In June 2025, Law & Religion UK was the first to break the news of the ordination of seven Anglican deacons by the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa to serve as “missionary clergy” in the Church of England. In this guest post, Andrew Atherstone provides the latest instalment in the development of these ‘alternative structures’.
Introduction
Ahead of Archbishop Sarah Mullally’s first General Synod as president, in February 2026, the House of Bishops announced its intention to draw a line under the Living in Love and Faith project which had generated seven years of intense Anglican angst, heated debates, and fractured relationships. But the ecclesial shocks to the Church of England continue to reverberate and the fault lines still grow deeper. Anglican strategists, across the theological spectrum, continue to put new ‘facts on the ground’ in their efforts to change the church.
The latest strategic move by progressive Anglicans, who hope to reform the Church of England’s doctrine and liturgical practice, is the Private Member’s Motion of Professor Helen King (vice-chair of Together for the Church of England) due to be considered by General Synod in July 2026. At the same time, conservative Anglicans who hope to reform the Church of England’s institutional structures have not been idle. They also continue to move their strategy forward and to stretch the ecclesial boundaries.
For example, 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. The title ‘overseer’ is synonymous with ‘bishop’, though the ASOs are careful to emphasise their ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘jurisdictional’ responsibilities. 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. In a letter to Sarah Mullally and Stephen Cottrell, Morrison explained that he agreed to conduct the ordinations, at the request of English clergy, ‘with the aim of sustaining and advancing faithful Anglican evangelical witness and to ensure we do not lose a generation of gifted gospel workers to ordained ministry.’ Mullally and Cottrell rebuked this South African intervention as ‘ecumenically discourteous’, unnecessary, and ‘inflammatory.’ [1]
Nevertheless, the momentum continues. 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. This time, there was no epistolary exchange with the Archbishops. It was an understated affair, almost ‘business as usual’. The significance of these ordinations is no longer their novelty but their normalcy. A pattern has been established and is growing more deeply embedded. This report offers a brief eyewitness account of the ordination service, with a critique.
The 2026 Ordination cohort
The alternative ordination pathway aims to replicate all three parts of the normal Church of England pathway – selection, training, and ordination – except that the training is self-financed without access to Church of England grants. In the 2026 cohort, five of the seven deacons are graduates of the Proclamation Trust’s Leaders’ Training Course (LTC), formerly known as ‘Cornhill Plus’, which markets itself as ‘seminary level vocational training’. [2] It offers an evangelical alternative to the Church of England’s theological colleges and courses. A typical training pathway encompasses the ‘pre-seminary’ Cornhill Training Course for two days a week over two years, followed by LTC for one day a week over four years (plus three residential study weeks each year). Its primary focus is upon biblical study and preaching, with no exams and no university validation, while students spend most of the week employed by a local church. Graduates of LTC are encouraged to pursue a Master’s degree in theology via an established university, such as the ‘Common Awards’ MA in Theology, Ministry and Mission at Durham. Currently, there are 38 leaders-in-training enrolled in LTC (across all four years), two-thirds of whom are Anglicans heading towards REACH ordinations. In normal circumstances, these candidates would have been through the standard Church of England route of selection panel, theological college or course, and ordination to a curacy. But now they refuse to do so and, as a result, the Church of England is haemorrhaging evangelical ordinands every year.
Six of the seven REACH deacons in 2026 were recommended for ordination by the ReNew network’s Alternative Selection Panel (ASP), which mirrors the Church of England’s national selection process. It includes three one-hour interviews examining the candidate’s theology, pastoral gifts, and personal character, plus references, safeguarding checks, and a pastoral exercise.[3] Before the East London Tabernacle service, the congregation was addressed by Rod Thomas (former Bishop of Maidstone), who chairs the ASP. He explained that this alternative pathway became necessary in December 2023 when the House of Bishops commended the Prayers of Love of Faith. Until that commendation is withdrawn, or alternative provision is agreed, Thomas declared, ‘we cannot pretend we’re walking together’.
The service itself, with a congregation of about 120 people, followed the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer as adapted by REACH. It was stripped back to the bare evangelical essentials, without the many ceremonial flourishes typical in a Church of England context. The dress code for ordinands was suit and tie, though the bishop wore a purple shirt and dog collar. There was not a surplice in sight and no Holy Communion (even though this is mandated by the Prayer Book at every ordination). Rather than kneeling before the bishop, the ordinands stood in a line facing the congregation during the ordination prayer. Bishop Morrison highlighted the seriousness of the vows and asserted that the seven deacons would be found accountable on the Day of Judgment for whether they had kept them. He warned that if they fell into serious doctrinal or moral error, they would have their licences removed or be ‘defrocked’.
