Global Anglican Communion
Introduction
On 16 October 2025, the Primates of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) issued a declaration announcing the formal reordering of the Anglican Communion under the authority of Holy Scripture. This statement marks a decisive moment in the realignment of global Anglicanism, asserting that Gafcon now constitutes the Global Anglican Communion.
The declaration was released on the Commemoration of the English Reformation martyrs, Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley.
Background
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) first met in Jerusalem in 2008 as a gathering of bishops and leaders seeking to uphold biblical orthodoxy within Anglicanism. The Jerusalem Declaration, issued at that conference, became a foundational document for Anglican identity in the twenty-first century, affirming the authority of Scripture, the historic formularies, and the moral teaching of the Church.
Since 2008, Gafcon has described itself as a movement within Anglicanism calling for repentance and reform in light of perceived departures from biblical teaching by some provinces of the Anglican Communion. The 2025 declaration represents the culmination of these efforts.
Text of the Declaration
The following resolutions were adopted by the Gafcon Primates’ Council:
- Foundation of Communion: The Anglican Communion is hereby reordered, with its only foundation of communion being 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; cf. Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion).
- Rejection of Instruments of Communion: The so-called Instruments of Communion — the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates’ Meeting — are rejected for their failure to uphold Anglican doctrine and discipline.
- Break with Revisionism: Communion cannot be maintained with those who advocate revisionist teachings that deny the inerrancy and final authority of the Word of God, and that have overturned Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.
- Restoration of Historic Order: Gafcon restores the Anglican Communion to its original structure as a fellowship of autonomous provinces united by the Reformation Formularies, as reflected in the first Lambeth Conference of 1867. Gafcon now identifies itself as the Global Anglican Communion.
- Withdrawal from Canterbury Structures: Member provinces of the Global Anglican Communion shall not participate in meetings convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, nor contribute financially to, or receive funds from, the ACC or its networks.
- Constitutional Revisions: Provinces are encouraged to amend their constitutions to remove references to communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England.
- Membership Standards: Membership in the Global Anglican Communion requires assent to the Jerusalem Declaration (2008), recognized as the contemporary standard of Anglican identity.
- Council of Primates: A new Council of Primates shall be established to elect a Chairman, serving as primus inter pares (“first among equals”), to guide the Communion in faithfulness to “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
Statement from Archbishop Mbanda
Archbishop Laurent Mbanda wrote:
> “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.”
Future Assembly
The declaration concluded by announcing that the next G26 Bishops’ Conference will be held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 3–6 March 2026, to confer and celebrate the Global Anglican Communion.
Signatory
The Most Revd Dr Laurent Mbanda Chairman, Gafcon Primates’ Council Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda 16 October 2025
See also
- GAFCON
- Jerusalem Declaration (2008)
- Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion
- Lambeth Conference
- Resolution I.10 (1998)
- Anglican Realignment
External links
This article is part of the AnglicanWiki project, which aims to document the canonical and theological developments within global Anglicanism according to the historic formularies.