The GAFCON movement of orthodox Anglicans is continuing efforts to launch the Global Anglican Communion, charting a new course independent of the archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership.
Organizers stressed the new body is different from the global Anglican Communion, which is under the spiritual leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury and recognizes other bodies such as the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates' Meeting of senior archbishops.
Announcing its plans on Thursday, GAFCON said its aim is to “reorder” the Anglican Communion on the sole authority of Scripture, adding that it will not recognize the archbishop of Canterbury or the existing Institutes of Communion.
The Most Rev Laurent Mbanda, chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council, and Primate of Rwanda stated, “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 continued, “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.”
In practical terms, provinces aligning with the new Global Anglican Communion have been instructed to revise their constitutions to remove references to communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England.
GAFCON has scheduled the first formal gathering of the Global Anglican Communion for March 3–6, 2026, in Abuja, Nigeria.
Reiterating the movement’s claim of continuity, Archbishop Mbanda added, “As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion.”
The announcement comes in the wake of the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the first female archbishop of Canterbury on October 3, a move GAFCON denounced while calling on Mullally to repent for her support of same-sex blessings.