The bishop preached a 34-minute sermon, expounding St Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20). He outlined the ‘essence’ or KPIs (key performance indicators) of ordained ministry, emphasising that Anglican clergy must always teach the Bible not their own opinions or ideologies, must always be ‘inclusive’ by reaching out intentionally to everyone in their local area, and must always be relational and accessible. He argued that a ‘celebrity pastor’ is an oxymoron, and that the root of church abuse begins when clergy forget they are shepherds of God’s flock. The sermon ended with an evangelistic appeal.
There were three hymns, led by a small music group (a piano, two guitars, and a singer), and the service concluded with a rousing rendition of Samuel Stone’s The Church’s One Foundation. It originates as part of Stone’s 12-poem cycle based on the Apostles’ Creed, Lyra Fidelium (1866), written when Stone was a young Church of England curate disturbed by the Colenso Crisis which was unsettling Victorian Anglicanism. Its famous lines, ‘by schisms rent asunder / by heresies distressed’, are a reminder that the Anglican Communion’s present travails are nothing new – although as Bishop Michael Marshall once wrote, the ‘theological gnats’ which troubled the Communion in the 1860s have now ‘grown into a stampede of elephants’.[4] Stone’s original includes another striking verse, usually absent from modern hymnals, which was sung with gusto as the alternative ordination reached its finale:
“The church shall never perish!/ Her dear Lord, to defend,/ to guide, sustain and cherish, / is with her to the end;
though there be those that hate her/ and false sons in her pale,/ against the foe or traitor/ she ever shall prevail.”
Critique
The REACH ordinations are described as a temporary provision to address a pressing emergency. They have been stimulated by a Church of England crisis, and a breakdown in wider relationships, with confidence in the House of Bishops at its lowest ebb. But even the organisers themselves acknowledge that this alternative route to ordination is not a viable long-term solution. It is merely a holding pattern, until a better way forward can be negotiated. There are three obvious limitations to this process which demand attention.
(i) Confidentiality
Every ordination should be proclaimed from the rooftops and widely celebrated. This is a fundamental principle. Ordination is a public event, marking entrance into a public ministry. Candidates must therefore be open to scrutiny by the wider church and their ordinations should not be confidential. There might be rare exceptions to this rule, in nations under oppressive anti-Christian regimes where new clergy risk their lives, but this hardly applies in England. However, for the second year running, the REACH ordinations were not widely advertised. There have been no press releases after the event, by REACH or by the Church of England congregations who have received the new deacons, and their identities are deliberately withheld from the public for fear of social media recriminations or episcopal sanctions. Indeed, if it was not for the Law & Religion UK reports, the very existence of these ordinations would be unknown to the wider church.
At the ordination service, the name of each ordinand was announced as they were presented to the bishop, but nothing about the churches in which they serve. If their training incumbents were present – which perhaps they were not – they were deliberately inconspicuous and impossible to identify. This reticence is not healthy or sustainable in the long term. Full transparency over ordinations is essential. It would be better for the new deacons and their training incumbents, if they are confident in their actions, to be publicly announced and face the consequences.
(ii) Women and men
The relationship between men and women in public ministry looms large over the REACH ordinations. All fourteen new deacons, in 2025 and 2026, are men in their 20s or early 30s, though ethnically diverse. During the latest ordination service, all three Scripture passages were read by women, and the deacons’ wives joined their husbands on the platform for the post-ordination prayer. But no women were ordained. Why not? REACH is a complementarian evangelical denomination, but it opens the diaconate equally to women and men. ReNew’s Alternative Selection Panel likewise welcomes women to apply for the diaconate, but none have yet done so. On complementarians’ own principles, a diaconal ordination record of 14-0 is an unbalanced result, when it should be 7-7.
Compare this with the proactive efforts of the Anglican Mission in England (AMIE), a complementarian evangelical diocese withing the Anglican Network in Europe (ANIE), a proto-province sponsored by the conservative Gafcon movement. AMIE is rapidly planting Anglican congregations across England, separate from the Church of England, and now has 50 licensed clergy – many of whom were originally ordained by the Church of England. In a significant recent development, AMIE ordained their first woman deacon in May 2026, to minister in Gateshead. AMIE publicly celebrated her ordination as ‘a historic and joyful occasion’, and declared: ‘Her calling reflects the rich biblical vision of ministry in which men and women, gifted by the Holy Spirit, are set apart to serve Christ and his church through faithful word ministry, prayer and servant-hearted leadership.’ They delighted in her ordination as ‘a clear and hopeful declaration of what women and men are called and enabled to do in Christ’, and as ‘a visible reminder that the gospel calls all God’s people into meaningful, word-centred and prayerful service.’ Although AMIE reserves the presbyterate and episcopate for men, they nonetheless publicly proclaim their hope that ‘many more’ women will step forward to be ordained as deacons.[5] No equivalent encouragement to women has yet been heard from those involved in the REACH ordinations.
