(ANALYSIS) The 2025 Story of the Year in religion is obviously the surprise May 8 election of the first Pope from the United States, Leo XIV. The second-place story,\u00a0less publicized but important, is the Oct. 16 proclamation of a planned split among the world\u2019s 97 million Anglican Christians over their anguishing dispute on the Bible and sexual morality. <\/p>\n
All \u201corthodox\u201d bishops are summoned to Abuja, Nigeria, next March 3-6 to formalize the breakup, elect a leader, and fix next steps.\u00a0 But who will show up?\u00a0<\/p>\n
READ: Faith Deserves Better News Coverage \u2014 And Here\u2019s How You Can Help<\/a><\/p>\n The long-evolving conflict reached this breaking point two weeks after 2025\u2019s number-three story occurred, the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury. She will both head the Church of England and be the titular leader of the Anglican Communion, which consists of 42 self-governing national branches. For some, her ascent adds the divisive issue of female clergy to the biblical debate.\u00a0<\/p>\n The coming break was announced by bishops of the Global Anglican Future Conference, founded in 2008 and currently chaired by Rwanda\u2019s Archbishop Laurent Mbanda. Their statement<\/a> rejects Canterbury\u2019s leadership and related international institutions, and boldly insists this is not a schism because \u201cwe have not left the Anglican Communion;\u00a0we are the Anglican Communion\u201d \u2014 now to be renamed the \u201cGlobal Anglican Communion.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n Regarding Mullally, GAFCON contends that \u201cthe majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy,\u201d so it\u2019s \u201cimpossible\u201d for her \u201cto serve as a focus of unity.\u201d <\/p>\n But \u201cmore concerning\u201d is her support for England\u2019s 2023 decision to provide church blessing rituals for same-sex couples (while some seek to next sanction marriages). GAFCON believes Mullally thereby violated her consecration oath to banish \u201cerroneous doctrine contrary to God\u2019s Word.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Anglican Communion headquarters in London issued a bland response that invited delegates to a regularly scheduled consultation<\/a> in Northern Ireland next\u00a0June 27-July 5 to discuss 44 pages of proposals for revised \u201cstructure and decision-making,\u201d though with no clear plan to solve \u201cour differences and disagreements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If GAFCON\u2019s plan succeeds, this will reflect the reality that Anglicanism is now dominated by largely conservative former missionary churches in the \u201cGlobal South\u201d of Latin America, Asia, and especially Africa. The\u00a0\u201cWorld Christian Encyclopedia\u201d says that in 1970, early in the post-colonial era, the world\u2019s 48.3 million Anglicans included 8.4 million Africans. By the turn of the 21st\u00a0Century, the 77.5 million Anglicans included 41.4 million Africans. As of 2020, Anglicans totaled 97.4 million, with 63.6 million in Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n The baptized on-paper membership of the mother Church of England, 23 million, is similar to the 22 million in the Church of Nigeria that is hosting the March confab.\u00a0 But active Nigerian churchgoers vastly exceed England\u2019s average Sunday attendance, which has fallen to 574,000. Three GAFCON branches alone, Nigeria, plus Uganda and Kenya, claim 42 million believers, and the organization incorporates 16 other Anglican church bodies and agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among these is the small Anglican Church in North America, formed in 2009 by traditionalists who left the Episcopal Church, the Communion\u2019s U.S. branch, and its Canadian counterpart. GAFCON\u2019s general secretary, Bishop Paul Donison, is a Canadian leading a congregation in Plano, Texas, and ACNA Archbishop Stephen Wood serves on GAFCON\u2019s governing council. (Wood is currently on leave, facing charges of sexual and other misconduct that he denies.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Some history: As recently as 1998, a conference of all the world\u2019s Anglican bishops overwhelmingly endorsed a policy statement that rejected \u201chomosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture.\u201d While the church must \u201cminister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation,\u201d the bishops stated, they consequently \u201ccannot advise the legitimizing or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Five years later, America\u2019s Episcopal Church initiated global conflict by consecrating the Communion\u2019s first partnered gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson. In 2016, the Anglican Church of Canada consecrated partnered gay Bishop Kevin Robertson. Last June, the Church in Wales (separate from England\u2019s church) elected partnered lesbian Archbishop Cherry Vann as its new leader. Churches in Brazil, New Zealand, Scotland and South Africa also have liberal policies. Together, these seven branches encompass some 7% of Anglicanism.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n