The question then becomes what status we should give to the acceptance of same-sex sexual relationships by some Anglican churches today.

In the words of C S Lewis, the traditional rule of the Christian Church with regard to sexual ethics has always been ‘either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence’[9] (marriage here means marriage between a man and a woman). This is the consensual teaching about marriage and sexual ethics that, as Vincent of Lerin puts it, has been held ‘always, everywhere and by everyone’[10] from biblical times onwards, in the same way that belief in the divinity of Christ and his bodily resurrection have been universally taught and accepted.

In the words of Darrin Belousek in his book Marriage, Scripture and the Church:

‘Scripture, consistently, presents a single picture of marriage and approves a single pattern of sexual relations: male- female union. Jesus summarizes this witness: ‘the two’ of ‘male and female’ joined into ‘one flesh.’ The Holy Spirit has woven this pattern of holy union throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, in the form, function, and figure of marriage. Tradition, East and West, also has consistently taught a single standard of sex and marriage: marriage is man-woman monogamy; all sex outside man-woman monogamy is sin. This doctrine has been taught always by the church, beginning with the apostles’ testimony to Jesus teaching; It has been proclaimed throughout the worldwide church, among all people in every place and epoch, as God’s will for sex and marriage; it has been articulated by apologetic writings and theological treatises, transmitted through baptismal catechesis and canonical discipline, celebrated in monastic vows and nuptial rites.’ [11]

Judged against this standard, the acceptance of same-sex sexual relationships (and even same-sex marriages) by some churches in the Anglican Communion has to be viewed as a ‘gross and grievous abomination,’ since it constitutes a departure from a key part of the Catholic and apostolic faith and an endorsement of sin. To put it plainly the churches involved have supported both heresy and immorality.

Furthermore, as the Church of England Evangelical Council report ‘Guarding the Deposit’ notes, the apostolic witness in the New Testament, which has also been accepted ‘everywhere at all times and by all,‘  teaches that:

‘…the Church should make a separation in this world between the people of God and those who practise sexual immorality (1 Cor 5: 1-13).

As Tom Wright notes, Paul teaches that the Church has the ‘God-given right and duty to discriminate between those who are living in the Messiah’s way and those who are not’.

Read it all.

Martin Davie–Assessing two different visions for the future of the Anglican Communion https://t.co/F3so2u4TtA 'The difference between the two views of the future of global Anglicanism put forward by the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals and The Abuja Affirmation is that the former holds… pic.twitter.com/LXTgMmiuOZ

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 16, 2026

In many ways, the Global Anglican Communion now finds itself at the beginning of a similar kind of process. GAFCON and the Global Anglican Communion are only at the early stages of what will likely be a long period of development as a reordered Anglican Communion takes shape.

Having just attended the G26 gathering in Abuja, Nigeria, I was struck by how much the moment felt like the Second Continental Congress, where the early structures of American governance began to take form. One of the most significant developments was the decision to dissolve GAFCON’s previous governing body, the Primates’ Council, and establish a new Global Anglican Council. In that way, the Global Anglican Communion becomes more like a representative democracy, which gives a voice to disciples of Jesus from every level of the Church!

It truly is a new day. What is emerging is a Global Anglican Communion no longer dependent on the structures tied to the theological trajectory of The Episcopal Church and the See of Canterbury. Instead, we are seeing the beginnings of a reordered, biblically faithful Anglicanism that many believers have prayed and longed for over many years.

At the same time, it would not surprise me if further adjustments are needed as this new structure takes shape. There are still questions about how the Global Anglican Council will function and how the life of this newly reordered Communion will develop. Just as the founders of the United States worked for many years to refine their system of government, the Global Anglican Communion will likely continue working through the details of its new structures. After all, reordering a 500-year-old communion cannot be fast, easy, or perfect from the start. Major historical shifts rarely are. Change of this magnitude takes time.

Read it all.

So thankful to have been at @gafconference G26! Read Cn. Mark's summary of this momentous week. For our US readers, what can we learn from the founding of our nation, or even of @The_ACNA, when it comes to the Global Anglican Communion? https://t.co/TaV1QQS4V9

— American Anglican (@AnglicanCouncil) March 7, 2026

In a stirring call to arms delivered at the Cathedral of the Advent here this evening, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda urged global orthodox Anglicans to reject the false gods of cultural accommodation and institutional self-preservation. Speaking at the close of the GAFCON G26 bishops’ conference on 6 March 2026 the new chairman of the Global Anglican Council declared “the future has arrived” for biblical Anglicanism, as delegates affirmed a conciliar leadership structure to guide the emerging Global Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Mbanda rooted his sermon in Joshua 24:15 — “Choose this day whom you will serve” — G26’s theme — weaving in his own story as a child refugee in Burundi who survived famine and war to lead Rwanda’s church. “A little refugee boy … big tummy and almost red hair … (signs of beriberi) … How can I turn against God? How can I put His Word aside?”, he proclaimed, challenging delegates to recall God’s faithfulness amid GAFCON’s 18-year journey.

He recounted the movement’s milestones: the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration that reset Anglicanism after Lambeth 1998’s Resolution 1.10 was undermined; Nairobi 2013’s formation of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans; Jerusalem 2018’s insistence that “the gospel church is in the future above any earthly seat of power”; and Kigali 2023’s commitment to discipleship unbowed by revisionism.

Like Joshua before Israel, Mbanda catalogued the idols on offer today: “the god of cultural approval… the idol of institutional preservation at any cost… the temptation to reinterpret Scripture to fit the age… [and] the central elevation of human reasoning above the revelation of God.” He contrasted Psalm 119’s “lamp to my feet” with 2 Timothy’s sufficient Scripture, asking: “What else do we look for?”

Read it all.

https://t.co/Yxecjqx7Va

— George Conger (@GeorgeConger8) March 6, 2026

In his first interview after being elected chair of the new Global Anglican Council, Archbishop of Rwanda Laurent Mbanda has outlined how leadership will work in the emerging Global Anglican Communion The GAFCON Primates have dissolved the GAFCON Primates Council — the body that has guided the movement since 2008 — and in its place established a new Global Anglican Council to help lead what is the emerging Global Anglican Communion. The primates have chosen to broaden authority. The new council will include primates alongside bishops, clergy, and lay leaders, all with full voting privileges. The structure signals a shift toward a more conciliar model of leadership, reflecting the conviction that the existing Instruments of Communion no longer adequately serve the majority of Anglicans worldwide.Rwandan Primate, Archbishop Laurent Mbunda has been elected to chair the Council, until the Athens Conference in 2028. In this Pastor’s Heart special from Abuja, Dominic Steele speaks with:

• the newly elected chairman of the Global Anglican Council, Rwanda’s Archbishop Laurent Mbanda,
• Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel,
• Former Archbishop of North America and Former Chair of Gafcon, Bishop Foley Beach,
• John Dunnett from the Church of England Evangelical Council.

