Partially Right But Still All Wrong

On 3 October 2025, the Church of England announced that Sarah Mulally would become the first ever female Archbishop of Canterbury – thus becoming the spiritual leader of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion. This news was received with excitement in some quarters of the Anglican church worldwide. The Church of Southern Africa called this appointment “historic” and said that “we heartily welcome the announcement”.

However, not all congregations of the Anglican Church received this news positively. For example, the Anglican Bishop of Singapore, the Most Reverend Dr Titus Chung, expressed his “unease and reservation over her appointment”. In a statement dated 5 October 2025 circulated to Anglican churches in Singapore and Southeast Asia, he referenced Sarah Mullaly’s chairing of a Church of England’s project which eventually led to a decision in 2023 to allow the blessings of same-sex marriages. In his statement, he said that this was “a departure and a total mis-alignment from what Scripture teaches regarding marriage and sexuality”.

Dr Titus Chung is right when he stated that same-sex marriages departs from the Scripture’s teachings. Jesus Himself plainly stated that at the beginning, God made a man and a woman, and that God was the one who joined them in marriage (cf. Matthew 19:4-6). The Bible plainly states that both male-male as well as female-female relationships are “against nature” and “in error” (cf. Romans 1:26-27).

However, can someone be partially right and still all wrong? In Dr Titus Chung’s statement, not a single word was said in opposition about a woman taking up a position of church leadership. Yet, we see that the Bible speaks clearly on the topic of whether a woman is authorized to lead in the church:

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. (1 Timothy 2:11-12)

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach… (1 Timothy 3:2)

God has clearly stated in His Scriptures that while men and women are equally “heirs together of the grace of life” (cf. 1 Peter 3:7), men and women also have different roles and responsibilities in the church and in the family (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:34-35; Ephesians 5:22-24). It is a pity that Dr Titus Chung could on the one hand recognize the error in the acceptance and blessings of same-sex marriages, yet on the other not reject the error that has come about in changing God’s authorized role for women in the church. He is partially right but still all wrong.

Are we at danger of being partially right but still all wrong? Sometimes, we comfort ourselves by saying that in the Lord’s church, we reject denominationalism, we uphold the authority of Scripture – and rightfully so on those counts. Yet it is right in the Lord’s eyes if we simultaneously get angry without a cause against our brethren (cf. Matthew 5:21-26), or practice hypocritical judgment (cf. Matthew 7:1-5)? My brethren, let us not fall into the trap of picking and choosing which of the Lord’s commands to follow. By way of conclusion, let us remember what the inspired writer James said:

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)