A group of Anglican church leaders from around the world have ousted the Archbishop of Canterbury as their head following the decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples in England.

The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) has said in a statement that it no longer considers Justin Welby to be 'leader of the global communion', and it has 'disqualified' the Church of England from being its 'mother church'.

Earlier this month, the General Synod - the Church of England's legislative assembly - passed a motion to allow the blessing of same-sex couples in civil partnerships.

The GSFA said it speaks for 75% of Anglicans around the world, officially representing 25 member provinces - mainly in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

In its statement released on Monday, the group accused the Church of England of 'taking the path of false teaching' and going against 'the historical biblical faith' by allowing same-sex blessings, adding: 'This breaks our hearts.'

They said the archbishop had 'sadly led his House of Bishops to make the recommendations (for blessing gay couples) knowing that they run contrary to the faith and order of the orthodox provinces in the communion'.

Referring to Mr Welby, they said: 'We pray that our withdrawal of support for him to lead the whole Communion is received by him as an admonishment in love.'

The GSFA added that this has caused a 'leadership crisis' and it is now working to 're-set the communion'.

The signatories include the GSFA's chair, Archbishop Justin Badi, along with the archbishops of Chile, the Indian Ocean, Congo, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Uganda, Sudan, Alexandria and Melanesia.

 

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Good riddance to the homophobic congregations The Anglican Church needs to get with the times like the mainline Protestant denominations in the USA and allow same sex marriages and ordination of women. This is at least a step in the right direction.

I ran here for Miss Jolie