THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL ANGLICANISM – Part 1

PHOTO: Rev. Dr. Gerald McDermott

By David W. Virtue, DD

www.virtueonline.org

April 25, 2026

Six speakers from across the Anglican Communion gathered at Reformed Episcopal Seminary outside Philadelphia to assess a Communion in crisis. The appointment of a woman Archbishop of Canterbury, a lesbian Archbishop of the Church in Wales, the Abuja Affirmation, the Jerusalem Declaration, GAFCON, the GSFA, and the continued push to affirm and bless homosexual unions — Anglicanism finds itself wading in deep troubled waters that could end in permanent schism.

The symposium was the brainchild of the Rev. Dr. Gerry McDermott, an American Anglican theologian, author, and retired professor best known for work on Israel, supersessionism, Jonathan Edwards, and world religions. He is the Distinguished Professor of Theology at Jerusalem Seminary and priest-in-residence at Holy Cross Anglican Church, Crozet, VA. Anglican Compass. He also teaches at Reformed Episcopal Seminary. He retired from the Anglican Chair of Divinity at Beeson in May 2022.

Speakers included the Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Anis (Egypt), Rev. Dr. George Westhaver, Rev. Dr. Gerald McDermott, Dr. Alice Linsley, Rev. Ben Jefferies, and Rev. Mark Perkins.

Unity in Truth — Dr. Gerald McDermott

True unity for God's people must be unity in truth. As Jesus declares in John 17:17, a Church whose unity is not grounded in truth is practicing a superficial — or false — unity.

Global Anglicans represented by the ACNA and GAFCON deserve credit for breaking from Canterbury over its repeated departures from biblical truth and Anglican tradition over the past half-century. The Global South Fellowship was right to issue its 2023 Ash Wednesday Statement declaring they would no longer recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury's headship following the Church of England's decision to bless same-sex couples. It should surprise no one that twelve primates were absent from Sarah Mullally's recent enthronement — primates whose provinces represent 75% of Communion membership.

As Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis has noted, a necessary realignment is underway: breaking from Canterbury's colonial framework and correcting more than fifty years of doctrinal drift. But does this realignment go far enough? Or does it sacrifice truth on the altar of a false unity?

The Abuja Affirmation declares the Jerusalem Declaration "our common confession." The JD calls for Scripture to be read "in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church's historic and consensual reading." Admirable. But what has that historic, consensual reading always said about Holy Orders?

For two thousand years — until the 1970s — Holy Order in three degrees was universally reserved to men. Only the heretical Montanist sect ordained women to the same offices as men. This was no accident. Jesus, revolutionary in his treatment of women, had gifted women available and chose an all-male apostolate. When the apostles replaced Judas, they again chose from men alone. Paul is explicit: "I do not permit a woman to have authority over a man... A bishop must be the husband of one wife... Let deacons be the husbands of one wife" (1 Tim. 2:12; 3:2, 12). This order, Paul makes clear, reflects creation, not merely the Fall: "Adam was created first, then Eve" (1 Tim. 2:13; 1 Cor. 11:3, 8).

This does not diminish women's ministry. In the early Eastern Church, deaconesses exercised rich pastoral roles — caring for the sick, teaching, leading prayer, preparing baptismal candidates — under episcopal authority. Most of these continue in the REC today.

The ACNA's own 2017 Vancouver Statement acknowledged that women's ordination to the presbyterate was a "recent innovation" with "insufficient scriptural warrant." Yet the ACNA continues to permit it. GAFCON does the same and adds female bishops.

The Jerusalem Declaration also insists that "Scripture is its own interpreter." If so, why are global Anglicans — all professing scriptural authority — deeply divided on Holy Orders? The answer is that Scripture has never been interpreted in isolation from the Church's tradition. The Anglican Reformers knew this. Bishop John Jewel grounded the English Reformation in "the writings of the apostles, the testimonies of the Catholic Fathers, and the examples of many ages." The 1571 canons required preachers to teach nothing contrary to what "the Catholic Fathers and ancient bishops have collected." That patristic consensus was unanimous: male-only Holy Order, bishops as the ultimate rulers of the Church.

Here lies a deeper problem with the Abuja Affirmation's proposed Global Anglican Council. By replacing the Primates' Council with a body that includes lay guarantors, the new structure abandons 2,000 years of apostolic polity. Bishops and laity together deciding doctrine is Presbyterian, not Anglican — and a material denial of apostolic succession. The English Reformers held to ancient catholic polity. Luther and Calvin included laity; the Anglican Reformers did not.

The AA rightly condemns Canterbury for "normalizing hermeneutical pluralism" and "elevating cultural capitulation." But what is "dual integrity" on Holy Orders if not hermeneutical pluralism? What is bowing before the altar of "equality" — denying the sexual distinction written into both nature and revelation — if not cultural capitulation?

