Ashley Null

Anglicanism Null later applied Cranmer's doctrine of scripture to the controversies in the Anglican Communion over homosexuality. According to Null, a Cranmerian approach to reading and applying scripture would be christocentric, dynamic (in its openness to the work of the Holy Spirit), discerning (in not allowing one passage of scripture to contradict another) and decisive. Thus, in its call to view the books of the Bible as "vehicles of the Spirit's work in energising the Church in its mission and shaping it in the holiness of new creation," the Windsor Report—which recommended a moratorium on the consecration of actively LGBT bishops and on blessings of same-sex unions—"has, in fact, repristinated for our day a fundamental principle of historic Anglicanism."

Anglican theologian Gerald McDermott has critiqued Null's characterization of sola scriptura as the Anglican doctrine of scripture in a 2023 lecture at Trinity Anglican Seminary, which Null described as meaning that "no matter how much Tradition could help illuminate the Bible's meaning, ultimately it was its own final interpreter." McDermott argued that "for the English Reformers sola scriptura meant the primacy of Scripture when read within the Church's great traditions, which has been aptly called prima scriptura." McDermott argued that the continued acceptance of women's ordination within Anglican realignment churches was an expression of Null's approach to scripture, whereas a dependence on tradition, he said, would foreclose women's orders.

Despite his past canonical residence in the Episcopal Church, Null has been widely supportive of the Anglican realignment. He was one of the authors of the Jerusalem Declaration adopted at the 2008 Global Anglican Future Conference and a keynote speaker at the 2023 GAFCON in Kigali. He is a theological adviser to the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and the ACNA's Diocese of the Carolinas, where he is also a senior research fellow at the Ridley Institute, the adult education program of St. Andrew's Church.

Null has become known for his work as a chaplain to elite athletes over four decades, including at six Olympic games as a chaplain to the British team. Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty credited Null with his conversion to evangelical Christianity in the runup to the 2024 Summer Olympics. Null met regularly with Peaty, reportedly telling Peaty that "the gold medal is the coldest thing you'll ever wear. . . . You're expecting it to solve all your issues. And it might solve some of them, but it will not solve the majority." Null has said that his scholarly interest in the Reformation informed his chaplaincy ministry, noting that the Reformation was "the recovery of the gospel, and the gospel is the antidote to performance-based identity." He was consecrated as a bishop on May 11, 2025, at St. George's Church in Tunis. Null was an invited guest representing Anglicanism—seated in the front row of the Basilica of Saint Augustine in Annaba—when Pope Leo XIV visited Algeria in April 2026.

Honors Null has been elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Null is an Eagle Scout and was one of six winners of the Young American Award for 1982.

Works Anglican theology

Eastertide: Meditations on the Easter Collects of Thomas Cranmer (Anglican House, 2024)

Athletics

Performance Identity: The Folly of Striving for God's Approval (Anglican House, 2024)