by Julian Mann, Anglican Ink
The secrecy around recent ‘alternative Anglican ordinations’ in London raises serious issues about the culture of the conservative evangelical constituency in the Church of England.
Professor Andrew Atherstone, a member of the General Synod and author of a biography of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, has reported on these alternative ordinations.
On the Law and Religion UK website, Atherstone describes how the battle in the C of E between progressive and conservative Anglicans is the context for these ordinations.
He says ‘the latest strategic move’ by the progressives is the Private Member’s Motion of Professor Helen King to be debated at the General Synod in July. This aims to get the Synod to ‘affirm that there are no fundamental objections to being in a committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationship, and that such a relationship can be entirely compatible with Christian discipleship’.
At the same time, he says, the conservatives continue to move ‘their strategy forward and to stretch the ecclesial boundaries’.
He writes: ‘The Church of England Evangelical Council has now commissioned 40 senior incumbents and retired bishops as Alternative Spiritual Overseers (ASOs) to provide oversight for about 250 clergy and 50 Parochial Church Councils who are in impaired relationships with their bishops…Alternative structures are steadily being built within the Church of England.
‘Alternative ordinations are a significant plank in these new structures. In June 2025, I reported on the ordination of seven deacons by Bishop Martin Morrison of the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH SA), for service as ‘missionary clergy’ in Church of England parishes…On Thursday 11 June 2026, Morrison returned to the East London Tabernacle, a Baptist chapel in Mile End, for a second round of ordinations of the next seven deacons.’
Atherstone critiques the secrecy around the ordinations of these deacons, six of whom were recommended for ordination by the Alternative Selection Panel run by the Anglican conservative evangelical network, ReNew, which mirrors the C of E’s national selection process.