On 3 October 2025, the world was told that Sarah Mullally had been chosen to be the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury. Twenty-five weeks later, after quite a few ceremonies including last week’s ‘Installation’, she will finally get on with the job.
One man who has been on this journey together with her is Joaquin Philpotts, an industrial engineer and lay-minister from Buenos Aires. As was one among five representatives of the Anglican Communion on the Crown Nomination Commission, he spent last summer deliberating over different candidates. In January, he was called to supply a part of the ‘Charge’ on the confirmation of Sarah Mullally’s election and last week he was there at Canterbury Cathedral to see her installed.
His ‘charge’ was easy’ – “As an Instrument of Communion, you might be called to minister personally and pastorally to all member churches of the Anglican Communion, especially in collegial partnership along with your fellow Primates.”
Yet, as previously reported, the ‘collegial partnership’ of the Anglican Communion is strained, if not broken, with the leaders of twelve of the forty-two provinces boycotting the Installation. More than 1 / 4 of the Anglican Communion’s provinces can not “walk together” in the best way Sarah Mullally’s predecessor hoped.
Speaking before the service Mr Philpotts, a member of the Church of South America, whose primate was in Canterbury, reflected on the challenges that face Archbishop Mullally.
“I believe we’re in a really special moment. We’ve got to maintain seeking to work together but we cannot walk on opposite sides of the road. We’ve got to face our problems – we have now to agree what are problems are and look the right way to solve them … I’m hearing rather a lot about unity, but we cannot have unity without order,” he said.
Mr Philpotts suggested that while it is perhaps that each those in favour of same-sex blessings and people against is perhaps fallacious partially, it just isn’t possible for each to be right.
“It is a doctrinal issue, and it is vital,” he said, “and that’s the reason I believe we cannot keep walking together ceaselessly. We have to unravel our differences based on the word of God and we are able to’t think ceaselessly that we each imagine within the word of God but we interpret it different. The word of God was inspired by the identical Holy Spirit.”
Referring to Jesus’ words in Matthew 15:12-14, Joaquin warned that Jesus said there’ll come a time when “He will take out from the basis whichever he didn’t like. So that may be a huge responsibility for us.”
At the moment, Mr Philpotts is committed to the Nairobi-Cairo Covenant and the opposite proposals which the Anglican Consultative Communion can be discussing this summer. He just isn’t convinced by Gafcon’s latest Global Anglican Communion, seeing it as a “break” within the Communion, which could just result in further splits.
Instead he said, “I believe we’ve got to concentrate on Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and understand that the Nairobi-Cairo proposals to broaden the leadership just isn’t an answer … it just isn’t only the leadership’s responsibility. Whatever way it broadens, it just isn’t only that, they may have to unravel the issues – all of us have to unravel the issues.”
Yet, even at his most optimistic, Philpotts still admitted that, if there are some within the Anglican Communion who is not going to come back under the word of God, there may come a time when “we do should break apart, but we may have to take loads of responsibility”.
Despite his fears, there was a freshness in the best way that Philpotts spoke that perhaps comes from being a part of a Province which has passed through something of a metamorphosis over the past forty years. What was once the preserve of Anglo Argentines, with formal services predominantly in English, has now shifted to reflect Spanish Argentinian culture.
More than that, there was a spiritual awakening – the gospel is being proclaimed and there was rapid numerical growth. The expat English community is now seen as “a chance” for evangelism.
So, it was unsurprising that his prayer for the Archbishop of Canterbury as she begins her latest ministry is easy: “My prayer for her, my personal and special prayer is that she preaches a daring gospel. Bold, not daring preaching, however the preaching of a daring gospel – we have now to let the world know concerning the gospel.”
Susie Leafe is director of Anglican Futures, an organisation that gives pastoral and practical support to orthodox Anglicans.
Source: https://www.christiantoday.com/news/can-the-anglican-communion-unite