Mbunda, Raffel and Beach discuss the reasoning behind the new structures, what they mean for Anglican leadership globally, and how this moment emerged from nearly two decades of GAFCON’s development. We expore why the Primates have chosen to share authority more widely, how the new council will function, and what the leaders involved hope it will mean for the future of Anglican mission, doctrine, and fellowship across the world. Plus Tim Swan on the launch of the New Global Anglican Communion Fund, Anglican AID CEO Tim Swan.

The statement from Abuja makes clear that the leaders gathered here believe the Anglican Communion has reached a point where reordering is necessary. For more than two decades, GAFCON leaders and other orthodox Anglicans called for repentance from provinces and leaders who departed from historic Anglican teaching, particularly on matters of biblical authority and human sexuality. The communiqué argues that those appeals did not result in meaningful discipline or correction within the Communion’s historic structures.

According to the statement, the problem lies not only in the theological disagreements themselves but in the inability, or unwillingness, of the Canterbury-centered “Instruments of Communion” to maintain doctrinal accountability. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ Meeting are described as having failed to guard the faith once delivered to the saints. Rather than confronting false teaching, the communiqué argues, these structures increasingly sought to preserve institutional unity through the language of “walking together” despite deep theological disagreement.

In response to this perceived failure, the statement outlines what it calls a “reordering” of the Anglican Communion around a confessional foundation. The key theological principle underlying this vision is that true communion among churches must be grounded in shared doctrine rather than merely shared institutional affiliation or historical connection. In this view, communion exists where churches confess the same faith, particularly as expressed in the Jerusalem Declaration and the historic formularies of Anglicanism, including the Thirty-Nine Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

From this perspective, the communiqué suggests that the current crisis within Anglicanism reflects not the existence of two separate communions but rather two competing definitions of communion. One definition is confessional, grounded in shared doctrine and submission to the authority of Scripture. The other is institutional, centered on historical structures that attempt to hold together provinces with fundamentally incompatible theological commitments.

The leaders gathered in Abuja argue that a confessional understanding of communion is not an innovation but a recovery of the historic Anglican vision. The communiqué points to the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, when Archbishop Charles Longley described the Anglican Communion as a fellowship of churches bound together by shared faith and common formularies rather than by centralized authority.

Against this backdrop, the G26 statement formally affirms the emergence of what it calls the Global Anglican Communion. According to the communiqué, this is not intended to be a breakaway body or a rival communion, but rather a reordering of Anglican life around the historic doctrinal commitments that originally defined Anglican fellowship. 

Read it all.

A Commentary on the Abuja Statement from @gafconference G26: https://t.co/cL0Od8JdkQ

— American Anglican (@AnglicanCouncil) March 6, 2026

The Bible at the Heart of the Communion

The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. The communion is a fellowship of churches who submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, whose life and teaching is revealed in the Scriptures. We understand the Bible is to be ‘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 Thirty-nine Articles of Religion.
The Bible is God’s Word written (Article XX). It was breathed out by him and written for us by faithful messengers. It carries God’s own authority and is its own interpreter – it is clear, sufficient and true for all times. God’s Word is the final authority in the church and in the life of discipleship.

The Canterbury Instruments have compromised the authority of the Scriptures by normalising hermeneutical pluralism, elevating cultural capitulation, and reframing the rejection of Scripture’s authority and clarity as “good disagreement”, and not what it really is – false teaching.

The Failure of the Canterbury Instruments

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.” (MDS)
Recent Archbishops of Canterbury have failed to guard the faith by inviting bishops to Lambeth who have embraced or promoted practices contrary to Scripture. The former Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed the provision of liturgical resources for the Church of England to bless people who had entered same-sex civil marriages. The current Archbishop of Canterbury led the “Living in Love and Faith” project that produced these liturgical resources for the Church of England. The moral and spiritual authority of the Seat of Augustine has been severely compromised by this.

Notwithstanding the unequivocal rejection of “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture” as expressed in Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, contrary teaching has continued to gain a foothold in some Anglican provinces. At Lambeth 2022 it was treated as a matter over which Christians could disagree but remain in fellowship. Archbishop Justin Welby affirmed both a “traditional teaching” and a “different teaching”, the latter held by those who are “not careless about Scripture. They do not reject Christ. But they have come to a different view on sexuality after long prayer, deep study and reflection on understandings of human nature”. This is unambiguously contrary to Anglican doctrine as it has been received.

The ACC and the Primates’ Meetings have likewise failed to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion, notwithstanding the repeated recommendations of various reports, for example the 2004 Windsor Report. They have neither restrained nor challenged false teaching and instead have called for the acceptance of false teachers as fellow members of the Communion.

A Confessional Communion

True communion is confessional, rather than defined by a shared history or institutional structures.

The Jerusalem Declaration, which includes the Reformation Formularies, expresses our common confession of the Biblical truth, shared faith, and communal conviction. We are in fellowship with all who assent to the Jerusalem Declaration.

However, there is, and will continue to be, an institution that calls itself the Anglican Communion, which defines communion on an institutional basis. This body has recognised that its current institutional rules have failed to maintain genuine communion and is currently exploring the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals to change its institutional rules. But these proposals are based on a commitment to “walk together to the maximum possible degree” despite fundamental disagreement on the Bible’s teaching. This cannot lead to true communion.

Read it all.

"The Global Anglican Communion is not a new Communion, but the historic Anglican Communion reordered from within."

Read the full Abuja affirmation:https://t.co/ADJLXsLofx

— The Diocese of Western Anglicans (@westernanglican) March 6, 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we develop new structures for the Global Anglican Communion, the Gafcon Primates have dissolved the Gafcon Primates Council, which has faithfully led and served the Gafcon movement since 2008.

In a world where most organizations and individuals are concerned about keeping power and authority, the Gafcon Primates Council has made an unprecedented decision to share its stewardship of the Global Anglican Communion by creating the Global Anglican Council which includes primates, advisors, and guarantors, which will include bishops, clergy, and lay members each with full voting privileges.

