On the one hand [this week's news] ... the shattered Anglican Communion is once again shattered, this time by news that the new Archbishop of Wales is a woman in a partnership with a woman. Thinking Anglicans report here. The Other Cheek has comment here, including these thoughts:
"The Christians who believe that partnered gay and lesbian people should be treated equally with all others in the church will see a glass archiepiscopal ceiling being shattered – Vann is the first openly gay woman to head a province (national church) in the Anglican communion. They will sympathise with Vann’s three decades of secret keeping.
Evangelicals and others will also have seen a shattering – a further shattering of the Anglican Communion itself. For example, Sydney’s Archbishop Kanishka Raffel describes Vann’s election as “a grievous departure from the teaching of the Bible, inconsistent with the understanding of marriage as expressed in the formularies of the Anglican Church, and a tragic rejection of the words of Jesus.” Some theological conservatives will see the secret relationship as concealment."
On the other hand [not this week's news, but I did notice a mention of it] ... a new way to be the Communion - via a new leadership model for the Communion ... if the Communion is again "shattered", might we ask, "Is this the ecclesial superglue to hold us together albeit as a patched up, fracture lines showing where the glue re-joins us Communion?"
The key proposal here has been made by IASCUFO (Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order), see, e.g. report here, and the most recent guide to a recitation of its strengths/weaknesses that I can find on the internet is this round up of articles, published 2 June 2025, by The Living Church (i.e. listing articles published by this journal earlier in the year). From the IASCUFO report itself, when all the fine and necessary words are said about the theology of our life together as global Anglicans, we get this proposal:
"The second proposal suggests broadening how the meetings of the Instruments of Communion are called, convened, chaired, and presided over, in order to diversify the face of the Instruments of Communion. We propose (a) a rotating presidency of the Anglican Consultative Council between the five regions of the Communion, elected from the membership of the Primates’ Meeting by the same; and (b) an enhanced role for the Primates’ Standing Committee in the calling and convening of both Primates’ Meetings and the Lambeth Conference. Ceding the expectation that the Archbishop of Canterbury convenes and presides at all meetings of the Communion will enable the personal and pastoral aspects of the archbishop’s ministry to be given and received, and fits with the identity and ideals of the Anglican Communion in a post-colonial era. The leadership of the Communion should look like the Communion."
This paragraph boils down to six words about possible change to Communion leadership: diminished role for Archbishop of Canterbury.
Is this a way forward to "mend the nets", to superglue shattered pieces of previously united pottery together? This is a genuine question since the intent is to find a new way forward for the life of the Communion but I have seen (e.g. GAFCON) criticism of the proposal; and - speaking for myself - I am not keen on a diminishment of the ABC's role in the Communion.
Back to the first part of the post, and this week's Welsh news. One thought has struck me: if such an appointment is "unconstitutional" for the Communion (against Scripture etc), is it time to look more creatively-theologically (than, e.g., ++Sydney has done) at how we treat those who (so to speak) are not constituted in their humanity to enter into heterosexual marriage?
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