Doubt on Welby’s future role

If the Church of England moves towards blessing same sex-marriage, or ‘opts into’ allowing gay marriages in its churches as a result of the Church’s General Synod meeting in February 2023, ‘pain and distress will be felt by millions of faithful Anglicans across the globe’, and ‘significant questions would be asked as to whether Archbishop Justin Welby would be able to continue to lead the Anglican Communion.’

So says the Mouneer Hanna Anis, Archbishop Emeritus of Egypt, a global Statesman within the Anglican Communion and an adviser to the primates of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), whose provinces represent 75% of Anglicans across the globe.

In an essay entitled Are We Really A Communion?, released on St Andrews Day (30 November), the day the global Church celebrates Jesus calling His first disciple to deny self and follow Him, the Primate Emeritus says that any move in a ‘revisionist direction’ by the C of E would be a ‘deeply damaging unilateral decision’, by a province ‘that is supposed to lead the Anglican Communion.’ Further, ‘it will contribute to the current divisions, and will badly affect the mission of other provinces in the Global South.’