Global Anglican Communion Meets in Nigeria to Elect Rival to Archbishop of Canterbury

The Global Anglican Communion — a movement of theologically orthodox Anglicans representing tens of millions of believers, primarily in Africa and the Global South — is meeting this week in Nigeria to elect their own 'first among equals' to rival the incoming female Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally. The gathering marks the most dramatic escalation in a denominational split that has been building for decades over the Anglican Communion's progressive turn on sexuality, gender, and biblical authority. For the African bishops who lead the orthodox movement, the election of a parallel leader is an assertion that the moral and numerical center of global Anglicanism has shifted south — away from the declining Western churches that once sent missionaries to their shores, and toward the vibrant, growing congregations that now represent the majority of the world's Anglicans.