There is a way forward. Nehemiah led his people from exile into repentance and covenant renewal. The Latvian Lutheran Church, similar in size to the ACNA, ordained women from 1975 to 1993 — then repented. Archbishop Janis Vanags led the Church back to scriptural obedience. Ordained women were permitted to continue until retirement; new ministries were opened to women as lay readers, teachers, and evangelists. The LLC has maintained orthodox teaching on marriage and life ever since.

Global Anglicanism needs the same courage: to return — the Hebrew meaning of repentance — to be sanctified in truth, and to build a unity truly grounded in God's Word and His holy Church.

The Unbreakable Bond — Dr. Alice Linsley

Anglicanism's fractures will not be healed by new committees, corporate models, or the "big tent" strategy. The wider the tent, the thinner the doctrine. The more we stretch to include everything, the more we surrender the faith we claim to share. When bishops commune non-Christians, when syncretism passes for hospitality, when apostolic teaching becomes optional — unity collapses. A tent that large falls under its own weight.

The corporate model offers no rescue either. Corporations seek efficiency and shareholder returns; they produce transactional loyalty, not Christian community. Even the most faithful employee is ultimately expendable. The Gospel demands something corporations cannot conceive: loyalty sealed in blood.

This is what modern Anglicanism has forgotten. Christian unity is not organizational. It is sacramental. It is blood-born.

Anthropology confirms what Scripture proclaims. Across continents and millennia, human beings have recognized blood as the deepest bond of kinship. Red ocher burials — found in Alaska, Australia, Egypt, France, Russia, and elsewhere — testify to an ancient intuition: blood speaks of life beyond death. The earliest known example was found in Galilee, the very region to which Jesus returned after his resurrection.

Scripture makes this truth explicit. The blood of Christ purifies, redeems, reconciles, and binds. It is the basis of the "everlasting covenant" (Heb. 13:20). It is the ground of our peace. This is why the priesthood is perpetually under attack — priests stand where sacrifice and life meet, where blood speaks. Melchizedek ministered to Abraham after battle with bread and wine, foreshadowing the priestly ministry now centered on Christ's Body and Blood.

The early Church understood what is at stake. It guarded its inner life carefully, knowing that truth, identity, and survival depended on it. Baptism was birth into the family of God. Discipleship was maturation within it. Today we treat membership as casual affiliation and wonder why unity dissolves.

Anglican doctrinal confusion is not new. The 1938 Doctrine in the Church of England already revealed deep fractures on Scripture and obedience. Church committees even entertained spiritualism — Evelyn Underhill had to protest its dangers. Later generations lacked the authority to confront Pike, Swing, Spong, and Robinson. The result is a Church that cannot discipline error.

The lines are now unmistakable. There is no compromise with apostasy, no negotiation with heresy, no unity with those who deny Scripture's authority or Christ's uniqueness. The Church's unity is not a political achievement. It is a spiritual reality grounded in the blood of Jesus.

Anglicanism will not be saved by herding ecclesial cats through jurisdictional maneuvers. It will be saved only by recovering who we are: a clan — an extended family bound by the same blood, loyal to the same Lord, obedient to the same Gospel.

We cannot worship at the altar of Christ's Body and Blood while denying the bond that makes us one Body. We cannot preach reconciliation while refusing to live as reconciled people.

It is time to act like blood relatives.

A FEDERATION OF CHURCHES - MOUNEER ANIS

The Anglican Communion is in crisis. Like a sick body, the church has been fractured by deep disagreements — particularly over biblical authority, human sexuality, and the ordination of LGBT clergy — with some provinces acting unilaterally against the wishes of the global majority.

He identifies two root causes:

Theological drift — allowing culture to reshape church doctrine rather than Scripture

Structural weakness — no binding authority or accountability mechanisms to hold the Communion together

His prescription for healing centers on two things: unity grounded in truth (not just tolerance of disagreement), and reformed structures that are ecclesiastical, conciliar, and cohesive.

He outlines five possible futures for Anglicanism:

Renewal of the current Communion (requires repentance — he considers this unlikely)

Growth of separate networks like GSFA and GAFCON

A federation of like-minded Anglican churches

Multiple communions defined by theology rather than geography

Ecumenical alignment with the Roman Catholic Church (already underway for some)

His closing call is for Anglicans to return to apostolic faith, build stronger shared structures, and pursue the kind of unity Christ prayed for in John 17 — unity rooted in truth, not mere coexistence.

I will post Part 2 shortly. Many thanks for your patience.

The symposium was held at Reformed Episcopal Seminary, Oreland, Pennsylvania, April 24, 2026.