What is in store for faithful Anglicans in 2026?

The short answer to this question, is of course, "God alone knows", and it is perhaps for this reason that Minnie Louise Hoskin's poem is so often quoted at the turn of each and every year:

"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way".

Or, as the psalmist reminds us:

"Do not put your trust in princes,

in human beings, who cannot save.

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;

on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord their God."

(Psalm 146:3-5 ESV)

The wise Christian does not assume his plans will work out, or her interpretation of events is correct. Some even use the initials D.V. (- deo volente - God willing) as a reminder of their frailty. Yet, decisions have to be made, with eyes firmly on the Lord Jesus, and there is a sense in which God's people are expected to be able to understand the times in which they live.

This blog does not attempt to make predictions.  Instead it flags up a number of events which should be on the radar of all orthodox Anglicans because together they will give an indication of the direction of travel that the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion are likely to take over the next decade or so.

Regular readers will be aware that faithful Anglicans differ in how they interpret the present time. Some will agree with the Psephizo blog, that the Church of England's Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process has hit the legal buffers, and the coming year will be mired in debates about ecclesiology and episcopacy. Some are convinced that next year's elections will maintain, or even strengthen, the orthodox position at General Synod and thus they enter 2026 in a relatively hopeful frame of mind.

Others, such as one of Anglican Future's bloggers, warn that the majority of bishops in the Church of England have not repented of their desire to bless same-sex relationships and so assume that they may still choose to embark on the legal processes necessary to deliver further 'progress' towards the 'radical new Christian inclusion' for LGBTQI+ people. These fear the results of the forthcoming elections will be more precarious, with attempts made to ensure those who cannot agree to disagree over matters of human sexuality have to be very clear about the position they hold in any election address.

In a recent blog, Nic Tall, a liberal commentator wrote, "... it’s clear that 2026 is a moment of potential change for the Church of England, with a new Archbishop at the helm and a new General Synod waiting to be elected."

There are many evangelicals in the Church of England, and other Canterbury-aligned provinces, who have determined that whatever decisions are made they have hitched their wagon to the Church of England. For them, these events will offer some clue of how bumpy that journey might be. Others, who already find their conscience strained and their circumstances increasingly untenable are beginning to wonder if the best hope of a faithful Anglican witness for the next generation lies outside the Church of England or Church in Wales. For them, these events may cause them to take decisive actions.

May this blog act as fuel for prayer for all.

January:

The Primates of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) meet in the Seychelles from the 14th-17th January. It is customary for a Communique or 'Trumpet' to follow these meetings, and this may offer some indication of the practical implications of tthe GSFA's stated inability to recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as the primus inter pares.

The College of Bishops meet 22-23rd of January. The House of Bishops may or may not have published their promised statement "summarising LLF and setting out an agreed position" by then, but their proposals for General Synod will need to be published by the 23rd January.

Having been cleared of safeguarding failures by the Archbishop of York, it is more than likely that the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, will legally become the Archbishop of Canterbury on the 28th January. Once in post, she will be able to decide whether to call a Primates Meeting this year.

February:

The Church of England's General Synod meets from the 10-14th February. Alongside a presentation and debate about LLF on the Thursday, the outline agenda notes there will be a number of amendments to the process for electing central members of the Crown Nominations Committee (who select diocesan bishops) to be debated.

The new bishops of Ely and Durham are expected to be announced in the early part of 2026.

March:

From the 3-6th March, Gafcon will host a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, to which all Anglican bishops who can sign the Jerusalem Declaration have been invited. Their intention is "to form a new Council of Primates for the Global Anglican Communion, with a Chairman as 'primus inter pares'" in line with their Martyrs' Day Statement.

Then on the 25th, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally is due to be installed as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury. Commentators will be looking closely at how many provinces of the Anglican Communion are represented at the service and how many choose to absent themselves.

April:

The Governing Body of the Church in Wales meets from 15-16th April.

The House of Bishops have said they will be bringing proposals to this meeting to make the authorisation of Blessings for Same Sex Couples permanent and to seek to allow same-sex marriage in April 2027.

May:

May 31st is the last day for parishes to hold their APCM and this year parishes will need to elect their deanery synod members for the next three years - who in turn form the electorate for the General Synod elections in the Autumn. Some parishes may find these more hotly contested than usual.

June:

The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meets in Dublin from the 27th June-3rd July. The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals for a reframed Anglican Communion will be under discussion. Both GSFA and Gafcon have been critical of this approach - but perhaps more important than the result of the discussions at the ACC will be the number of provinces which boycott the event completely.

July:

The Church of England will hold the final General Synod of this 'quinquennium' after which all members, except the diocesan bishops, face re-election.

September:

The Church in Wales Governing Body will meet for the second time this year and the Church of England's elections for the next quinquennium's General Synod members will be in full swing. Nic Tall has set out the importance of these elections from a liberal perspective in his New Year blog.

• House of Laity - are elected by deanery and diocesan synod representatives

• House of Clergy - are elected by all clergy in their diocese

• House of Bishops - nine suffragan bishops are elected by the suffragan bishops to join the diocesan bishops in the 'House'

• Other elections take place for representatives of the Armed Forces, the Universities and Theological Educational Institutes and the Religious Communities.

October:

The results of the General Synod election will be announced at some point in the first half of October. Once published there will be a rush to work out whether the orthodox have maintained their blocking minority and/or whether they have increased their overall share in any of the three Houses.

November:

In November, the new General Synod will meet in London, beginning with a Service of Holy Communion at Westminster Abbey. Traditionally this is the only time that the monarch and Supreme Governor takes communion in public, conservative members of Synod will, however, have to decide whether to follow the lead of the GSFA/Gafcon bishops and refuse to commune with others who they perceive to have departed the faith once delivered.

It is unlikely that the newly elected members will be asked to vote on any controversial topics but if they are it will be the first opportunity to assess where the balance of power lies for the next five years.

As December rolls round it will be time to look again at the words of Minnie Louise Haskin, which continue:

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.

And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:

What need our little life

Our human life to know,

If God hath comprehension?

In all the dizzy strife

Of things both high and low,

God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will is best.

The stretch of years

Which wind ahead, so dim

To our imperfect vision,

Are clear to God. Our fears

Are premature; In Him,

All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until

God moves to lift the veil

From our impatient eyes,

When, as the sweeter features

Of Life’s stern face we hail,

Fair beyond all surmise

God’s thought around His creatures

Which is a very good reminder that whatever happens this year and whatever decisions are made, God alone has a clear view and "hath full provision" and that should still all fears.

With thanks to Stephan Widua at Unsplash

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