The GAFCON movement of biblically- orthodox Anglicans has announced that it no longer recognises the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In a communique released yesterday, titled The Future Has Arrived, the movement which speaks for the overwheming majority of Anglicans as measured by church attendance, said its intention was to “reorder” the Anglican Communion with only the Bible as its foundation. It said it will no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury or other Institutes of Communion, namely the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates Meeting.
The communique follows the appointment nearly two weeks ago of Rev Sarah Mullally, who is known for her commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion within the Church of England, as Archbishop of Canterbury-designate — the first female to hold the role. Earlier this year, the Church in Wales also elected Rev Cherry Vann, who is in a same-sex relationship, as Archbishop of Wales.
“We have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion.”
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Dr Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council
Dr Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council, and Primate of Rwanda, wrote in the communique. “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,”
“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.
“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.”
Provinces aligned with the new Global Anglican Communion have been told to amend their constitutions to remove any reference to being in communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England.
The first formal gathering of the Global Anglican Communion has been planned for March 3 to 6 2026 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Archbishop Mbanda added: “As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion.”
Gateway News has sent a request to the Office of the Archbishop of South Africa Dr Thabo Makgoba for comment on GAFCON’s announcement.
Dave Doveton senior editor of Anglican Mainstream told Gateway News that GAFCON’s communique amounts to “a schism and decisions will have to be made at Provincial Synod level. The bishops can’t decide by themselves”.
He said that the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is not affiliated with GAFCON but is with the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churchs, a worldwide fellowship of orthodox Anglican provinces.
Commenting that the GAFCON move was “long overdue”, he said: “The problem is our bishops tend to align with the heretical Americans and Canterbury but our people in the pews are conservative.”
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