This expanded Council reflects the willingness of the Primates to share their authority with a wider group of global Anglican leaders, both lay and clergy. While the Chairman of the Council will be a Primate, he will not be primus inter pares (first amongst equals).

Believing that the current Instruments of Communion no longer meet the needs of the majority of Anglicans around the world, the Global Anglican Communion is to be led by a conciliar structure.

Read it all.

A council to lead the future. https://t.co/CPJDc5LRqv

— GAFCON (@gafconference) March 5, 2026

The future shape of the Global Anglican Communion is being debated this week in Abuja, Nigeria. At the GAFCON conference, more than 400 bishops and global leaders are working through the logic of the proposal that could lead to a new Global Anglican Communion — a fellowship grounded in the authority of Scripture and historic Anglican doctrine.

On Day 2 of the conference, Dominic Steele speaks with key leaders including Vaughan Roberts (Oxford), Julian Dobbs (ACNA), and Richard Condie (Tasmania), along with presenters from Uganda, Brazil and Nigeria.

They discuss: • The implications of the Church of England’s current trajectory • The logic behind a reordered global communion

• The mission opportunity for global Anglicans • What this could mean for churches in the UK, North America and Australia

Watch and listen to it all.

As bishops, clergy, and lay leaders processed into the sanctuary for the Opening Eucharist of G26 in Abuja, the congregation rose to sing Stand Up for Jesus. The hymn did not feel incidental. It set the tone for a gathering convened at a moment of decision for the Global Anglican Communion. The words echoed through the hall as both prayer and declaration, summoning the Church to renewed fidelity to the Lord who is confessed in the Scriptures, proclaimed in the creeds, and worshiped as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The 2026 Council differs from the regular GAFCON assemblies that have taken place at five-year intervals since 2008. This is a meeting of bishops and primates called to discern the future shape of the Global Anglican Communion in light of significant developments within the historic structures of Anglicanism, particularly following the appointment of a progressive Archbishop of Canterbury and the continued theological trajectory of the Church of England. Questions of identity, authority, and communion that have been discussed for years now require decisive articulation.

The Scripture readings framed the moment with clarity. From Joshua 24 came the familiar declaration, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 6 warned against being unequally yoked, while the Gospel from Matthew 6 reminded the congregation that one cannot serve both God and mammon. The coherence of these texts left little ambiguity. Allegiance lies at the heart of the Church’s present challenge.

Archbishop Henry Ndukuba, Primate of the Church of Nigeria, preached from the book of Joshua, highlighting the mercy of God in leading his people into the promised land and the necessity of faithfulness once there. 

Read it all.

Our opening report from Nigera, in case you're not on our newsletter! Excited to be here at @gafconference G26 and to see what will happen. Stay tuned! https://t.co/jeHEWJXSeC

— American Anglican (@AnglicanCouncil) March 4, 2026

The BBC article also implies that the GAFCON movement is reacting primarily to the appointment of Dame Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury. Anyone actually present in Abuja would know otherwise. This council was scheduled long before her appointment. On the second day of the gathering, GAFCON General Secretary, the Rt. Rev. Paul Donison, made the point plainly: the issue is not the archbishop’s gender, but the theological direction of the Church of England and other Western provinces that have departed from historic Anglican teaching.

If the BBC genuinely believes this moment is about the gender of the Archbishop of Canterbury, it suggests either a serious misunderstanding of the situation or a refusal to listen to what leaders here have repeatedly said.

The article also quotes Diarmaid MacCulloch, Emeritus Professor of Church History at Oxford, who describes the gathering as “a set of leaders, all male, going to a conference in Africa to assert an identity which no longer satisfies many Anglican churches.” That claim raises an obvious question: which Anglican churches, exactly?

The reality is that many of the churches represented in Abuja, particularly in Africa, Asia, and the Global South, make up the overwhelming majority of the Anglican Communion’s membership. If anyone is speaking for “many Anglican churches,” it is the bishops gathered here. The recurring Western media portrayal of GAFCON as a fringe movement “coming to Africa” ignores a simple fact: it is in Africa because Africa is where the majority of Anglicans live.

The BBC also notes that GAFCON “says it speaks for the majority of the world’s Anglicans, although that is contested.” By whom, exactly? The demographic numbers are not difficult to examine. The provinces represented in GAFCON, many of which also belong to the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans, account for the clear majority of practicing Anglicans worldwide. Calling this movement “fringe” does not change that reality.

Professor MacCulloch further describes GAFCON’s actions as “very aggressive.” But in some Western circles, any refusal to conform to the theological innovations of Western church leadership is labeled “aggressive.” Those present in Abuja would struggle to recognize that description. The atmosphere here is marked far more by conviction and confidence than by hostility. The leaders gathered believe they are continuing the Anglican faith as they received it, ironically from the very Western churches now dismissing them.

Read it all.

The @BBCNews was reporting on @gafconference but unfortunately, one of the articles was less than accurate, to be charitable. The majority of the @AnglicanWorld is represented here whether they like that or not. https://t.co/DaYrR4qfe0

— American Anglican (@AnglicanCouncil) March 5, 2026

As bishops and church leaders gather in Abuja, Nigeria for the 2026 Gafcon Council, another conversation about the future of the Anglican Communion is unfolding at the same time. The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) announced that it will consider revised versions of the Nairobi–Cairo proposals later this year, structural reforms intended to rethink how the Communion is organized and how authority is exercised across its global fellowship of provinces.

The timing is striking. While Gafcon leaders meet to reaffirm their vision for Anglican unity and identity, the Communion’s official institutions are considering their own attempt to address the fractures that have defined Anglican life for nearly two decades. Whether these efforts represent parallel responses to the same crisis, or competing visions of Anglicanism’s future, remains an open question, but we suspect a purposeful step to undermine Gafcon’s G26 conference. We’ve seen this before in the Church of England, and that battle is moving onto the world stage.

At the first press briefing of the gathering in Abuja, the Rev. Canon Justin Murff, Communications Director for Gafcon, addressed a question that followed the movement since its founding in 2008: whether it represents a break from the Anglican Communion. “The goal is not to break apart the Communion,” Murff said. “This is a claim to continuum.” Murff emphasized that the movement continues to define itself through the Jerusalem Declaration, the theological statement adopted at the first Gafcon gathering in Jerusalem. Far from being merely a protest against developments in the Western churches, he said, the declaration was intended to articulate what unites Anglicans who believe the Communion must remain rooted in the authority of Scripture. “We will be reaffirming and upholding the Jerusalem Declaration,” Murff said. “It is not designed to show what we oppose but what unites Gafcon.”

