Anglican realignment: GAFCON rejects Canterbury’s authority

GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) issued a statement, announcing that it no longer recognises the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and “are now the Global Anglican Communion”.

“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”, explains the statement.

They also reject the other “so-called Instruments of Communion”: the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates Meeting, because “they have failed to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion”.

GAFCON chairman, Rev Dr Laurent  Mbanda, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda and author of the statement, underlines that “the reset of our beloved Communion is now uniquely in the hands of GAFCON, and we are ready to take the lead”.

“We have not left; we are the Anglican Communion”
The statement, called The future has arrived, stresses that GAFCON members cannot continue to have communion with “those who advocate the revisionist agenda, which has abandoned the inerrant word of God as the final authority”.

GAFCON also encourages them to remove “any reference to being in communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England”.

Furthermore, the provinces of the new Global Anglican Communion “shall not participate in meetings called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and shall not make any monetary contribution to the ACC, nor receive any monetary contribution from it or its networks”.

“As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion”, they conclude.

The announcement comes two weeks after the Church of England appointed Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to hold that position.

They have already rebuked former Archbishop Justin Welby, due to his stance on sexuality.

Bishops conference in Nigeria
GAFCON will “confer and celebrate” the new Global Anglican Communion at its upcoming G26 Bishops Conference, which will take place in Abuja, Nigeria from 3 to 6 March 2026.

Mbanda finishes the statement asking Anglicans to “pray that we will lead our Communion in prayerful submission to the Holy Spirit as we hear the voice of Jesus in his wondrous Scriptures, to the glory of God”.