Anglican leaders split over Archbishop Mullally’s appointment. Catholic voices urge friendship, but reunification hopes fade amid deep doctrinal divides.
Newsroom (10/03/2026 Gaudium Press ) Global divisions within the Anglican Communion widened dramatically this month as bishops and archbishops from across the world announced they were severing ties with England’s first female Archbishop of Canterbury, accusing her church of “false teaching.”
The appointment and January 28 confirmation of Archbishop Sarah Mullally as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury—a landmark in the Church of England’s history—has triggered one of the deepest rifts in Anglican circles since the Reformation. Conservative Anglicans, gathered under the banner of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), declared that the archbishop’s support for same-sex blessings and other liberal reforms made continued communion untenable.
Catholics Urged to ‘Maintain Friendship, Drop Illusions’
Among Catholic voices observing the fracture is Monsignor Michael Nazir-Ali, once the Anglican bishop of Rochester and now a Catholic priest. He told OSV News that Catholics should nurture cordial relations with Anglicans but accept that the dream of full sacramental reunion is over.
“Whatever the Catholic Church may say officially, restoration of sacramental communion between our churches, sought for so many years, simply isn’t going to happen now,” Nazir-Ali said. “But links of friendship and joint action should continue.”
The Pakistan-born prelate, received into the Catholic Church in 2021, emphasized that dialogue remains valuable but that the Anglican Communion’s theological coherence has largely disintegrated.
GAFCON Forms Breakaway Global Anglican Council
At a March 3–6 meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, 347 bishops aligned with GAFCON announced a new governing body—the Global Anglican Council—headed by Rwandan Archbishop Laurent Mbanda. The council aims to represent orthodox Anglicans after concluding that the traditional “Instruments of Communion,” centered in Canterbury, are no longer fit for purpose.
The Abuja gathering’s declaration marked a symbolic break from England’s ecclesial leadership. In its March 7 “Abuja Affirmation,” GAFCON urged conservative churches to remove all references to communion with the See of Canterbury and reaffirmed adherence to “authentic Anglican doctrine” set out in the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration.
“While matters of human sexuality are one expression of this,” the statement read, “this is merely symptomatic of doctrinal and moral departures from the teaching of Scripture.”
Nazir-Ali noted that major Anglican bodies in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and South India—representing millions of members—had endorsed the affirmation. He described it as “firmly Protestant in flavor,” highlighting its silence on decades of progress in Anglican–Catholic theological dialogue.
‘A Conservative Protestant Course’
Nazir-Ali said GAFCON’s stance signaled a decisive turn toward conservatism, foreclosing any realistic prospect of unity with Rome. “This course clearly spells an end to hopes of sacramental communion,” he said. “While people can learn from our past theological dialogue, the Anglican Communion can no longer be recognized by Catholics as occupying some special place.”
He added that England’s national church had accelerated its own isolation by retreating from its global leadership role and embracing what he termed a “liberal Protestant future.”
Anglican Identity in Question
Tom Middleton, director of Forward in Faith, an English movement defending Catholic traditions within Anglicanism, said the Communion now resembled a fractured federation rather than a coherent body.
“Unlike the Catholic Church, this is at best a very loose federation,” Middleton told OSV News. “Since it’s unclear who Canterbury actually leads nowadays, it’s also unclear what it will mean if parts of the Communion come under new direction.”
He added that opposition to Archbishop Mullally’s appointment stemmed not from her gender but from what many conservatives saw as “departures from biblical principles.”
Fragmentation and Future Dialogue
In their Abuja statement, GAFCON leaders stressed urgency in “resetting” the Communion to give orthodox Anglicans “a clear identity, a global spiritual home… and strong leadership.” Yet observers note that amid this restructuring, the legacy of centuries of shared history between Catholics and Anglicans still resonates.
Nazir-Ali reflected that, despite theological rifts, the two traditions share an enduring patrimony from their pre-Reformation unity. “Catholics and Anglicans had a long shared history before the Reformation,” he said. “The fact that Anglicans are so divided is a call to Catholics to be clear about what they stand for.”
A Church at a Crossroads
Archbishop Mullally, a former nursing officer, will be installed on March 25 as leader of the Church of England, which reported an average weekly attendance of 702,000—about 1.2 percent of the U.K. population.
While Rome continues dialogue with Anglicans, the Vatican has never rescinded Pope Leo XIII’s 1896 apostolic letter Apostolicae Curae, declaring Anglican orders “absolutely null and utterly void.”
For now, the Anglican world stands at a defining crossroads: one half determined to return to its Reformation roots, the other committed to inclusion and reform. The Catholic Church watches with cautious sympathy—its hand extended in friendship, but its hopes for reunion quietly set aside.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from OSV News
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