The Church of Uganda has strongly opposed the appointment of Rt. Rev. Sarah Mullaly, the Bishop of London, as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, condemning her support for same-sex marriage as a betrayal of historic Anglican doctrine.
In a statement released on October 3, 2025, Archbishop Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu described the decision as a “grievous development” that further deepens the rift within the global Anglican Communion.
“Our sadness about this appointment is her support and advocacy for unbiblical positions on sexuality and same-sex marriage that reveal her departure from the historic Anglican positions that uphold the authority of Scripture for faith and life,” Archbishop Kaziimba said.
The Church of Uganda linked the current crisis to what it called the “tear in the fabric” of Anglican unity that began in 2003, when the Episcopal Church in the United States consecrated a bishop in a same-sex relationship. That act, Kampala insists, marked the beginning of a long-standing theological standoff between liberal provinces in the West and conservative churches in the Global South.
“This appointment has now taken the tear in the fabric of the Anglican Communion to the highest level of leadership,” the statement added. “There appears to be no repentance. Make no mistake, this is a grievous decision at the highest levels of the Church of England to separate itself from the vast majority of the global Anglican Communion.”
Archbishop Kaziimba stated that the Church of Uganda, as a founding member of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), no longer recognises the Archbishop of Canterbury as the spiritual leader of Anglicans worldwide.
“As we declared in our 2023 GAFCON statement from Kigali, we no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as an instrument of communion. With this appointment, the Archbishop of Canterbury is reduced simply to the Primate of All England,” Kaziimba wrote.
He assured Ugandan Christians that their church remains connected to “biblically faithful” Anglicans through GAFCON and the Global South Fellowship, stressing that the mission of proclaiming Christ and defending Scriptural integrity remains unchanged.
“The fields are ripe for harvest; we pray for labourers to go into the harvest. We will proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations,” the Archbishop said.
Bishop Mullaly’s appointment makes her the first woman in history to be chosen as Archbishop of Canterbury, the symbolic head of the global Anglican Communion. But her progressive stance on LGBTQ+ inclusion has been met with strong resistance from conservative Anglican provinces, particularly in Africa and Asia, which continue to uphold marriage as strictly between a man and a woman.