For many within the movement, the declaration has increasingly functioned as a theological centre of gravity for Anglicans who believe the Communion has struggled to address doctrinal divisions that have widened in recent decades. “It has become a basis of communion across boundaries,” Murff said, noting that it provides theological grounding for cooperation, and, at times, cross-provincial oversight, among churches that share the same doctrinal commitments. Murff insisted that Gafcon does not see itself as creating a new church. Instead, he suggested that many within the movement believe they are preserving the historic faith of Anglicanism even as the Communion’s institutional structures struggle to respond to theological conflict. “We are the Anglican Communion,” he said, describing the movement as committed to “defending the faith as the Word of God has taught and commanded.”

Read it all.

While we wait for Gafcon to announce a new leader of the Global Anglican Communion, we take a look at the alternatives. https://t.co/T8P6kpxpLQ

— Anglican Futures (@AnglicanFutures) March 5, 2026

Choose this day whom to serve. (Joshua 24)

This is the clarion call of God to the people of the scriptures and of the power of the scriptures – and the power of God – to save through faith in Jesus Christ and to transform lives of individuals and of our society. And these invoke God’s judgment as we see in Romans chapter 1:18-32.

In the face of this, it was necessary that the primates of GAFCON needed to meet to prayerfully consider and coordinate their response. {Citing Article 19 of the 39 Articles of Religion, Of the Church} [The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance] in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.

It was in response to this that the Martyrs’ Day statement of October 16 was issued affirming that that GAFCON had been saying, and actually praying, that there will be a turnaround from these leaders of the Anglican Communion and their instruments [The Lambeth Conference, the Primates Council, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Archbishop of Canterbury]. 

But having failed, and following the decisions and statements of GAFCON, we are declaring that the future has arrived. Amen. [Applause]

The church of God will continue to march on. Not built on institutions of Canterbury or on the personality of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rather we are returning back, bringing back the word of God, the Holy Scriptures to be the center of our life, our teaching and our practices.

In the face of this, the giants of compromise and indeed the Babylonian spirit of this age [which] will hold the kingdoms and leadership of this world in bondage, holding them in immorality, idolatry, and wickedness. Even when they are prospering materially, they have turned away from the living God. This brothers and sisters is nothing but the rebellion of the people, especially the leadership against God and the authority of this world of the authority of his word. GAFCON in this gathering dares to stand for God and for his word as the sure foundation for orthodoxy of doctrine and of living.

The lordship of Jesus Christ over the church of God, which he has possessed with his precious blood, cannot be contested. His glory shall not be given to any idol. Obedience to the authority of the word of God in all matters of faith and doctrine and practice and living cannot be substituted.

What we see is the determination and the arrogance of the revisionist to impose their error on the whole church. They engage you in endless debates, dialogue, contentions and meetings while driving and spreading their erroneous teachings. 

Read it all.

https://t.co/JrQ0NkUq30

— George Conger (@GeorgeConger8) March 3, 2026

As bishops, clergy, and delegates processed into the sanctuary in Abuja for the Opening Eucharist of G26, the congregation rose to sing Stand Up for Jesus. The hymn was familiar to many, but in this setting it carried unusual weight. It felt less like routine liturgy and more like a declaration of intent. The Global Anglican Communion has arrived at a moment of decision, and the language of allegiance is no longer theoretical.

This 2026 gathering is not one of the regular five-year GAFCON assemblies. It is a council of bishops and primates convened to consider the future shape of global Anglicanism in light of recent developments within the Church of England and the wider Communion. Structures which have historically centered on the Archbishop of Canterbury. For years, questions of authority, doctrine, and communion have simmered beneath the surface of this global fellowship. With the appointment of Archbishop Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, and with the continuing trajectory of Living in Love and Faith (LLF), those questions are now unavoidable. Though LLF has been re-badged, there are no real illusions that the CoE is ready to backtrack on their revisionist trajectory.

The Scripture readings framed the day with striking clarity. Joshua 24 recounted the faithfulness of God to Israel and Joshua’s decisive words, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The Epistle from 2 Corinthians warned against being unequally yoked, and the Gospel from Matthew 6 reminded the congregation that one cannot serve both God and mammon. Together, they set before the assembly a stark contrast between divided allegiance and covenant fidelity.

Archbishop Henry Ndukuba, Primate of the Church of Nigeria, preached from Joshua. He emphasized that the promised land was not an empty inheritance but territory already occupied by rival nations and rival loyalties. Israel’s task was not to blend with surrounding cultures but to remain faithful to the Lord who had redeemed them. Victory, he said, comes through trust in God and obedience to his Word.

Read it all.

Our first report from Abuja.
"For English Anglicans who remain committed to biblical orthodoxy, this is a bittersweet moment. It involves grief over what was lost and uncertainty about what lies ahead. Yet it also brings clarity."https://t.co/HCsEuFBDjx

G26 @gafconference

— Anglican Futures (@AnglicanFutures) March 4, 2026

The GAFCON leadership is calling a conference (G26) for all orthodox Anglican bishops, who can sign the Jerusalem Declaration, in Abuja Nigeria in March of next year. All are welcome. This coincidently will be about the same time as the new Archbishop of Canterbury takes up her office. Her appointment was made without adequate consideration of the wishes of the majority of Anglican churches and her apparent liberal direction of travel means they have been presented with more of the same leadership that has failed to discipline wayward Provinces and restore any semblance of unity to the Communion post the widespread agreement after the Lambeth Conference in 1998. The Chairman of GAFCON said on the news of the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury — “Due to the failure of successive Archbishops of Canterbury to guard the faith, the office can no longer function as a credible leader of Anglicans, let alone a focus of unity”. It would appear that Dame Sarah will find herself relating to a very different world-wide Communion. 

Again, coincidently and perhaps ironically, on the same day this week it was announced that the English House of Bishops has postponed any further implementation of the “Living in Love and Faith” process, which has been causing agony and division in the church for more than a decade. This has been abandoned because of legal and theological advice that has shown the bishops what they should have known already, that their proposals change the doctrine of marriage held by the Church of England. Such a change, though possible, must follow due synodical processes and decisions, and requires a two thirds majority to alter doctrine. As the current process has been shambolic and lacking integrity, it is good to see the bishops at last consenting to adhere to proper processes. However, this looks more like a press of the pause button rather than the delete one, and means that discontent will rumble on in the church.

