Anglican Communion

Members will include representatives from around the global Anglican Communion, the General Synod, as well as at least one bishop.

It is my duty to honour my constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.

There has since been vocal opposition from conservatives within the Church and it is an issue that has already led to breakaway splits in the wider Anglican Communion, particularly in Africa.

Welby is the spiritual leader of both the Church of England and the global Anglican Communion of which it is a member.

But the change may deliver a “final blow to the unity of the Anglican Communion,” the Church of England Evangelical Council, a caucus of theologically conservative Anglicans, said in a statement.