Rowan Williams Says the Anglican Communion Might Not Survive

EDITORIAL

By David W. Virtue, DD   www.virtueonline.org                                                                                                                                                             

March 22, 2026

Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, told The Christian Post this week that the Anglican Communion might not survive. (The article can be read here: christianpost.com.)

If the Communion ultimately fails, much of the responsibility will lie with leaders like Williams, who consistently refused to take a definitive stance on issues of sexuality. His various efforts to preserve unity—including the now largely discredited Windsor Report—proved unsuccessful in holding the Communion together.

Williams bears significant responsibility for the theological confusion and institutional weakness he left behind. His tenure produced a conflicted Communion that even Justin Welby—his evangelical successor—has been unable to steady. The situation in the West has further deteriorated, and the current leadership appears more concerned with symbolic progress than doctrinal integrity.

At least in the Western provinces, the Communion’s decline is undeniable. Meanwhile, the Global South has assumed leadership of a new movement—the Global Anglican Communion—which has become a distinct entity apart from the Canterbury-centered tradition. The two driving alliances, GAFCON and the GSFA, now lead the effort to maintain biblical orthodoxy, while the Western churches appear intent on discarding their spiritual and theological heritage.

The Methodist example is instructive. They, too, have divided, forming the Global Methodist Church to proclaim the gospel faithfully and make disciples—something Western liberalism seems to have lost the ability to do. Would Williams also consider Methodism to be in decline?

Williams is mistaken. The crisis facing Western Anglicanism is not a natural evolution but a manifestation of divine judgment upon a church that has abandoned biblical authority. His own province, the Church in Wales, is now led by an openly lesbian archbishop—an indication of just how far from orthodoxy the institution has strayed.

To expect revival from such leadership is wishful thinking. It is akin to believing that an old Ford might somehow transform into a BMW if one waits long enough.

Williams’s Hegelian approach—hoping for harmony through synthesis—led the Communion into its current state of disarray. Now he laments its possible demise.

Cura te ipsum, Mr. Williams. Physician, heal thyself.