The two men behind the possible schism in the Church of England

At the start of each year in the United Kingdom, the monarch doles out “honors” to citizens who’ve contributed to the betterment of British society. This year, both Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and his longtime friend, Nicky Gumbel, head of Alpha, received awards. Now a split between the two over same-sex blessings could split the Church of England.

When Americans think of the Church of England, they don’t necessarily think “evangelical.” However, Billy Graham and other evangelicals from the United States had a profound impact on the church in the 1960s. Today, about 40% of the Church of England’s members consider themselves evangelical in part due to the impact of the neo-charismatic mega church Holy Trinity Brompton in London. Gumbel and Welby, who have been friends since high school, are both products of HTB and proponents of its theology.

His casual style attracted thousands across HTB’s various campuses, including a former Spice Girl, survivalist Bear Grylls, and members of the band Mumford and Sons.

Gumbel started at HTB as a curate and became the church’s vicar in 2005, a post he held until his retirement in 2022. On Sundays, his casual style attracted thousands across HTB’s various campuses, including a former Spice Girl, survivalist Bear Grylls, and members of the band Mumford and Sons. HTB also is responsible for planting 80 other churches across England and Wales, which together comprise the HTB Network.

As impressive as this is, Gumbel’s greatest contribution to the Church of England is Alpha. “We identify Alpha with Nicky Gumbel; they’re synonymous. He’s been the pioneer of it since the early 1990s and it was really under his ministry that Alpha became super charged,” said Andrew Atherstone, author of the book Repackaging Christianity: Alpha and the Building of a Global Brand. Gumbel transformed a 10-week discipleship course at HTB into an evangelizing juggernaut now running in 140 countries, including the U.S.

Justin Welby, who was baptized and married at HTB, later left his lucrative career in the oil industry for the ministry after hearing a sermon there. What followed was a meteoric rise through the church hierarchy, culminating in his appointment as archbishop in 2013. The influence of HTB is evident in his focus as archbishop on church planting, evangelism, prayer, spiritual renewal and recruiting young people.

Nevertheless, Welby has been at odds with more conservative “evangelical” elements within the church. Only a year into his tenure, he sparked controversy in 2014 when he pushed for the consecration of female bishops in the face of conservative objections. The measure passed the General Synod and the church appointed “flying bishops” to appease those who objected to oversight by a female bishop.

The current crisis over same-sex blessings, however, may permanently divide the Anglican church.

A church divided

Officially, the Church of England believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Its clergy are not allowed to have same-sex marriages, and same-sex marriage services are prohibited in its churches even though same-sex marriage is legal in England.

Although Welby himself is not personally in favor of same-sex relationships, LGBTQ parishioners and those who minister to them want an official service of blessing for same-sex couples, something already occurring unofficially.

“We know we are a church that has an enormously broad range of views on how we read Scripture,” said Mandy Ford, dean of Bristol. “And we’ve lived with that tension in all its richness for many years since the introduction of civil partnerships. We should acknowledge those differences.”

In December 2023, the General Synod of the Church of England approved the “Prayers of Love and Faith” for blessing same-sex couples, but bishops have yet to authorize a stand-alone service for those prayers. For now, the prayers may only occur within another church service such as Sunday Eucharist or Evensong.

While liberal members were hoping for a decision that would not leave LGBTQ members as second-class citizens within the church, many see the approval of the prayers as positive. “I think the church is a moving organization. It’s led by the Spirit; it feels new things happening. There are new winds. They sometimes come in from society,” said Helen King, a member of the General Synod.

Conservative evangelicals in the church, however, feel betrayed by the archbishop, whom they considered “one of our own” but who now is willing to “shoot the body of Christ in the foot,” said Richard Moy, minister at Christ Church, London.

These conservatives decry the prayers of blessing as a shortcut to approving same-sex marriage without the required vote by the General Synod to change official church doctrine. For them, any approval of homosexuality is at odds with the church’s teaching and the Bible.

“These are gospel issues, salvation issues, because the New Testament describes what the holiness of Christians involves and that holiness has always involved shunning sexual immorality,” said Patrick Richmond, chair of the House of Clergymen in Norwich.

Alternative organizations

In response to the blessing of same sex-couples, the Church of England Evangelical Council created a separate fund so members may direct their tithes to benefit only “biblical” evangelical churches. Nic Tall, secretary of the General Synod Gender and Sexuality Group, investigated the activities of the CEEC and reported they’ve also hired additional staff, increased their fundraising and developed alternative organizational structures for the church to distance themselves from liberals.