The difficulties run much deeper, of course. Complementarian evangelicals are only one part of the wider Alliance, a Church of England resistance movement which brings together disparate networks of campaigners, both evangelical and catholic, against the House of Bishops’ progressive trajectory. Most Alliance supporters are egalitarian in their theology of men and women in ministry. For any alternative ordination pathway to have wider credibility across the whole Alliance, it will need to open the presbyterate to women and men equally, not just the diaconate. A viable solution to these internal Alliance divisions has not yet been brokered.
(iii) English solutions
A third obvious limitation of the REACH ordinations is the geographical distance between England and South Africa. Bishop Morrison is an energetic church-planter, with his hands full leading a growing multiracial congregation at Christ Church, Nokuphila, on the edge of Tembisa township. Given the demands of ministry at home, he flew in from Johannesburg on the day of the ordinations and flew home the following evening – a new style of ‘flying bishop’. But it is difficult to have oversight of 14 deacons from a distance of over 5,000 miles. Flying visits are not sustainable. Morrison is therefore aiming to appoint formal REACH representatives in England, to act as his delegates, which will help as a temporary measure. But in the long term, English problems need English solutions.
In an episcopal church, English solutions require English bishops. Although evangelical dissidents believe the House of Bishops crossed a ‘red line’ by commending the Prayers of Love and Faith, not all members of the House supported that commendation. According to the official summary from December 2023, there were 24 votes in favour, with 11 against and 3 abstentions. Among those who resisted the proposals was Paul Butler (Bishop of Durham) who argued that ‘the House needed to offer proposals for formal structural pastoral provision swiftly to maintain unity’.[6] Two years later, as the House of Bishops debated its final statement bringing the Living in Love and Faith project to an end, Andrew Watson (Bishop of Guildford) wanted them to acknowledge publicly that their commendation of the liturgical resources had been ‘by a majority – not unanimously’.[7]
The episcopal minority who refused to commend the Prayers of Love and Faith – alongside those who have joined the House of Bishops since December 2023 and are willing to dissociate themselves from that commendation – are therefore in a crucial position. With a little imagination, they would be able to provide English solutions to the alternative ordination crisis and thus negate the need for REACH’s intervention. It was initially anticipated that the seven deacons ordained by REACH in 2025 would be ordained as presbyters in 2026, but all have paused the process. This is not a sign of cold feet, but of their desire to wait in hope for Church of England bishops to come to their aid. It is possible for sympathetic Church of England bishops to regularise their ministries, ordain them to the presbyterate, offer them licences, and thus integrate them properly into Church of England ministry, for the sake of the unity of the church. Although the House of Bishops, as a body, has declined to discuss structural arrangements, individual bishops have significant powers to enable solutions on their own authority.
The alternative pathway to ordination via the Leaders’ Training Course, ReNew Alternative Selection Panel, and REACH diaconate is not designed to tempt Anglican ordinands away from the Church of England but, on the contrary, to keep them within the Church of England’s orbit. For those who want a new denomination and a clean break from the Church of England, the Anglican Mission in England is available and is recruiting. These new deacons view themselves as Church of England loyalists who are glad to receive ordination by REACH as a last resort and an emergency provision, but are looking to Church of England bishops to step forward with a better solution. There are many like them queuing up in the ordination pipeline.
Professor Andrew Atherstone is a member of the Church of England’s General Synod. His latest book is Archbishop Sarah Mullally (Hodder & Stoughton, 2026).
[1] Andrew Atherstone, ‘Alternative Anglican Ordinations: Seven South African Deacons’, Law & Religion UK (25 June 2025).
[2] ‘Proclamation Trust Training Courses’, www.proctrust.org.uk/courses.
[3] ‘ReNew Alternative Selection Panels’, renewconference.org.uk/events/alternative-selection-pathway
[4] Michael Marshall, Church at the Crossroads: Lambeth 1988 (London, 1988), p. 5.
[5] Bishop Tim Davies, ‘AMIE Vocational Diaconate’ (May 2026), www.anglicanmissioninengland.org.
[6] House of Bishops (12 December 2023): Summary of Actions and Decisions.
[7] House of Bishops (16 December 2025): Minutes.
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Cite this article as: Andrew Atherstone, “More alternative Anglican ordinations” in Law & Religion UK, 15 June 2026, https://lawandreligionuk.com/2026/06/15/more-alternative-anglican-ordinations/