The Great Surrender: When The Church Crowns Rebellion As Leadership
By PNW Staff October 06, 2025
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The Church of England has crossed a line from which there may be no return.
In naming a pro-abortion feminist as its next Archbishop of Canterbury, the so-called "Mother Church" of Anglicanism has publicly declared its allegiance--not to Scripture, not to Christ--but to the spirit of the age.
Sarah Mullally, a woman who proudly identifies as a feminist and "pro-choice," will soon wear the robes once reserved for men who trembled at the Word of God. The headlines celebrate it as a triumph of equality and progress. But beneath the applause lies a tragedy: a church that has traded obedience for approval.
When leaders boast of inclusion but refuse repentance, when they celebrate abortion as choice and treat the unborn as expendable, when they affirm lifestyles Scripture calls sin, it's not progress--it's apostasy. It is rebellion wearing a clerical collar. It is the collapse of moral courage beneath the weight of cultural pressure.
A Church Losing Its Fear of God
The role of Archbishop was once filled by men who feared God more than kings. They preached holiness, discipline, and repentance. Today, the Church elevates those who champion feminism, reproductive rights, and moral relativism--concepts foreign to the Word of God.
This appointment is not about a woman's competence; it's about a church's compromise. It reveals a spiritual sickness spreading through the body of Christ--where emotion replaces doctrine, and culture replaces conviction. When the Church begins apologizing for biblical truth, it ceases to be a Church.
Mullally's public support for abortion alone should have disqualified her. Scripture could not be clearer: life is sacred from conception, known by God before birth. Yet she has aligned herself with the culture of death that sheds innocent blood and calls it compassion. How can one shepherd souls while approving the destruction of the most defenseless among them?
Add to that her open embrace of feminist ideology--a movement built, at its root, on rejecting God's created order between man and woman. Modern feminism insists that equality means interchangeability. But God made us male and female--equal in value, distinct in design, complementary in purpose. When feminism invades the pulpit, it rewrites creation itself.
When Women Lead the Church--What the Bible Actually Says
This will offend some, but truth often does: Scripture does not permit women to serve as pastors or heads of the Church. This is not cultural bias. It is divine order.
Five reasons stand firm in God's Word:
The Created Order Was Intentional.
God made Adam first, then Eve, not by accident but by design. Man was called to lead; woman was called to complete. Both image God, but in different ways. To overturn that order is to challenge the very structure of creation itself.
The Office of Pastor/Elder Is Male by Definition.
The New Testament qualifications for pastors--"husband of one wife," "manages his household well"--are not genderless. They describe male leadership. The Bible is not unclear; our culture is simply uncomfortable.
Spiritual Authority Mirrors Christ and His Church.
The Church is the Bride, and Christ is the Bridegroom. Pastoral authority symbolizes that relationship. To place women as spiritual "husbands" over the Bride of Christ distorts the very picture God gave to display the Gospel.
The Apostolic Example Never Deviated.
Jesus chose twelve men to be His apostles--not because women were unworthy, but because He was establishing a pattern of authority rooted in divine order. Nowhere in Scripture do we find a woman serving as pastor, priest, or elder over men.
The Fruit of Rebellion Is Division, Not Revival.
Whenever the Church bends Scripture to culture, confusion follows. We have seen entire denominations fracture under the weight of compromise. Rebellion always promises relevance but ends in ruin.
This is not about value. Women are priceless in God's kingdom--different functions or roles do not devalue in anyway. But the headship of the Church is not a position to be redefined by emotion or modern ideology. It was established by God Himself. The Church is healthiest when it functions according to His design, not society's demands.
The Cost of Compromise
What we are witnessing in the Church of England is not liberation; it is surrender. Each "progressive" appointment takes the Church one step further from the cross and one step closer to the world.
And yet, this is what happens when the Bible is treated as a suggestion instead of a command. The Word of God has not changed. Only the courage of those called to uphold it has. Once the Church begins ordaining those who deny its doctrines, the lampstand begins to flicker. The salt loses its savor. The shepherd's voice grows faint beneath the applause of men.
This is not just about one woman--it is about an entire movement within Christianity that has forgotten holiness. A Church without repentance becomes a social club. A pulpit without truth becomes a platform for ideology. When leadership turns from Scripture to sentiment, the sheep are led not to green pastures but off a cliff.
A Call to Return
God has not changed His design for the Church, nor His call to those who lead it. The question now is whether His people will remain faithful when the institution no longer is. The remnant must rise--not in anger, but in conviction. The Church must be built again upon truth, not tolerance.
Let us pray for courage--for pastors and leaders who will stand firm, for women who love God's Word enough to embrace His design, and for men who will lead with humility and holiness. Let us return to the order that God established, not the one culture demands.
Because when the Church crowns rebellion as leadership, it declares war against the very Word that gives it life.
The Church of England may have chosen its first female Archbishop. But heaven is watching to see whether the people of God will still choose faithfulness.
