The election of the Most Reverend Dame Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury marks an historic moment, not for its progress, but for what it signifies: the final sunset of the See of Canterbury as the spiritual center of global Anglican unity.

For nearly five centuries, the Archbishop of Canterbury served as the symbolic and spiritual focus of Anglicanism in the world and, over the last two centuries, for the Global Anglican Communion. Yet this election confirms what many have long discerned, that the center of gravity within the Anglican Communion has shifted decisively to the Global South, where biblical orthodoxy continues to flourish, and that the historic Canterbury-led Communion has now effectively come to an end.

The Anglican Communion has traditionally been held together by four “Instruments of Communion”: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference of Bishops (held roughly every ten years), the Primates’ Meetings, and the Anglican Consultative Council. In theory, these four instruments work in harmony to preserve faith, order, and mission within a shared understanding of Scripture, the creeds and the Anglican formularies. The Archbishop of Canterbury, as the “first among equals,” has historically served as the focal point that draws these instruments together in common cause for the Gospel.

That delicate balance, however, was shattered in 2002 and 2003 with two landmark events: the Diocese of New Westminster’s authorization of same-sex blessings and the consecration of Gene Robinson as the first openly partnered homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States. These actions tore the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level and triggered what became known as the Anglican realignment, the rise of biblically-faithful provinces, dioceses, and parishes seeking to remain true to the historic faith once delivered to the saints. Out of this crisis emerged two great movements, GAFCON (the Global Anglican Future Conference) and the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA). Both have since provided biblical and theological leadership for the vast majority of the world’s Anglicans, particularly across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The election of a woman as an Archbishop is itself not unprecedented within the Anglican world, but the election of a woman as the Archbishop of Canterbury does present an immediate theological challenge. The majority of Anglicans globally do not recognize the ordination of women as bishops or priests, and therefore cannot, in good conscience, recognize the new Archbishop of Canterbury as a valid bishop. However, the real problem lies deeper than questions of gender or church order. The issue is one of doctrine and faithfulness.

Bishop Mullally has been a public supporter of Living in Love and Faith, the Church of England’s initiative that introduced prayers for the blessing of same-sex unions. This move, in effect, overturned the Church’s traditional biblical doctrine of marriage and human identity. Despite efforts to present this as a pastoral provision, it represents nothing less than a revision of Christian teaching on what it means to be created male and female, and on God’s design for marriage.

As theologian Ian Paul has noted in his recent analysis, Bishop Mullally’s tenure as Bishop of London was marked by effective managerial skill and personal kindness, but not by theological clarity. Her ability to hold together a deeply divided diocese through diplomacy and administrative efficiency is admirable on a human level. Yet kindness and managerial talent cannot substitute for biblical conviction. The divisions within the wider Communion between those committed to biblical orthodoxy and those advancing revisionist theology are not administrative challenges that can be managed; they are theological divides that must be resolved on the basis of truth.

By electing a bishop who affirms doctrinal revisionism, the Church of England has, in effect, conceded that it can no longer lead or unify the global Communion. This was already foreshadowed in the most recent deliberations of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order, which met in Nairobi. For the first time, the Nairobi Proposals explicitly stated that recognition by the See of Canterbury is no longer essential for membership in the Anglican Communion. Instead, the Commission adopted language mimicking the Global South’s own Cairo Covenant, while affirming a model of “good disagreement” and relational autonomy—thereby abandoning genuine Communion for mere conversation.

But as Anglicans in the Episcopal Church and the Church of England have repeatedly learned, “good disagreement” leads only to optional orthodoxy, and as the late Richard John Neuhaus warned, when orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will eventually be proscribed. The Church of England’s decision, and now this election, are not simply unfortunate missteps; they represent a theological resignation. Canterbury has surrendered the moral and spiritual authority once entrusted to it. No amount of charm, administrative skill, or good disagreement can hold together a communion that no longer agrees on the authority of Scripture.

Given the deep orthodoxy of the Global South in Africa, Asia, and beyond, it was unthinkable that the Crown Nominations Commission would choose a leader from those regions, even one with moderate views, to try to preserve unity. Previous attempts to do so through appointments of Secretary Generals of the Anglican Communion like Archbishop Idowu-Fearon and Bishop Anthony Poggo failed to persuade the GAFCON and Global South primates to remain within the Canterbury fold. The election of Archbishop Mullally therefore signals something unmistakable: Canterbury has ceased to be the seat of global Anglican orthodoxy and, it seems, has stopped trying to do so. It is now the seat of an explicitly Western, revisionist church increasingly out of step with the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide.

Both Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of GAFCON and Archbishop Justin Badi of the Global South Fellowship have already made this clear in their statements (Abp Mbanda’s can be found here; Abp Badi’s can be found here). And so have other Archbishops of biblically-faithful Anglican churches (You can read the statement from Abp Stephen Kaziimba of Uganda here). Together, their statements, including the Ash Wednesday letter of the Global South later affirmed at GAFCON Kigali, declared that Canterbury’s leadership has forfeited its role as the center of unity. With this latest development, their words have been vindicated. The realignment of global Anglicanism is no longer underway; it is complete. What now begins is the work of reformation, perhaps even re-creation, of a faithful, Global Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Mullally will have her hands full simply holding together the fractured Church of England. We wish her well and will pray for her. But our greater concern and prayer must be for the orthodox Anglicans within England and across the West who now face yet again the painful choice of whether to remain within churches that have chosen to revise Scripture to suit the spirit of the age.

Now is the time for GAFCON and the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans to stand together as partners in Gospel mission. GAFCON brings a dynamic missional engine, equipping the Church to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations so that every language, tribe, people, and nation may know and follow Jesus Christ. The Global South Fellowship brings the covenantal and conciliar structures essential for Anglicanism to flourish as a confessional movement rooted in the authority of Scripture, guided by the creeds, and ordered by the historic formularies: the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer of 1662, and its Ordinal. These provide the doctrinal and liturgical backbone for a Global Anglican Communion that remains faithful to the Gospel and to the Lord of the Church.

The time has come to build new wineskins for the new wine of a renewed Anglicanism, one that is faithful to Jesus Christ and the faith once delivered to the saints. The sun may have set on the See of Canterbury, but the light of Christ shines ever brighter in the Global South and among the growing network of biblically faithful Anglicans around the world. The task before us is not nostalgia for what has been lost, but joyful obedience to what God is now doing, forming a truly global, Spirit-led, Scripture-anchored communion of believers who will proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations. May God grant us courage, wisdom, and unity in this calling.

I commend to you the new Anglican Perspective podcast (link below), hosted by the Rev. Canon Mark Eldredge, with guest Susie Leafe, Director of Anglican Futures, a friend to the AAC for many years and a loyal worker in the vineyard. She illuminates the situation on the ground in England, given this new development, its implications for churches there both inside and outside the Church of England, and the implications for the Global Communion.