Anglican Bishop of Monmouth Cherry Vann was elected this week to serve as Archbishop of Wales, making her the first Anglican Communion primate in a same-sex relationship. Election to the role required a two-thirds majority vote from members of the church’s Electoral College.
Theologically orthodox groups within the Anglican Communion lamented the development.
“The divisive rejection of the historic biblical and Anglican teaching on marriage and human sexuality has been allowed to continue without any effective restraint,” Archbishop Justin Badi Arama of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Chair of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA). The latter is a worldwide fellowship of Orthodox Anglican Provinces and Dioceses within the Anglican Communion.
“Faithful Anglicans of the Global South will grieve that the tear in the fabric of our beloved Communion is now established at the highest level,” Arama wrote in a statement released by the GSFA. “But this will also strengthen our resolve to restore the Scriptures to their central place in our life together and build covenanted relationships through which we are able to gladly recognise one another as partners in mission and members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
Tiny compared to the Global South provinces, the Church in Wales listed 42,441 members during its most recent statistical report in 2018. Anglican provinces associated with the Global South claim 61.8 million members, constituting 72 percent of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the third largest religious body in Christianity, behind Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The GSFA is among the worldwide Anglican bodies, alongside the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) that officially recognizes the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) among their membership.
Unlike the Church of England which continues to have an official government status, the Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 under the Welsh Church Act of 1914. Same-sex marriages may not be solemnised by the Church in Wales, although in 2021 bishops of the church authorized a liturgy for the blessing of a same-sex civil marriage or civil partnership. Vann is in a civil partnership.
Update [8/1/2025]: GAFCON Primates Council Chairman Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda has released a statement that “By celebrating this election and [Vann’s] immoral same-sex relationship, the Canterbury Communion has again bowed to worldly pressure that subverts God’s good word.”
Mbanda exhorts Anglicans to “confront serious error that compromises God’s glorious and authoritative word on human sexuality.”
In recalling the first GAFCON gathering in Jerusalem in 2008, Mbanda says, “We took a stand about the truth of God’s word, and we continue to stand in fellowship with the majority of the world’s Anglicans who grieve this rejection of God’s voice.”
The Rwandan Archbishop notes that GAFCON established The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) “as a home for those who wish to remain authentically Anglican, but whose conscience demands they leave Canterbury.”
“We stand with our Anglican brothers and sisters in Wales who are dismayed and disheartened by this act of apostasy.”
Update [08/11/2025]: Bishops of the (United Protestant) Church of Pakistan have written to Anglican Consultative Council Secretary General Anthony Poggo stating that “Our partnership as global Anglicans is built on shared beliefs; when those foundations shift, our fellowship is shaken.” The full statement can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D4Y6R69Cj
More from IRD:
Global South Anglicans not ‘Bowing to the Demands of Revisionism’
As Anglicans Aspire to ‘Re-order’ Communion, Structures Take Backseat to Doctrine, Mission
Inaugural Tennent Annual Lecture on World Christianity
Comment by Reader on July 31, 2025 at 6:20 pm
As a percentage of the population, the Anglican Church in Wales is larger than The Episcopal Church and the ACNA combined.
Comment by Thomas on July 31, 2025 at 7:12 pm
This is another low for the Church of Wales and worldwide Anglicanism. I`m glad there is GAFCON.
Comment by Joe M on August 1, 2025 at 1:00 am
The COE is dead on arrival.
Comment by Thomas on August 1, 2025 at 11:31 am
JoeE, except this is the Church of Wales.
Comment by Reader on August 1, 2025 at 4:01 pm
@Thomas: Church in Wales.
Comment by Skipper on August 1, 2025 at 7:26 pm
People down through the ages have made their own rules and claimed God is happy with their version. How can they keep on doing it? Don’t they ever look at God’s Word in the Bible?
Comment by Corvus Corax on August 4, 2025 at 10:49 am
But he said to them, “Not all men can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Also, there are those who wish to do whatever feels right to them, personally. They call it a “lifestyle.” I’m totally cool with that. It’s whatever. Maybe lesbians should lead my church.”
Comment by David on August 5, 2025 at 9:06 am
People who like to quote that verse in Romans tend to avoid the preceding verse:
“And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.”
The change in sexual orientation was due to God’s punishment.
It is always curious to see a Black man quoting scripture when the same book condones slavery. Cafeteria Christians like to pick which verses to follow and ignore others.
Comment by kim and John cooney on August 6, 2025 at 4:49 pm
So this continues with Bishops in Ales I see. Here in the U.S. there are many of these Bishops who are gay. What will it take to stop this heresy. And read the Bible people. God is not saying we need to condone this lifestyle. Yet, it goes on and on. I have always said this is following Sodam and Gomorrah from the Bible. Lies and more lies.
Comment by Skipper on August 8, 2025 at 6:25 pm
This is what happens when you don’t believe in the Authority of Scripture. These downplay the seriousness of sin and affirm sexual deviancy. They make people comfortable in their sin rather than calling people to turn from sin and turn back to God.
Comment by Leroy on August 9, 2025 at 7:50 pm
David, the Bible does NOT “condone” slavery. That is a twisted interpretation. It does recognize that slavery existed back then but it in no way condones or advocates for it.