JUBA – The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans has signaled it will not recognize what it terms “unbiblical and unorthodox” leadership of the Church, describing as “sad” the appointment of Rt. Rev. Dame Sarah Mullally as new Archbishop of Canterbury.
Mullally is the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury since Saint Augustine arrived in Kent from Rome in 597. Scheduled fro installation in March 2026, she will also be the first woman to hold the office.
In a statement, Most Rev’d Justine Badi Arama, the Chair of Global South Anglican Church, protested the appointment, saying the position of the church is to uphold traditional Christian teachings.
“It is sad that this newly appointed Archbishop is a supporter of same-sex marriage. In their Synod in February 2023, she described the decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples as a moment of hope for the Church.”
“In my capacity as the Chair of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans, we issue a letter reaffirming our position of not recognizing unbiblical and un-orthodox leadership.”
Archbishop Arama adds: “Our position as the Episcopal Church of South Sudan is to uphold Christian teachings and to proclaim the Biblical Anglican faith.”
A former NHS chief nurse, 63-year-old Mullally became a priest in 2006 and was appointed as the first female Bishop of London in 2018 – the third most senior member of clergy in the Church of England.
She used her first public statement on Friday to condemn the “horrific violence” of Thursday’s deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester, saying “hatred and racism cannot tear us apart”.
The Church has been without someone in the top job for almost a year after Justin Welby resigned over a safeguarding scandal.
Welby stepped down after a damning report into a prolific child abuser associated with the Church. It found that he “could and should” have reported John Smyth’s abuse of boys and young men to police in 2013.
Following her appointment, the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon), which is a network of conservative Anglican churches across Africa and Asia, said it received the news “with sorrow”.
