GAFCON severs ties with Canterbury over female archbishop, claims 80% of Anglicans as “true Communion.” 8 out of 10 Anglicans break ties with Canterbury.
Newsroom (22/10/2025, Gaudium Press ) In a seismic shift that reverberates through the Anglican world, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) has formally severed ties with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England, proclaiming an end to communion with those who have forsaken “the infallible Word of God as their final authority.”
The declaration, issued October 16 and bearing the signature of Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda—GAFCON’s chairman and primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda—represents the most profound schism in Anglicanism since its sixteenth-century origins under King Henry VIII. Representing approximately 80 percent of the world’s 62 million Anglicans, GAFCON‘s member churches have redrawn the contours of global Anglican identity, asserting their mantle as its true stewards.
A Flashpoint of Secular Capitulation
The rupture stems directly from the Church of England’s election of Sarah Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury. Celebrated in progressive circles as a milestone of “inclusion,” the decision has been decried by GAFCON leaders as a surrender to the spirit of the age, undermining the historic male-only episcopate rooted in apostolic tradition and Scripture.
“This choice abandons global Anglicans,” Archbishop Mbanda stated earlier this month, “by appointing a leader who will further divide an already divided communion.”
GAFCON’s communiqué goes further, repudiating the Archbishop of Canterbury as an “instrument of communion” and withdrawing from all Canterbury-linked bodies: the Lambeth Conference, Anglican Consultative Council, and Primates’ Meeting. “These bodies,” it declares, “have ceased to uphold the doctrine and discipline of our faith.”
This fracture illuminates the perils of innovation divorced from sacred tradition. As the Catechism teaches (CCC 816-817), true unity in the Church flows from fidelity to the deposit of faith, not accommodation to cultural winds. GAFCON’s stand echoes the Catholic Church’s own defense of immutable truths amid modernity’s assaults—on marriage, sexuality, and holy orders.
Reordering Anglicanism on Scriptural Foundations
In response, GAFCON unveils a reconstituted vision: “We are now the Global Anglican Communion.” Born in 2008 in Jerusalem as a coalition of “confessing Anglicans,” the movement arose against the theological drift of Western provinces, particularly on human sexuality and biblical inerrancy. Its manifesto, The Future Has Arrived, insists that authentic communion rests solely on “the Holy Scripture—translated, read, preached, taught, and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, faithful to the historic and consensual reading of the Church.”
Practically, GAFCON will establish a new Primates’ Council and elect a primus inter pares leader. Its inaugural assembly is slated for March 2026 in Abuja, Nigeria.
GAFCON’s dominion is vast: provinces spanning Africa (Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Congo), Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific claim 49 million faithful. In the West, it bolsters orthodox networks like the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), forged from dissent against progressive revisions.
Ecclesiologically, GAFCON reclaims Anglicanism’s “original structure”—autonomous provinces united not by bureaucratic oversight but by Reformation formularies: the Thirty-Nine Articles, Book of Common Prayer, and Ordinal. Canterbury, once the symbolic fulcrum, becomes merely one province among equals.
A Southern Shift and Catholic Parallels
For the Church of England, the schism exacts a grievous toll. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s role as primus inter pares—a moral lodestar—now cedes to vibrant sees in Lagos, Kampala, Kigali, and Nairobi, where Anglicanism surges amid poverty and persecution.
This realignment mirrors global Christianity’s southward pivot, where orthodoxy thrives amid demographic vitality. It recalls the Catholic Church’s own tensions—evident in the Amazon Synod or German Synodal Way—between inculturation and doctrinal integrity.
The Holy See observes with keen interest. Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus extended Personal Ordinariates to Anglicans seeking full Catholic communion while preserving their patrimony. Yet these—numbering fewer than 5,000 worldwide—underscore that most GAFCON faithful prioritize reforming their tradition over “crossing the Tiber.” Their scriptural zeal aligns with Catholicism’s sola Scriptura tempered by Tradition and Magisterium, offering a cautionary tale for ecumenical dialogue.
A Call to Lead, Rooted in Truth
GAFCON’s audacious claim to embody “the true Anglican Communion” awaits history’s verdict. Yet its leaders, invoking Scripture’s promise of divine fidelity (2 Tim 3:16-17), exude resolve. “The restoration of our beloved communion is now in our hands,” Archbishop Mbanda proclaimed. “We exist, we resist, and we are ready to lead.”
As Anglicanism fractures, the universal Church stands as beacon—unshaken, one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Zenit News
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