Anglicans reject Justin Welby as head of global church amid anger at same-sex blessings

The leaders of Anglican churches in some developing countries have said they no longer recognise Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, as the head of the global church.

Their decision stems from the decision this month of the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, to allow clergy to bless couples in same-sex marriages.

The conservative Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), which claims to speak for 75% of Anglicans worldwide, said in a statement on Monday that the C of E had “departed from the historic faith” and disqualified itself as the “mother church” of the Anglican communion.

The statement, signed by 10 primates, said: “The GFSA is no longer able to recognise the present archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Hon & Most Revd Justin Welby, as the ‘first among equals’ leader of the global communion.”

Welby had led his bishops in recommending that clergy be allowed to bless couples in same-sex marriages, knowing that it was “contrary to the faith and order of the orthodox provinces of the communion whose people constitute the majority in the global flock”.

The C of E and other churches, including those in Scotland, Wales, the US and New Zealand, that allow same-sex marriage or blessings had “taken the path of false teaching”, said the statement. “This breaks our hearts.”

Immediately after the synod meeting in London, Welby flew to Accra, the capital of Ghana, to meet global church leaders. He told them: “I was summoned twice to parliament and threatened with parliamentary action to force same-sex marriage on us.”

Henry Ndukuba, the archbishop of the Church of Nigeria, said the change of stance was “deviant” and it explained the C of E’s “terrible decline, loss and irrelevance in the secular and post-Christian western world”.

Jackson Ole Sapit, the archbishop of Kenya, criticised the “powerful secular voices that have captured the C of E” and said he was “saddened by the departure of our mother church from the true gospel”.

Stephen Kaziimba, the archbishop of Uganda, said: “The C of E has departed from the Anglican faith and are now false teachers.”