— Lukonde Mwila
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Since Anglicanism is now more African than English, what happens in Canterbury has ripple effects from Cairo to the Cape. The gravitational “centre of Anglicanism has shifted to the Global South, particularly sub-Saharan Africa”, with over 63 million baptised Anglicans in Africa compared to some 23 million in all of Europe!
Church history contains Anglican heroes of our faith – like J.C. Ryle, J.I. Packer, C.S. Lewis, and William Wilberforce. However, it is a Church today marked with a growing stain of compromise since its foundation. Anglicanism was essentially born out of Queen Elizabeth’s desperate attempt to unite a nation that was fragmented by Protestantism and Catholicism.
Her History
Since the latter part of King Henry VIII’s reign, the nation had endured drastic pendulum swings between progressive reform under King Edward VI and a Catholic reversal spearheaded by the wicked Queen Mary I. Needless to say, these were tumultuous times, and religious animosity was at the heart of it. This presented Elizabeth I, Mary’s successor, with an enormous task. She had just inherited the throne from a ruthless predecessor who became infamous for killing Protestants for their refusal to conform to Catholicism. Any sensible monarch stepping into such a situation would prioritise peace and stability, and that’s what Elizabeth did.
How Queen Elizabeth I handled this merger reminds us that good motives must be accompanied by biblical wisdom if we want the Lord’s blessing upon our efforts. She leveraged her royal power to accommodate the beliefs and practices of both Protestants and Catholics, not realising that this amalgamation would set up the Church of England for its long-term failure.
Her Compromise
The Church is called to be the “pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), under the care of faithful and proven men who are formally entrusted with her welfare in their own local, autonomous assemblies. These men must meet a certain biblical criterion and willingly shepherd the souls of those whom they will one day give an account for when they stand before the Church’s true Shepherd and Head, the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 5:4).
But Anglicanism has a different blueprint. Local assemblies must obey another set of sovereign rules apart from Scripture, including submission to an Archbishop who has been nominated and eventually selected by the state.
Her First Female
That brings us to the recent appointment of Sarah Mullally, the first female Archbishop of Canterbury. Her appointment was approved by King Charles III on 3 October. Rev. Mullally’s appointment is no sudden shift in the Church’s stance, but rather the culmination of a long, doctrinal downgrade. As the apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:9, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”
The Cranmer Contrast
In 1533, King Henry VIII appointed Thomas Cranmer to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry had his own selfish and immoral reasons for doing so, but God still used his actions to turn the spiritual tide in England. Henry wanted annulment from his wife, Catherine, because of “her failure” to produce him an heir. The Pope at the time, however, refused to bless this. So to force his desired outcome, Henry sought to cut ties with Rome and appointed himself as the head of the Church of England.
Additionally, he appointed Thomas Cranmer, a Protestant, as Archbishop and the primary executor of his plan to cleanse England of the presence of Roman Catholicism. Cranmer led the way in shutting down monasteries and replacing Catholicism with biblical doctrine in the Church of England. With the Catholic dogmas out of the way, God’s Word went forth and prevailed mightily as it did in the time of the early Church (Acts 19:20). What Henry intended for evil, God meant for good (Genesis 50:20), even in a case where the state dishonourably conflated two separate spheres of sovereignty set up by God (Mark 12:17).
Like Priest, Like People
Fast forward 500-plus years, and Thomas Cranmer’s former position is held by a woman who openly advocates for the blessing of homosexual relationships. When God lays out specific charges against the nation of Israel, He primarily calls out the priests and prophets (Hos. 4:6; 6:9). The priests and prophets were meant to be the spiritual caretakers of the nation. But because they forsook God’s Word, the rest of the nation followed suit and spiralled down a hole of moral degeneration and godlessness.
But what does this have to do with the new Archbishop? Prior to her appointment, Mullally was already known for gross compromise. Sadly, the sorry state of the Church of England will only worsen with Mullally at the helm, and the nation at large will continue to suffer. But what should a Christian’s response be in light of this? Here are four encouragements for my fellow African believers:
- Hold on to Christ’s promise in Matthew 16:18. The fulfilment of Jesus’ promise does not hinge on any one local Church’s continuity. We see in Revelation 2:4-5 that Jesus warns the church of Ephesus that, unless they repented, He would put out their lamp. Jesus promises to keep the Church until its glorification, for her multiplication (Acts 2:47b) and her purity (Philippians 1:9-10). In the case of the latter, this also entails taking out the lamp of those local churches that refuse to bow to their Head.
- Pray for the recovery of God’s Word in that spiritually malnourished land of England that once produced some of the foremost preachers, theologians, and biblical thinkers whose work has long been a blessing to the Church at large.
- Fear God and know that He will not be mocked (Isaiah 8:13; Galatians 6:7). The Church of England and the nation’s monarchy have for centuries sown seeds of compromise and cultural capitulation that are now sprouting with bitter fruit.
- Pray for true reform in the Church of England, and not a half-baked version that holds on to vestiges of unbiblical tradition. Instead, pray for widespread biblical renewal in the Church, with complete freedom from the state to fulfil her holy mandate.