Church will not comment on archbishop sexuality row

Cherry Vann has become the first female leader of the church in Wales, as well as its first LGBTQ+ leader

The Church in Wales has said it will not respond to criticism of Cherry Vann's sexuality following her election as Archbishop of Wales.

The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon), which represents conservative views, described her appointment as "another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy".

A chaplain representing the LGBTQ+ community in Wales said they were "saddened" but not surprised by the statement.

After her appointment, Bishop Vann, who became the first female and LGBTQ+ leader of the church in Wales, told the BBC the church should represent "the diversity that is in our communities".

Reacting to her appointment, Dr Laurent Mbanda, chairman of Gafcon and Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, said the church had "bowed to worldly pressure that subverts God's good word".

Gafcon was formed by conservative elements of the church following the appointment of Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in New Hampshire, in the US, in 2003.

It issued the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration in response to the theological and moral divisions within the Anglican communion.

The statement rejects the blessing of same-sex unions and is critical of the consecration of bishops in a homosexual relationship saying that it "undermines the authority of scripture".

Rev Canon Sarah Hildreth Osborn, chaplain for the LGBT+ community in the St Asaph Diocese, said she was not surprised "one iota" by the response from Gafcon.

"If they'd been welcoming I'd have been shocked. I'm saddened by the idea that, as a church, our choice under the guidance of God can be wrong," she said.

"It's a shame that people can't see that other parts of the world, other cultures, other parts of the Anglican tradition will do things differently," she said, adding that the church in Wales had "made a good choice".

"To call another part of the church out in those terms, well who is nailing the nails in the coffin as it were?" she added.