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

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 Global South, representing some of Anglicanism’s largest church provinces — is a conservative coalition that operates outside of the official, London-based Anglican Communion, though most of Gafcon churches also remain members of the communion.

Liberal trends widen divisions in Anglican Communion

Gafcon leaders have opposed liberal trends such as same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly LGBTQ+ clergy in the Anglican churches of Europe and North America, including the Episcopal Church in the United States. Divisions have widened so sharply over recent decades that some national churches stopped participating in Anglican Communion gatherings.

Gafcon’s chairman, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda, last year issued a statement essentially calling for a break from the historic communion as it’s currently structured, declaring that “the Anglican Communion will be reordered.”

The statement envisioned a reformulated “Global Anglican Communion,” overseen by a new council led by elected chairmen regardless of country. Historically — although churches are self-governing and cooperate on a voluntary basis — the archbishop of Canterbury in England has been considered “first among equals,” a symbolic spiritual leader.

While some Anglican primates involved with Gafcon endorsed Mbanda’s proposal last year, others remained silent or reaffirmed a commitment to retaining ties to the traditional Anglican Communion. The Abuja meetings could result in Mbanda’s plan being adopted, modified or rejected.

Last year’s proposal was “not the final word,” said Bishop Paul Donison, general secretary of Gafcon. It must now be deliberated in Abuja, he said in a video on the conference website.

“There is much to iron out, much to discern, much to structure carefully and faithfully,” he said. “But we will do that work together.”

Even as the Anglican rifts have widened, the strains haven’t reached the point of a definitive schism. That could change if the primates approve a final break with Canterbury, although Gafcon leaders say they’re proposing a reformed communion, not a new one.

85 million members and centuries of cooperation

The Anglican family traces its roots to the Reformation-era founding of the Church of England, with its mix of Protestant theology and Catholic-like ritual and sacraments. It spread throughout the world alongside British colonialism and missionary efforts, followed by large-scale evangelistic successes under local leadership, particularly in Africa.

The Anglican Communion Office estimates a membership of about 85 million people across 165 countries, including more than 40 autonomous provinces.

The meeting comes shortly after the Church of England installed Archbishop Sarah Mullally as the first woman to be archbishop of Canterbury.

While some conservative Anglican leaders in other countries criticized her selection on the basis of gender, they mainly opposed her stance on LGBTQ+ issues. Mullally has affirmed the Church of England’s current definition of church marriage as between a man and a woman, but she supported a plan for blessings of same-sex couples and has acknowledged “the harm that we have done” as a church to LGBTQ+ people.

Homosexuality remains taboo in many African countries, in some cases criminalized under colonial-era laws or newer legislation. Uganda enacted legislation in 2023 prescribing the death penalty for some homosexual offenses.

The Anglican Communion is moving toward a decentralization plan of its own, making it “less Canterbury-centric,” according to a summary of the proposals, recognizing that a majority of Anglicans now live in the Global South, far from England.

The proposals — years in the making, with some revisions announced on Monday — are technical in detail. The upshot is that the archbishop of Canterbury would share many leadership roles with primates from other nations. The proposal goes before the Anglican Consultative Council — made up of representatives from around the communion — for review this summer.

Bishop Graham Tomlin, who chairs the commission proposing the changes, said he doesn’t know if the proposal will affect Gafcon’s deliberations. The goal is continued cooperation while “acknowledging the depth of the disagreements among us,” he said in an online news conference Monday.

“The history of the church tells us that when we do make radical breaks from one another, it’s very hard to mend those walls, and this is a way of hopefully keeping us together,” he said.

More than 400 people — clergy and lay members in addition to bishops — are expected at the Gafcon gathering in Abuja, according to Donison.

While Global South churches are prominent in Gafcon, other participants include the Anglican Church in North America, formed by conservatives who broke from the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada.

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