It is no wonder then that GAFCON, which continues to support orthodox believers in the Church of England, has lost patience with its leadership, as it sees no real evidence of repentance or a change of heart about the liberal direction of travel. It wishes to stop wasting time in pointless squabbles and to bring together those who are firm in faith to get on with the task of bringing the Good News of the Gospel to a lost and suffering world. Compassion and clarity of doctrine are not enemies but ought to go together — the grace and truth only ever perfectly shown in the person of the Lord Jesus needs to be followed as far as possible by his followers.

Bishops in the early Church were noted and respected for their courage and adherence to the Apostolic Faith. Bishops today in the West, with thankfully a number of notable exceptions, have too often become uncertain trumpets, driven by expediency, who seem to want to sanctify current fashionable opinions more than to be faithful to their ordination vows to uphold the Christian Faith as revealed in the Scriptures. This is a sad and tragic state of affairs. To quote the Dutch/American theologian R.B.Kuiper — “The church that has grown indifferent to the truth is, to put it mildly, on its way out”. GAFCON shines a light of hope to a generation looking for an alternative to the faithless, materialistic, self-absorbed answers of the current western world. 

Read it all.

Bible believing Anglicans should be pleased that the new Archbishop has been ejected from the Anglican Communion, argues W. Gilchrist https://t.co/JSVc08XHj8

— The Critic (@TheCriticMag) October 22, 2025

A group of leading Anglican traditionalists this month announced a reordering of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Top bishops (primates) of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a renewal movement composed of both historic Anglican provinces and newly inaugurated Anglican churches, are seeking to bind the Anglican family not around a common tie to the See of Canterbury but around shared theological commitments. Among them the centrality of holy scripture. This is an outworking of what was called for at the group’s 2023 conference in Kigali, Rwanda. More on that from Bishop Paul Donison at The Gospel Coalition here.

GAFCON provinces already comprise the majority of adherents within the Anglican Communion member churches, which are functionally self-governing and autonomous while operating in relationship with one another. Both GAFCON and Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA), which have significantly overlapping membership, represent the vast majority of people within Anglican Communion, although each group has a different sensibility and strategy.

This is why recent headlines about schism are ill informed. No one is going anywhere, but neither is everyone looking to Canterbury as a central focal point of unity.

But will most provinces cease to look to the institutions, historic role, and financial resources of the Canterbury-led order? That remains to be seen.

Read it all.

Historic news for global Anglicanism today!

– The majority of Anglicans worldwide are, as of today, officially disaffiliated from the Church of England.
– GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) has declared itself the Global Anglican Communion.
– The Global Anglican… pic.twitter.com/4q4t57BAAj

— Larry Sanger (@lsanger) October 16, 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.

Read it all.

A significant development for global Anglicanism. https://t.co/oRVFOVjQtO

— Gafcon (@GafconGBE) October 16, 2025

As the GAFCON statement affirms: that future has now arrived.

Reordering of the Communion

What is this future for Anglicanism? Three points stand out.

1. New Foundation of Communion

The statement says the Anglican Communion will now rest on a single foundation: the Holy Bible, “translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense.” This is a deliberate echo of the Reformation principle of sola Scriptura. In other words, unity is no longer defined by loyalty to Canterbury or participation in Anglican institutions but by submission to Scripture as God’s Word.

2. Rejection of Failed Instruments

The statement names and rejects the so-called “Instruments of Communion”—the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ Meeting. Why? Because they have consistently failed to uphold biblical truth, especially following the 1998 Lambeth Resolution I.10 which affirmed that Christian marriage is between a man and a woman. These “Instruments,” while once helpful, have fallen into revisionism.

3. Return to the Original Model

The statement emphasizes that GAFCON has not left the Anglican Communion. Instead, it claims the original vision: a fellowship of autonomous provinces united by the gospel and the Reformation formularies. This was how the first Lambeth Conference in 1867 understood Anglicanism and what held member provinces together in unity—before the so-called “Instruments” turned Canterbury into the sine qua non of what it means to be Anglican. Now, GAFCON says, the center of the Communion is not a person or an office, but the Word of God.

In place of the old “Instruments,” Gafcon proposes a Council of Primates (archbishops) from all provinces that affirm the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008, with a primus inter pares (“first among equals”) serving as chair.

Read it all.

Despite 25 years of warnings by most Anglican primates, repeated departures from the authority of God’s word have torn the fabric of the Communion.

—The Kigali Commitment https://t.co/eESYLlpxWM

— The Gospel Coalition (@TGC) April 25, 2023

From here:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.I write to share with you a statement released today by our GAFCON Chairman on behalf of the GAFCON Primates.It is an important statement. It is an historic statement.The future has arrived. What began with the first GAFCON gathering in Jerusalem in 2008 has now reached fruition. We have reordered the Anglican Communion.I commend to you a prayerful reading of this statement. It is especially notable that its release coincides with the commemoration of Bishops Latimer and Ridley. The flame they lit in England continues to burn brightly throughout our Communion today.There will be more to say in due course. For now, this statement is enough.COLLECT OF THE DAYHugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Bishops and Martyrs, 1555Almighty God, you gave your servants Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.In the peace and hope of Christ Jesus,Archbp Steve Wood

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.”

Read it all.

"We are now the Communion." https://t.co/iSRqCmX1pj via @gafconference

— wyclif ⚓ (@wyclif) October 16, 2025

The Most Reverend Dr Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council, has called on all “orthodox” bishops within the Anglican Communion to join a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria in early March next year.

Gafcon is a global alliance of orthodox Anglicans who are opposed to the promotion and acceptance of homosexuality, particularly within the leadership of the church. It was founded in 2008, in part as a response to the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as a bishop in the US Episcopal Church in 2003.

Archbishop Mbanda said that the next six months represent a “crucial” period for the Anglican Communion, and that the Gafcon meeting, to be held from 3 to 6 March, “may be the most important assembly of authentic Anglicans since Gafcon reset the Communion at Jerusalem in 2008”.

He warned, “Revisionists deliberately divide the Communion with schismatic actions that celebrate sin, as they appoint false shepherds to lead their flock away from God’s good word. But Jesus is building his church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail!”

Read it all.

We must confront serious error that compromises God’s glorious and authoritative word on human sexuality.

We must speak up and take a stand.

As we met to reform and renew the Anglican Communion in 2008, Gafcon delivered the Jerusalem Statement which outlined the true heart of Anglican orthodoxy.

