions from the global Anglican community. Mullally doesn’t help herself by being unabashedly woke. In the tradition of her predecessor, Justin Welby, who championed the Church of England’s commitment to an £100million slavery reparations fund, Mullally stresses the importance of keeping the church ‘relevant’ by increasing the numbers of female leaders ‘who come from black, Asian and minority-ethnic groups’.

Perhaps Mullally really will get her wish for a more female clergy, but it could come at quite a cost, given GAFCON now wants nothing to do with the CofE. It appears the obsession with increasing diversity has actually achieved the exact opposite, alienating Anglicans in Latin America and Africa.

On Friday, following GAFCON’s announcement, Mullally released a statement of her own. ‘I recognise that these are matters of deep theological conviction for many across our Communion’, she wrote. ‘In the power of the Spirit, I pray that we can… reach agreement about important matters whenever possible, and to make space for conscientious differentiation when necessary.’

That seems unlikely. Far too many Anglicans have already turned away from CofE’s woke leadership in search of the traditional theology the CofE has abandoned. Though not really a ‘schism’ in the canonical sense, it is far more than a petty squabble. It represents a dramatic shift in global Anglican power, where the numerically dominant churches of the Global South have chosen to reject the ‘progressive’ moral posturing of the ‘mother church’. In this regard, perhaps the likes of Welby and Mullally should be proud of themselves – this appears to be decolonisation in action.

The Book of Revelation likens a wayward church to water that runs neither hot nor cold – a stream so tepid it is fit only to be spat out. This image feels uncomfortably apt for the CofE today. Nauseated by years of lukewarmness, the rest of the Anglican world is refusing to swallow it any longer.

Georgina Mumford is an editorial assistant at spiked.