Half the Anglican World Breaks Away Over Church of England’s Progressive Turn
24th October 2025
The Protestant Anglican Communion has witnessed the largest schism in its near five hundred-year history after a body representing between one half and 85% of its total members has broken with the Church of England.
On October 15, the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) announced that it has severed ties with the Archbishop of Canterbury and formed a new “Global Anglican Communion”. The decision, GAFCON said, was necessary after the Church of England “abandoned the Scriptures” through its endorsement of same-sex blessings and theological revisionism—an accusation marking the most serious rupture in Anglican unity in a century.
The announcement followed days of escalating controversy surrounding the October 3 appointment of Dame Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury. Her elevation to the post—the first woman to hold it—antagonised conservative Anglicans who reject the possibility of women’s ordination and episcopal leadership. The move provoked condemnation from clerics such as Archbishop Henry Ndukuba, primate of the (Anglican) Church of Nigeria, which counts some 18 million members.
What business does the Church of England have outside of England? “Anglican Church of Nigeria” sounds like an oxymoron.