Deep split within the Anglican Communion - Archbishop of Canterbury rejected as the Anglican Communion's titular head

​A group of conservative international bishops, mainly located in the Southern Hemisphere, has rejected the Archbishop of Canterbury the Rev Justin Welby as the Anglican Communion's titular head.

Their position is influenced by the recent Church of England support for the blessing in churches of same-sex couples.

A statement from the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans said that 12 of its archbishops were 'no longer able to recognise the present Archbishop of Canterbury as "the first among equals" of the global commission" and that the Church of England was no longer the body's 'mother church' in their view.

Signatories to the unprecedented move include the Anglican archbishops of Chile, The Indian Ocean, Congo, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Uganda, Sudan, Alexandria, and Melanesia.

The statement added that the Church of England stance on "gay blessings", which was adopted by the English general synod and bishops in January, forfeited the leadership role of Archbishop Welby and the Church of England's position in the global commission.

According to the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans, the Church of England has "chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic Biblical faith,"

However, a communique from Archbishop Welby's Lambeth Palace base in London said that *no changes to the formal structures of the Anglican Communion can be made unless they are agreed upon by all of the body's leaders and council..

While the Church of England has approved prayers of blessing for gay couples for the first time, its traditional Biblical position on same-sex-marriage has not changed with couples still unable to marry in church.

The Church of Ireland, alongside the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches in Ireland, reiterates the same traditional Biblical theological position on marriage, unlike the more liberal Episcopal (Anglican) churches in Scotland and the United States.

The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion globally after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the Communion has currently more than 85 million affiliated members, in the Church of England and other national and regional churches globally.

l A former archbishop of Canterbury Rev Dr George Carey has expressed his concern at the Church of England's decision to allow church blessings for same-sex couples.

Dr Carey, in a letter to The Times newspaper, said the Church of England will now be out of step with the majority of the Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholic church, and the Eastern Orthodox churches.

"More seriously," said Lord Carey, "it will be out of step with the book that has influenced our church, more than anything else - the Bible."