We took a stand about the truth of God’s word, and we continue to stand in fellowship with the majority of the world’s Anglicans who grieve this rejection of God’s voice.

We must stand again against the relentless pressure of Anglican revisionists who blatantly impose their immorality upon Christ’s precious church.

Read it all.

Theologically orthodox groups within the Anglican Communion are lamenting the election of a bishop in a same-sex civil partnership as the new Archbishop of the Church in Wales. https://t.co/e039mqRoh2

— IRD (@TheIRD) July 31, 2025

Last week the most important Anglican conference that you have probably never heard of took place in Plano, Texas. G25 was a mini-conference organised by Gafcon, a movement which begin in 2008, when the Global Anglican Conference (Gafcon) was organised in Jersusalem.

In 2008, over 1,000 archbishops, bishops, clergy and lay people gathered to discuss the future for faithful Anglicans in a Communion in crisis. A crisis caused by those Gafcon describe as having “led the flock of Christ astray, diluted the authority of Scripture and distorted the gospel, endangering many souls.” 

Archbishop Akinola, one of its founding members, described the original conference as representing “a new dawn, a new beginning”, a means of, “gathering authentic Anglicans”, to, “reform”, “renew” and “reorder” the Anglican Communion. The Communique from the G25 mini-conference acknowledges that some have, however, considered Gafcon to be more controversial, “a sectarian and schismatic movement that has sought to undermine the unity of the Anglican Communion”.

The focus of G25 was to equip the next generation, so Gafcon took time to revisit the history. There was archive footage from the first conference, a video presentation from Archbishop Peter Jensen (the first General Secretary), and a panel discussion from those who were in the room (room 1614 to be precise) when the idea for a global gathering was first suggested.  

Read it all.

If you're an Anglican this might be the year's most important conference you haven't heard of. Report from @AnglicanFutures https://t.co/42xdgT0BLp

— Dan Leafe (@DanLeafe1) March 23, 2025

The Gafcon Primates Council met in Plano, Texas on Tuesday, 12 March 2025 and during the rest of that week held G25, a conference for Gafcon leaders with a special focus on the next generation of global bishops. Over 170 leaders from 25 countries were present, including 10 primates and 83 other bishops and archbishops. Gafcon continues its commitment to reorder the Anglican Communion in joyful submission to Holy Scripture. The theme of the Conference was ‘Leading the Renewal.’

We were graciously hosted by Christ Church Plano (CCP), a cathedral church of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), whose Rector and Dean, Bishop Paul Donison, also serves as the General Secretary of Gafcon. The staff and many volunteers of CCP and surrounding churches provided generous hospitality and gladly served our needs.

The Conference began with an uplifting and inspiring service of Holy Communion, with a sermon by the Primate of the ACNA, Archbishop Steve Wood. Each day began with Morning Prayer led by bishops from Nigeria, Rwanda and Myanmar, with clear and stimulating Bible teaching from the early chapters of Joshua by the General Secretary that encouraged us in our personal walk with Christ. We ended our time together with another service of Holy Communion, where the Primate of All Nigeria, Archbishop Henry Ndukuba, encouraged us from the word.

The first session provided an insight into how the Gafcon movement began, as a panel of founding fathers were interviewed. The Conference was reminded as to why and how the first GAFCON was held in 2008, under the leadership of Archbishop Peter Akinola, producing the Jerusalem Statement and the Jerusalem Declaration, our foundational documents which continue to guide our movement.

Gafcon has sometimes been criticised, even vilified, as a sectarian and schismatic movement that has sought to undermine the unity of the Anglican Communion. But that is simply untrue. We cherish the worldwide fellowship that we enjoy through the Anglican Communion. We have not left it, but have sought to renew it, as it was in 1998, when the Bible was at the centre of our life and we submitted to its authority. We represent the Anglican Communion as we stand for the orthodox Anglican theology that is upheld by a vast majority of the Communion. It is those who have promoted unbiblical teachings who have torn the fabric of our Communion and shown themselves to be out of step with the apostolic faith.

Revisiting our history is essential to understand the ongoing challenges facing the Anglican Communion today, especially as many of our conference participants were bishops who have been consecrated within the past five years. Gafcon continues to stand firm against error, re-stating and celebrating the truth of the gospel, recognizing authentic Anglican provinces and dioceses, and renewing the Anglican Communion for mission to the nations.

Through a mixture of presentations and small group consultations, the participants considered four defining features of Gafcon.

Gathering Authentic Anglicans

‘Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching’ (Hebrews 10:25). Gafcon began as a gathering of bishops, clergy, and laity, united in their commitment to affirm true Anglican identity around a shared understanding of the gospel and a commitment to the authority of Holy Scripture, rather than through communion with the failing office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Gafcon is a confessional fellowship of Anglicans held together by the theology, liturgy and vision of the Reformation Formularies. We rejoice in our theological unity and cultural diversity as we all ‘work and pray together in the common mission of Christ’ (Jerusalem Statement 2008).

Guarding God’s Gospel

‘Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you’ (2 Timothy 1:14). The gospel of Christ is precious as the good news of salvation, but it can easily be obscured or corrupted. Sadly, the Canterbury-based ‘Instruments of Communion’ have failed to guard this gospel against such corruption, or to exercise needed discipline within the church. Gafcon has taken up this responsibility by reaffirming the gospel of Christ, rebuking false teaching that undermines it, and providing theological resources. Where Anglican leaders in some regions have departed from the truth of the gospel, Gafcon has rejected their spiritual authority, and recognised new expressions of faithful Anglicans, in order to guard and boldly proclaim the life-giving gospel of Christ throughout the world.

Growing Orthodox Leaders

‘What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful persons, who will be able to teach others also’ (2 Timothy 2:2). Our conference speakers reminded us of the urgent need not only to equip current bishops and leaders, but also to continually raise up new leaders who will be faithful to guard and proclaim the gospel. Gafcon has sought to do this through the work of its conferences, its Bishops Training Institute (BTI), and, where necessary, its willingness to consecrate duly elected bishops in new and challenging areas of ministry. We were grateful to hear suggestions from both speakers and participants as to how we can further strengthen theological education around the Communion for the equipping of all God’s people for the work of ministry.

