The Church of Uganda has issued a strong rebuke following the appointment of the Rt. Rev. Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London, as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Most Rev. Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu, Archbishop of Church of Uganda, expressed “sadness” over the decision, citing Mullally’s “support and advocacy for unbiblical positions on sexuality and same-sex marriage.”
In a statement addressed to Ugandan Christians, Archbishop Kaziimba Mugalu asserted that Mullally’s appointment reveals her “departure from the historic Anglican positions that uphold the authority of Scripture for faith and life.”
The Church of Uganda, a founding member of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), views the appointment as a deepening of the rift within the Anglican Communion. This split, the statement argues, originated in 2003 with the consecration of a bishop in a same-sex relationship by The Episcopal Church (TEC).
“The tear in the fabric of the Anglican Communion has now reached the highest level of the Communion,” the Archbishop wrote. He labelled the decision by the Church of England as a “grievous decision… to separate itself from the vast majority of the global Anglican Communion,” expressing concern that “there appears to be no repentance.”
The Church of Uganda affirmed its earlier declaration made at the 2023 Gafcon statement in Kigali, stating they “no longer recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury as having global authority” and that the office “is certainly no longer an ‘Instrument of Communion.'”
With Mullally’s appointment, Archbishop Kaziimba Mugalu concluded, the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury is “reduced simply to the Primate of All England.”
The Church of Uganda extended prayers and a “hand of fellowship” to those in the Church of England disillusioned by the new appointment, offering solidarity through Gafcon and the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans.
The Archbishop reassured Ugandan Christians that the Church remains part of a worldwide communion committed to proclaiming the “historic and Biblical faith of Anglicanism—faithfulness to Christ and submission to the authority of Scripture.”
He concluded on a hopeful note for those adhering to traditional views, stating, “The future of Gospel-centred mission in our Anglican tradition is bright,” and recalling the Gafcon 2018 declaration: “We will proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations.”
