Is the Anglican Communion About to Split?

The Anglican Communion is in crisis. Earlier this month, the Church of England ruled that although it wouldn’t permit same-sex weddings in its church, it would allow its priests to bless couples “married” in a civil ceremony. On Monday, a group of conservative archbishops representing nearly half of the world’s 100 million Anglicans announced that as a result, the Church of England was “disqualified” from being the head of global Anglicanism.

The battle lines have been drawn.

Progressives vs. conservatives: Many homosexual Anglican adherents welcomed the progressive trend sweeping the church. Some, predictably, say it isn’t enough and still leaves room for discrimination. But conservatives condemn the growing liberalism.

“The Church of England has chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith,” the conservative archbishops wrote. As such, they are “no longer able to recognize the present archbishop of Canterbury” as the “leader of the global Communion,” nor can they view the Church of England as the “mother church” anymore.

The Church of England … has now departed from the Bible and their message is the opposite. They are even offering to bless that sin. That is wrong. As the Church of Uganda, we cannot accept that. God cannot bless what He calls sin.
—Archbishop Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu

This schism from the “mother church” puts the survival of the entire Anglican Communion into serious question. Could a return to the original “mother” be on the cards?

A prophecy decades in the making: “The pope will step in as the supreme unifying authority—the only one that can finally unite the differing nations of Europe. … Europe will go Roman Catholic! Protestantism will be absorbed into the ‘mother’ church—and totally abolished.” Plain Truth editor in chief Herbert W. Armstrong made this bold, Bible-based forecast in 1961. Only now is it becoming clear just how fractious the Anglican Communion is.

The Catholic Church has already made it easier for conservative Anglicans to return to Rome. This split in the Communion may push more Anglicans down that route.

Keep a close eye on the Protestant world, and read Chapter 3 of He Was Right to understand what the Bible says about the Catholic Church and her Protestant daughters.