Generating Missional Resources

‘Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully’ (2 Corinthians 9:6). The mission of the church is hindered by a ‘poverty mindset,’ which proceeds from a fear of scarcity and an ingratitude for God’s gifts. This often results in a lack of available resources for ministry. Our speakers shared their own stories of God’s miraculous provision, as well as practical wisdom for how to partner together across provinces and utilise what God has given us to promote sustainable development and generate resources in our churches. Recognising that we have been gifted in distinct ways by God, we commit to use the resources that we have received in service of one another and of the kingdom of God.

We give thanks to God for the work of Gafcon and for our time together. We have prayed together, worshipped together, studied Scripture together, and been encouraged and edified by the faith that unites us across our differing languages and cultures.

Seventeen years ago, more than 1100 Anglicans from around the world came together in Jerusalem for the first GAFCON Assembly. That meeting could have been a one-time occurrence, but it was not. The Gafcon movement continues to grow, continues to gather, and continues to stand firm for the faith once delivered to the saints. We also continue to grieve over how some leaders in the Anglican Communion have led the flock of Christ astray, diluted the authority of Scripture and distorted the gospel, endangering many souls. We once again call them to repentance.

Our fellowship has not diminished but expanded. Our resolve to proclaim the gospel has not been weakened but strengthened. Our commitment to reform and renew the Anglican Communion has not wavered or faltered.

As we look forward to the future, we were inspired by the vision presented to us by our Gafcon Primates Council Chairman in his final address. He reminded us of who we are—a gospel people, a rooted people, an orthodox people, and a Bible people. He encouraged us to recommit ourselves to prayer, to self-sustainability within our churches, and to some of Gafcon’s key areas of ministry, including BTI, women’s ministry, and our conferences. He also outlined some new initiatives for Gafcon, including the development of a theological writing group and a theological commission, and the intentional deepening of relationships through inter-provincial visits.

G25 inaugurates a series of annual mini-conferences that will be taking place throughout the Gafcon world. Next year, G26 will be meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, and will have a special focus on the more senior leaders of our global movement.

As we conclude our time together, we rejoice in hope because we know that, despite all the threats and obstacles we may face as a global church, the one who has called us is faithful. He has begun a good work in us, and he will carry it to completion (Philippians 1:6).

To God be the glory!

Plano, Texas, USA
Friday 14th March, 2025

Bishop Julian Dobbs and Rev. Canon Marc Steele were in Plano, TX, this week for G25, a conference for GAFCON leaders. Read the Plano Statement from the conference here: https://t.co/WuW6ivsPYm

— The Anglican Diocese of the Living Word (@The_ADLW) March 15, 2025

From there:

To my brothers and sisters in the Gafcon family,

The recommendations of the December 2024 Report of IASCUFO (the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order) will fail to bring about renewal in the Anglican Communion.

There is merit in the leadership of the Primates’ Council and the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) being handed over from the Archbishop of Canterbury to a rotating, international chair.

But their proposed restructure of the ‘Instruments of Communion’ fails to bring genuine renewal to our Anglican Church.

The IASCUFO recommendations weaken the foundations of our common doctrine by sanctifying the revisionist theologies of provinces and dioceses that have wandered from the truth.

They call on us to embrace the diverse theology of locally-authorised prayer books throughout the Anglican world, including those that have departed from the biblical doctrine of human sexuality expressed in our foundational 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

This only repeats and reaffirms the errors of successive Archbishops of Canterbury who failed to prevent the tearing of the fabric of the Anglican Communion by continuing to endorse those bishops and dioceses who had wandered from the truth.

To renew our Communion, we must submit to Holy Scripture.

The Bible is very clear: those who embrace immoral behaviour will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9), and if we will not trust the Bible’s teaching about sin, we cannot trust the Bible’s teaching about salvation.

Gafcon represents 85% of the world’s 85 million Anglicans, and we believe that the only ‘Instrument of Communion’ that ultimately matters is the word of God.

In two weeks’ time at our Gafcon G25 conference in Plano, Texas, we are gathering our senior leadership from around the world, along with some of our newest bishops, to consult together about how we will continue to lead the renewal of the Anglican Communion.

True unity can only be found in the faith once for all delivered to the saints, which alone can bring order to our beloved Anglican Communion, within which we steadfastly remain.

We give thanks for our brothers and sisters within the GSFA who desire that Anglicans everywhere would speak the truth in love, so that the people of all nations might believe in the Lord Jesus and be assured of their salvation.

The Most Rev’d Dr Laurent Mbanda
Chairman, Gafcon Primates Council
27th February 2025

Bell then comments:

‘Such a vision of unity is surely what must lie at the heart of any theological vision for the Anglican Communion. The gift of unity, intertwined with truth and holiness, empowered and initiated through and by love, flowing from its Trinitarian source, and finding its visibility not only in our structures and institutions but in our relationships and lives of Christian service, witness mission. Unity as gift and imperative sits above our disagreements requiring us not to contort ourselves into pseudo- agreement, but instead to recognise that metaphysical unity precedes our disagreements and will be revealed in different visible ways as we journey on together.’ (p.191)

What conservative Anglicans would want to say in response to these paragraphs is that Archbishop Rowan is right to say that the unity that all true Christians possess is the ‘pure gift’ of  ‘being summoned and drawn into the same place before the Father’s throne.’ However, they would want to add that this pure gift also includes a summons to ‘bear much fruit’ (John 15:8) or in other words to begin to live a new life enabled by the Holy Spirit which fulfils God’s intentions for his human creatures. In addition they would want to say that according to the witness of Scripture, and the uniform tradition of the Christian Church based on Scripture, living this new life involves living as the men and women God created us to be and observing a strict sexual ethic involving sexual faithfulness within (heterosexual) marriage and sexual abstinence outside it.  

Because they would want to say this, they would also want to say that unity is broken not only when Christians are not ‘able to see in each other the same kind of conviction of being called by authoritative voice into a place where none of us has an automatic right to stand,’ but also when they are not able to see in each other a recognition of God’s call to bear fruit in the ways just described. They would also add that this is what is currently the case in the Anglican Communion and in the Church of England.

In response to Bell’s comments conservative Anglicans  would agree that unity is both a gift and an imperative and would also agree that it is ‘revealed in different visible ways.’ However, they would say that these ways have to include Christians living as the men and women God created them to be and observing the Christian sexual ethic as outlined above.

Read it all.

We may subjectively dislike what God has said, but true Christian humility lies in accepting what God has said and acting upon it anyway' Martin Davie https://t.co/EUCULJ0Bk1 #anglican #marriage #theology #sexualethics #anthropology #scripture #religion #uk pic.twitter.com/WyjgnobT0k

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) February 10, 2023

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3)

We, the Gafcon Primates, meeting in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to celebrate the investiture of Archbishop Steve Wood as the third Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and to welcome him as a Primate of the Anglican Communion, send greetings to the faithful.

