History Made as Wales Elects First Lesbian Anglican Archbishop

Conservative Anglicans are threatening to splinter from the global Anglican Communion after Cherry Vann, an openly queer woman, was elected as the new Archbishop of Wales.

Archbishop Vann, who has served as the Bishop of Monmouth for five years, secured a two-thirds majority vote from members of the Church in Wales Electoral College during its meeting in Chepstow last week.

A Groundbreaking Appointment

She becomes the first woman to serve as an archbishop in the UK and the first openly LGBTQ+ Primate (head of a province, or region, like Wales) in the Anglican Communion – the international family of Anglican churches. Vann lives with her civil partner of 30 years, Wendy Diamond.

She now takes over as the 15th Archbishop of Wales, succeeding Bishop Andrew John, who resigned in July following a scandal involving a drunken sexual assault at the cathedral in Bangor. While John was not implicated in the incident, he stepped down amid criticism over his alleged failure to take appropriate action.

“The first thing I shall need to do is to ensure that the issues which have been raised in the last six months are properly addressed and that I work to bring healing and reconciliation, and to build a really good level of trust across the Church and the communities the Church serves,” said Vann following her election.

Widespread Praise from Progressives

Jayne Ozanne, a prominent LGBTQ+ rights campaigner within the Anglican Church, welcomed the historic appointment.

“Archbishop Cherry is a woman of deep faith, integrity and compassion, who knows what it is to be on the receiving end of prejudice and discrimination because of her sexuality,” she told The Tablet.

Ozanne added that Vann’s election would bring hope and joy “to all those across the wider Anglican Communion who long for a Church that respects and affirms the dignity of all, independent of their sexuality or gender.”

Backlash from Conservative Anglicans

Conservative Anglican leaders around the world, however, reacted strongly against the news. Gafcon, a coalition of Anglican leaders—many from Africa—who oppose the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in church leadership, condemned what it called a “grievous” event and “another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy.”

“By celebrating this election and her immoral same-sex relationship, the Canterbury Communion has again bowed to worldly pressure that subverts God’s good word,” said Bishop Laurent Mbanda, the Rwandan Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council in a statement.

“We must stand against the relentless pressure of Anglican revisionists who blatantly impose their immorality upon Christ’s precious church,” he asserted. “We cannot sit on our hands and let this apostasy continue.”

A Longstanding Divide in the Church

Conservative Anglicans have long threatened to break away from the Anglican Communion. Tensions intensified in 2003 when Gene Robinson, who was in a same-sex relationship, was elected Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the US Episcopal Church.

The election of Archbishop Cherry Vann represents both a historic milestone and a flashpoint in the ongoing battle for LGBTQ+ inclusion and dignity within the Anglican Church.