The Global Anglican Communion - Gafcon plants a flag on the shore

The last Anglican Futures blog asked the question - "The Anglican Communion - has the ship sailed? The blogger painted the picture of the progressive provinces sailing out to sea and the orthodox remaining "with their feet planted firmly on the shore."

Today, while the House of Bishops of the Church of England continue to vacillate, the Primates of the Global Anglican Futures Conference (Gafcon) have taken decisive action and planted a flag on that shore.

In an email sent to supporters today, the Most Revd Dr Laurent Mbanda announced, "The Future has Arrived."

He wrote:

"To our dear Anglican brothers and sisters in Christ.

Grace and peace to you in the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, on the Commemoration of the martyrdom of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley.

The first Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) gathered in 2008 in Jerusalem to prayerfully respond to the abandonment of the Scriptures by some of the most senior leaders of the Anglican Communion, and to seek their repentance.

In the absence of such repentance, we have been prayerfully advancing towards a future for faithful Anglicans, where the Bible is restored to the heart of the Communion.

Today, that future has arrived.

Our Gafcon Primates gathered this hour to fulfil our mandate to reform the Anglican Communion, as expressed in the Jerusalem Statement of 2008.

We resolved to reorder the Anglican Communion as follows:

1. We declare that the Anglican Communion will be reordered, with only one foundation of communion, namely the Holy Bible, “translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading” (Jerusalem Declaration, Article II), which reflects Article VI of the 39 Articles of Religion.

2. We reject the so-called Instruments of Communion, namely the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates Meeting, which have failed to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion.

3. We cannot continue to have communion with those who advocate the revisionist agenda, which has abandoned the inerrant word of God as the final authority and overturned Resolution I.10, of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

4. Therefore, Gafcon has re-ordered the Anglican Communion by restoring its original structure as a fellowship of autonomous provinces bound together by the Formularies of the Reformation, as reflected at the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, and we are now the Global Anglican Communion.

5. Provinces of the Global Anglican Communion shall not participate in meetings called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, including the ACC, and shall not make any monetary contribution to the ACC, nor receive any monetary contribution from the ACC or its networks.

6. Provinces, which have yet to do so, are encouraged to amend their constitution to remove any reference to being in communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England.

7. To be a member of the Global Anglican Communion, a province or a diocese must assent to the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008, the contemporary standard for Anglican identity.

8. We shall form a Council of Primates of all member provinces to elect a Chairman, as primus inter pares (‘first amongst equals’), to preside over the Council as it continues “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

As I declared in my statement two weeks ago,“the reset of our beloved Communion is now uniquely in the hands of Gafcon, and we are ready to take the lead.”

Today, Gafcon is leading the Global Anglican Communion.

As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion.

At our upcoming G26 Bishops Conference in Abuja, Nigeria from 3 to 6 March 2026, we will confer and celebrate the Global Anglican Communion.

Please pray that we will lead our Communion in prayerful submission to the Holy Spirit as we hear the voice of Jesus in his wondrous Scriptures, to the glory of God.

Yours in Christ,

The Most Revd Dr Laurent Mbanda

Chairman, Gafcon Primates’ Council

Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda

Thursday 16th October, 2025"

This is a dramatic announcement.

Since 2008, there have been those who have warmed to the orthodox position Gafcon has taken but struggled with what paragraph 13 of the Jerusalem Declaration meant in practice:

"13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord."

Today the Gafcon Primates appear to have set out the cost of rejecting that authority. How other provinces respond and what the implications are for those who themselves are part of the Church of England will remain to be seen.

Perhaps the most appropriate way to end this blog is with the words of the Gafcon Collect:

Eternal God and gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ died for our redemption; commissioned His disciples to preach the good news; and sent the indwelling Holy Spirit in every generation to embrace and proclaim salvation in Christ alone:   

Arise and defend your Church, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.  Shine the light of your Holy Word upon hearts darkened by error and strengthen the work of Gafcon so that the Anglican Communion throughout the world proclaims Christ faithfully to the nations, that captives may be set free, the straying rescued, and the confused restored. Bind your children together in truth, love, unity and courage, that we, with all your saints, may inherit your eternal kingdom, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen. 

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To discuss this, the u-turn from the Church of England's bishops, and other Anglican matters, join us online on Thursday 16th Oct at 7pm

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