Several evangelical groups in the UK, along with some Catholic representatives, have recently formed another organization known as the Alliance. Documents filed with the UK government state the directors are John Dunnett, national director of CEEC; Sarah Jackson, head of Revitalise Trust, HTB’s church planting wing; and Jago Wynn, vice chair of the HTB network.

A letter distributed to the members of evangelical churches from one unnamed church leader said he spoke with someone in charge of the Alliance who hoped to gather 3,000 evangelical churches — “all biblical and committed to orthodoxy” — to push back against the Church of England’s tacit endorsement of homosexuality. The letter writer’s contact also promised legal protection for dissenting clergy, churches, seminaries, as well as oversight by “orthodox bishops.”

Revitalise Trust received £50 million from the Church of England for its work between 2014 and 2020. According to Tall, the Alliance wants to use its network of churches to potentially split the very entity that funded it.

The CEEC hopes to gerrymander all liberals into their own third province and take control of the rest of the church, including the powerful seat held by the Archbishop of Canterbury. (Dioceses are currently divided geographically into two provinces, Canterbury and York.)

And the person hoping to recruit 3,000 churches to his side and making all the promises to the author of the letter is none other than Nicky Gumbel.

Gumbel’s position and Alpha’s influence

Early on, Alpha was more open about its anti-homosexuality position; but when that interfered with sales of the course, Gumbel deleted the unit on sexuality. “I haven’t found any evidence of changed theological position, but there’s definitely been a change in approach,” explained Atherstone. This conforms with Gumbel’s assertion in his book Telling Others that Christians don’t have the right to “tamper with the apostolic message,” only the “cultural packaging” of the gospel. Elsewhere in his book Searching Issues, it’s clear Gumbel believes homosexuality is a sin, a “daily struggle” LGBTQ people must overcome.

Last October, Gumbel and Dunnett joined conservative Anglicans in Cairo for a meeting of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches. A statement by the GSFA said the gathering was to “lament the deep darkness of rebellion to the truth of God’s word” and “reset” the Anglican Communion “according to its biblical and historic roots.”

In 1900, almost 80% of Anglicans lived in England. Now 75% live in the Global South.

In 1900, almost 80% of Anglicans lived in England. Now 75% live in the Global South and practice a highly conservative, charismatic, evangelical faith overseen by the GSFA.

At an earlier meeting, GSFA representatives signed a statement rejecting the authority of the archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England, which has “departed from the historic faith” and is no longer qualified to be the “mother church” of the Anglican Communion.

When asked about Gumbel’s participation with the GSFA, Justin Badi Arama, archbishop of South Sudan, said, “Together with him, we affirmed our Ash Wednesday statement, and also we committed ourselves to the GSFA covenantal structure as the only means to bring together all orthodox provinces (national churches) within the Anglican Communion.”

Anglican Church in North America

When conservatives in the United States split from the Episcopal Church over the ordination of openly gay bishop Gene Robinson, they also partnered with Anglican leaders in Africa through the Global Anglican Future Conference to establish the Anglican Church in North America, which is led in part by the archbishop of Nigeria. Some churches in Canada also are members of GAFCON, after leaving the Anglican Church in Canada over same-sex blessings.

The ACNA is growing in diversity and numbers compared to the Episcopal Church in the United States. Most ACNA churches are in California, the politically conservative states of South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Texas and the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

The ties running through Anglican evangelicals, HTB, Alpha and political conservatives are no coincidence. According to a Substack post by historian Diana Butler Bass, the theology at the core of HTB and Alpha is part of the “third wave of charismatic enthusiasm” also called neo-charismatic.

These believers emphasize spiritual warfare and supernatural signs. Their goal is to purify the church and bring about the kingdom of God here on earth. The third wave “is necessarily and purposefully political, complete with enemies (those who disagree with their theology), a miraculous toolkit (financial prosperity, charismatic leaders), and a mission — to renew the entire globe on the basis of God’s order through the body of true believers,” Bass explained.

In the UK as in the United States, secular politics is one way to wage war in the spiritual realm.

