In an Oct. 16 statement rejecting the leadership of the recently elected Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the chairman of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) Primates’ Council declared that GAFCON is leading the Global Anglican Communion.
In the statement titled “The Future Has Arrived,” Rev. Laurent Mbanda, archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, said that the GAFCON Primates “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.”
Archbishop Mbanda said that GAFCON’s decision is not a breaking away from the Anglican Communion.
“As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion,” he wrote.
The Primates also “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,” the Rwandan archbishop stated.
The GAFCON first gathered in 2008 to respond to some of the Anglican Communion senior leaders’ “abandonment of the Scriptures” as well as “to seek their repentance,” according to Archbishop Mbanda.
“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,” he wrote. “Today, that future has arrived.”
According to the outlet WORLD, GAFCON is working to reform the Anglican Communion to follow biblical orthodoxy. Archbishop Mbanda stated that the GAFCON Primates have gathered to fulfil their mandate to reform the Anglican Communion and have resolved to reorder the Communion.
“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,” he said.
According to the Anglican Communion website, Resolution I.10 rejects “cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions” and upholds marriage between a man and a woman in a lifelong union.
CatholicVote previously reported that the leader of the Anglican Communion’s Church of Nigeria said Mullally’s election “is a devastating one” partly because Mullally “is a strong supporter of same-sex marriage as evidenced in her speech in 2023, after a vote to approve the blessings of homosexuals when she described the result as a ‘moment of hope for the Church.’”
In an Oct. 18 public letter that addressed some concerns regarding her appointment, Mullally said she welcomed the decision to allow churches to bless people in same-sex relationships “while also affirming the Church of England’s decision to maintain its doctrine of Holy Matrimony as a lifelong union between one man and one woman.”
An Oct. 20 op-ed in WORLD argues that though Mullally’s appointment is the immediate context for GAFCON’s statement, the new Canterbury archbishop “is not really the primary issue.”
“Gafcon was first formed in 2008, in response to the U.S. Episcopal Church’s endorsement of homosexual practice,” wrote Steven Wedgeworth, an Indiana-based Anglican rector. “Standing behind this was the Episcopal Church’s denial of the truth and authority of the Holy Scriptures.”
According to Wedgeworth, GAFCON represents over 85% of all practicing Anglicans. In the Oct. 16 GAFCON statement, orthodox Anglicans “announced that the Anglican Communion would be ‘reordered’ without Canterbury and its allies” and called for province members to disassociate from meetings with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Wedgeworth explained. GAFCON also requested provinces to not provide or receive monetary contributions to or from Canterbury.
“The daughter churches are kicking the mother out of the Anglican fold,” Wedgeworth wrote. argued.
GAFCON had signaled its intention to declare leadership in an Oct. 3 statement about Mullally’s appointment, which the Conference said “abandons global Anglicans” by choosing a divisive leader.
“Today’s appointment makes it clearer than ever before that Canterbury has relinquished its authority to lead,” GAFCON said at the time. “The reset of our beloved Communion is now uniquely in the hands of Gafcon, and we are ready to take the lead.”
In March 2026, GAFCON is set to hold its G26 Bishops Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, bringing together orthodox Anglican bishops from around the world.
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