The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) has urged the Church of England to appoint someone who upholds the orthodox Anglican faith and not to marginalise orthodox voices in the Anglican Communion in the process as it seeks to appoint the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
The GSFA has sent an open letter to Lord Evans, chair of the Crown Nominations Commission for the next Archbishop of Canterbury, urging that the next Archbishop of Canterbury should be someone who will uphold the orthodox Anglican faith ‘shared by the great majority of global Anglicans’.
The letter highlights that following the General Synod’s decision in February 2023 to move ahead with the Prayers of Love and Faith and ‘turn away from the Church’s scriptural and historic teaching on marriage and human sexuality’, the GSFA released a statement saying that they could ‘no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as the ‘primus inter pares’ spiritual leader of the Communion’.
As the process to appoint the next Archbishop of Canterbury is now underway, they argue that this ‘could be an opportunity to begin undoing the damage by showing that the Church of England is still willing to give due weight to the deeply concerned ‘daughter’ Churches of the South’.
The GSFA has also called into question the process by which the next Archbishop of Canterbury will be appointed, sharing their lack of confidence in the way in which members of the Crown Nominations Communion have been chosen from the wider Communion. They argue that ‘yet again, the convictions of Global South Anglicans will not be given the weight they deserve’.
Finally, the GSFA argue that the appointment of an Archbishop of Canterbury who upholds the Anglican faith, could help ‘restore trust’ which they say has been ‘undermined over the past twenty years by failure to exercise meaningful discipline where Provinces have unilaterally departed from the Apostolic faith, and by the neo-colonial manipulation of procedures to marginalise orthodox voices’.
Revd Canon John Dunnett, National Director, Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), commended the letter and said: “CEEC warmly welcomes this letter from the Global South and urges Lord Evans to hear the heartfelt plea from our brothers and sisters in the Global South. We join with the GSFA as they commit to praying for the CNC, and that those involved in making the nomination would appoint an Archbishop of Canterbury who upholds the Anglican faith.”
