Anti-gay Anglicans ease off their challenge to female archbishop

Gafcon chooses leadership council instead of a male rival to female Archbishop of Canterbury

The homophobic faction of the 95-million-member Anglican Communion that broke away in 2008 over acceptance of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy has dropped a plan to elect a male alternative in opposition to Sarah Mullally, whose installation as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury is scheduled for March 25.

**Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda now leads the anti-gay church coalition Gafcon, the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. (Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty/BBC)**

The BBC reports:

Conservative Anglicans pull back from electing rival to Archbishop of Canterbury

Conservative Anglicans meeting in Nigeria’s capital Abuja have pulled back on plans to elect a rival “primus inter pares” – the Latin term meaning “first among equals” which describes the Archbishop of Canterbury’s position within the worldwide church, where Sarah Mullally is considered the ceremonial leader.

Electing another person with the same title would have been seen by many as an open challenge to the leadership of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury just weeks before she formally begins the job.

Instead, the group, known as Gafcon, says it is leaving behind old structures and old titles, and is now unveiling a new leadership council headed by Rwanda’s Archbishop Laurent Mbanda.

Reporters reacted with some puzzlement to news of the appointments as they were announced on Thursday, with some suggesting it still amounted to an act of defiance.

Asked repeatedly whether Gafcon members still recognised the supreme authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, spokesman Venerable Canon Justin Murff said: “The Global Anglican Council recognises Archbishop Laurent Mbanda as its leader.”

“Sarah Mullally is the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

Archbishop Sarah Mullally (Alberto Pezzali photo courtesy of AP) — **Incoming Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally (Alberto Pezzali photo courtesy of AP)**

There are some 95 million Anglicans around the world with the Archbishop of Canterbury as their spiritual figurehead.

Later this month Archbishop Mullally will be formally installed at a ceremony in Canterbury.

But her appointment has divided opinion in Nigeria and elsewhere, with many conservative Christians believe that only men should be consecrated as bishops.

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At Thursday’s press conference, Gafcon insisted doctrine was at the heart of their differences with the Church of England, not gender or sexuality.

“The issue is not same-sex marriage, nor is it about the female Archbishop. It is whether scripture or contemporary culture governs the life of this church,” Venerable Canon Murff told assembled journalists.

Yet he also said Archbishop Mullally had “repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality”, because of her support for same-sex unions, a position Gafcon sees as “contrary to Holy Scripture”.

He added that when it came to female leadership, “the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopalism”.

Gafcon has members from across the world – including Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australasia – and claims to speak for the majority of the Global South, although that is contested.

Two-thirds of the world’s Anglicans are in Africa, but opinion is not monolithic, and there are six female bishops on the continent.