Trump connections

While the archbishop must remain politically neutral, Nicky Gumbel is under no such obligation. In 2016, two days before the U.S. election, Robert Morris, the ultra-conservative senior pastor of Gateway Church and a member of Donald Trump’s Executive Council of Evangelical Leaders, preached at Holy Trinity Brompton. Those critical of his presence in the pulpit said it wasn’t the first time Gumbel had wooed far-right Trump supporters to HTB or allied himself with their cause. Ken Costa, Alpha International chairman (now emeritus), donated half a million pounds to the Tory Party from 2010 to 2019 and served as conservative Prime Minister Theresa May’s special envoy to Saudi Arabia in 2017.

Across the pond in America, Alpha USA also attracts conservative evangelicals with political ambitions. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has pushed anti-trans and anti-abortion policies in the state, served on the Alpha USA board and started Holy Trinity Church in his basement modeled after the original HTB. The church is a hub for conservative politicians in nearby Washington, D.C.

Youngkin himself owns the $6 million church compound and rents it to HTC for $1. A statement on the church website, which has since been removed, warned of the IRS’s rules against partisan campaigning but said individuals were free to “participate in the political process.” One visitor reported seeing Trump ally Sen. Josh Hawley in the church lobby shaking hands. HTC also offers the Alpha course to members and visitors.

Alpha USA is the largest Alpha branch in the world and has the potential to reach millions with conservative evangelical theology. In 2022, Alpha USA equipped 7,400 churches who presented the course to 404,258 participants. By the end of 2024, Alpha USA will have an Alpha network in place to train and equip churches in all 50 states.

‘He Gets Us’ campaign

An operation the size and scale of Alpha USA is not only good for sharing conservative religious beliefs, but political ones as well. In 2022, the secretive Servant Foundation donated half a million dollars to Alpha USA. The Servant Foundation is a group of evangelical billionaires that includes Hobby Lobby founder and white Christian nationalist David Green. Green and others funnel their money through their donor-advised funds to a myriad of conservative causes and anti-LGBTQ organizations, including hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. The Servant Foundation also is behind the He Gets Us campaign that premiered at last year’s Super Bowl and was highly visible at this year’s Super Bowl.

A major partner of He Gets Us, Alpha USA receives the requests from individuals who go to the He Gets Us website looking to connect with a small group. In addition, Alpha partners with the Koch brothers-backed group Communio as they continue to develop a system to micro-target 18- to 35-year-old working-class Americans with Alpha’s marriage enrichment program. According to Brent Allpress, this system provides the Republican donors behind Communio the means to then micro-target potential religious Republican voters.

It’s unclear if Alpha USA was complicit in this Republican scheme or simply the bait that was switched. However, DeGance appeared with Alpha USA board member Kevin Palau in a video for the anti-trans ThinQ Media, and Craig Springer, executive director for Alpha USA, provided a book jacket blurb for DeGance’s new book. Communio also donated $455,000 combined to both Alpha and Alpha USA in 2018 and is still offering the Alpha marriage and pre-marriage courses as resources for churches.

Renewal or takeover?

According to Diana Butler Bass, conservative evangelicals have a history of entering denominations and “renewing” them from the inside, which involves remaking them in their own neo-charismatic image. This happened with the Episcopal Church in the U.S. until the ordination of Gene Robinson “forced” the conservative contingent to break away.

Some in the Church of England wonder if a takeover has been HTB’s goal all along. HTB receives the lion’s share of funding for church planting and trains a fourth of all the priests in the Church of England at its seminary, St. Mellitus College.

Gumbel and the Alliance are emphatic that their churches have no desire to split the Church of England. Yet, their demands indicate otherwise, as Helen King observes: “separate provinces, separate bishops, separate ordinations, separate selection for ordination training, separate theological colleges, separate confirmation services — and put those with their statements that this is about ‘keeping the church together’?”

Those who support same-sex blessings and an inclusive Church of England say they also want to avoid a split. “It’s a high-wire act for the Church of England because there is profound division and disagreement,” said Archbishop Welby. “We have to deal with this as a family dispute and not a political dispute. In other words, don’t split.”

Time will tell.  A split may very well have already occurred, even if the break isn’t visible on the surface.

 

Kristen Thomason is a freelance writer with a background in media studies and production. She has worked with national and international religious organizations and for public television. Currently based in Scotland, she has organized worship arts at churches in Metro D.C. and Toronto. In addition to writing for Baptist News Global, Kristen blogs on matters of faith and social justice at viaexmachina.com.