Welcome back to Shemis Popery. I'm Joe Heschmire. In 17 people, making up the Crown

Nominations Commission for the Church of England, might have made a decision that is going

to result in an enormous global schism within the Anglican Communion, perhaps as soon as next year.

For the first time, in nearly 500 years of history, the Church of England has nominated a woman to lead it.

Dame Sarah Malalley, the Bishop of London, she's been in that position already breaking glass

ceilings through her career.

But the issue isn't just that the new Archbishop of Canterbury is breaking glass ceilings,

but also breaking perhaps the model of church leadership laid out in the Bible. And more than that,

she's also someone who is openly pro-choice, which marks a first in this regard as well,

and in general breaks from certainly historic Christianity as well as the not too distant Anglican past.

And her views are, while seemingly fairly straightforward for an English member of the Church of England,

not in lockstep with the views of those in what's called the Global South,

places like sub-Saharan Africa.

And so immediately upon hearing the news that this woman they don't recognize as a bishop

in the first place has been named the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Church of Nigeria announced that they don't recognize her authority and therefore

they're declaring spiritual independence from the Church of England.

Now there's a little bit of history that you have to know for why this matters.

So a couple things.

First, you might say, well, why does it matter if Nigeria is part of the Church of England or not?

Well, in terms of official members, and even more so when it comes to active membership,

Anglicans in sub-Saharan Africa make up a huge portion, perhaps a majority,

...