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.
Historic news for global Anglicanism today!
— Larry Sanger (@lsanger) October 16, 2025
– 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