We wish we could write to you about our great joy for mission, evangelism, and church planting, but recent statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury require us to yet again address an urgent matter surrounding biblical ethics confronting our beloved Anglican church.

The recent actions of the General Synod of the Church of England, where Archbishop Justin Welby has championed the introduction of same-sex blessings into the life of the Church of England, has galvanised the Gafcon movement in the ongoing reset of the Anglican Communion. However, Archbishop Welby’s recent explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine in his interview on Britain’s podcast, ‘The Rest is Politics,’ has brought us to repeat our serious call for his personal repentance.

In this interview, he publicly states that:

“all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether it’s straight or gay. In other words, we’re not giving up on the idea that sex is within marriage or civil partnership. We’ve put forward a proposal that where people have been through a civil partnership or a same-sex marriage, equal marriage under the 2014 Act, they should be able to come along to their local, to a church, and have a service of prayer and blessing for them in their lives together.”

While he may claim not to have changed the doctrine of marriage, the Archbishop of Canterbury has demonstrably changed the doctrine of sin, by promoting the sanctification of sin by means of a divine blessing.

This is in clear breach of Holy Scripture, which unequivocally teaches that the only proper context for sexual intimacy is in the relationship of a man and woman who have been joined together in marriage. All forms of sexual intimacy outside of this context are condemned as immorality and are behaviors from which the people of God are regularly called to repent (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

It is also in clear breach of Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which rejected, “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture,” and which the Archbishop as recently as 2022 declared to be the teaching of the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England.

We are guided by Jesus’ solemn words of warning to the Church of Thyatira, because, “they tolerate the teaching of Jezebel,” which endorses sexual immorality. Only judgment awaits Jezebel and all who follow her, unless they repent (Revelation 2:21-22; 22:15). Any toleration, let alone endorsement, of immorality is liable to God’s judgment.

For this reason, in response to his public comments, we solemnly repeat our call for Archbishop Justin Welby to personally and publicly repent of this denial of his ordination and consecration vows, where he promised to, “teach the doctrine of Christ as the Church of England has received it.”

Gafcon supports all faithful Anglicans, both those who have chosen to leave established provinces where the authority of Scripture has been compromised, as well as those who choose to remain as they seek to reform their province from within.

Therefore, we continue to champion The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) as Gafcon’s authentically-Anglican structural provision for those who cannot by conscience remain within the historic, revisionist structures.

Additionally, we express our support for The Alliance as they seek to stand firm in defense of biblical marriage within the Church of England, and we stand ready to defend, authenticate, and support them.

Finally, we declare afresh to all those in England who, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to all the saints,” that you are not alone.

Gafcon Primates’ Council.
Reformation Day,
31 October 2024.

Gafcon rebukes Archbishop Welby and affirms orthodox Anglicans in England: “Archbishop Welby’s recent explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine … has brought us to repeat our serious call for his personal repentance.” #anglican https://t.co/jdxcicstUL

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) November 1, 2024

Then, as now, the majority of global Anglicans believed that apostolic teaching calls for those engaging in sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage to be loved by the church and called to repent. Without repentance, such a person cannot be considered a “true shepherd” and therefore should be precluded from ordination or consecration. It was, therefore, TEC’s willingness to consecrate a man in a same-sex relationship which tore “the fabric of [the] communion at its deepest level.”

Returning to the events of Saturday 11th May 2024, Bishop Jill Duff told Anglican Futures that she was asked to attend the consecration of Bishop David Morris as a representative of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York…. She was very clear that it was in that capacity, rather than as an honorary assistant bishop in the Church in Wales, that she did so .

This raises a number of issues of national and international significance:

First, this means a bishop of the Church of England was involved in the consecration of a man whose conduct would prevent him from being consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England.

Read it all.

When @AnglicanFutures publishes a piece like this it quickly becomes obvious that the only real sin for @churchofengland bishops is to dissent from the idea that truth is best regarded as being plural. Nearly 3,000 reads shows how wrong that is. https://t.co/Z5hLAuYA8D

— Dan Leafe (@DanLeafe1) May 19, 2024

A Response to the Primates Meeting in Rome

Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council pic.twitter.com/6RodpHUpkd

— Gafcon (@GafconGBE) May 6, 2024

You may find the link to the text of the full letter there.

This week marks a tragic moment in the history of the Church of England. On Wednesday, November 15, its General Synod approved a proposal to encourage its bishops to continue their work in creating and implementing liturgical prayers of blessing for same-sex unions. The Synod additionally voted to approve an amendment that will allow clergy to go ahead and conduct standalone services of blessing on a trial basis. This means that, beginning next month, Anglican clergy in Church of England churches will be able to do what the prophet Balaam could not and would not do by going against the Word of God and blessing that which God has condemned (Num 24:12-14).

Holy Scripture is clear and unequivocal in its affirmation that the only proper context for sexual intimacy is the relationship of a man and woman who have been joined together in marriage. All forms of sexual intimacy outside of this context are condemned as immorality and are behaviors from which the people of God are regularly called to repent. In I Corinthians 6:9-10, the apostle Paul tells us “not to be deceived” on the seriousness of such immorality and warns us that those who fail to repent of it will not inherit the kingdom of God. And one of the behaviors he specifically names is that of homosexual activity. Elsewhere the New Testament specifically warns against false teachers who promote sexual immorality within the church (2 Peter 2:1-3, Jude 3-4, Rev. 2:19-24) and instructs us not to listen to or heed their words.

This week, the Church of England has made it clear that they disagree with Holy Scripture. They have decided that they can bless that from which the Bible calls us to repent. What is more, although these motions were passed by very narrow votes among the clergy and laity, the bishops gave their support and approval by a very clear majority. This is a tragedy for Anglicans, for not only has the Church of England done what its own Thirty-Nine Articles forbid by approving ceremonies that are “contrary to God’s Word written” (Articles XX, XXXIV), but a majority of its bishops have broken the vows which they swore at their consecration, to “banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God’s Word” (BCP Ordinal).

Read it all.

St. Patrick’s Day – preaching in Down Cathedral, N. Ireland on the theme of reconciliation. Grateful for the opportunity! pic.twitter.com/Vxs4XAlPtd

— Laurent Mbanda (@MbandaLaurent) March 17, 2023