Ahead of last week’s gathering of conservative global Anglicans in Abuja, Nigeria, leaders were expected to elect a new “first among equals” spiritual leader to rival the Archbishop of Canterbury due to their opposition to growing liberalism in the denomination.
Instead, due to a “movement of the Holy Spirit,” the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon) decided to adopt a committee-style leadership, Paul Donison, Gafcon’s general secretary, revealed to attendees on Thursday. The newly rebranded Global Anglican Council would include primates (the chief archbishop or bishop of a province), bishops, clergy, and laypeople and would be headed by an elected primate. Leaders unanimously chose Archbishop of Rwanda Laurent Mbanda as its new chairman.
Donison told CT that Gafcon leaders, who largely represent the Global South, made the decision in order to “leave behind Canterbury’s failed instruments of communion” and instead embrace a more democratic system where every province, regardless of size or influence, has a vote.
“Normally in our world, people and institutions cling to the authority and power they have,” Donison said. “In this moment, in a gloriously unprecedented way, the Gafcon primates voted to actually share their power.”
Yassir Eric of Sudan, bishop of Ekkios, a nongeographical diocese for Muslim-background believers, found it humbling to see Gafcon do away with the “first among equals” title and to see leaders willing to sacrifice their power.
“To have some primates, like the Church of Nigeria, which is the largest church that we have here, agree to share power together [with] lay people, bishops and primates, that is actually the principle that is guiding and the humility that I saw in that room,” Eric said.
He noted that Ekkios spans from West Africa to Central Asia, regions with intense persecution and political instability. Most of the people with whom he works do not come from an Anglican background and live in areas where being associated with a Western church can be dangerous. “That’s why we align with the Global South,” he said.
Nearly 350 bishops and 120 lay and clerical leaders from more than 180 dioceses attended the conference, representing 80 percent of global Anglicans, Donison said. Gafcon believes it is not splitting from the wider Anglican church. It argues instead thatthe Anglican Communion’s “doctrinal and moral departures from the teaching of Scripture”—including on the issue of same-sex marriages—have disqualified Canterbury as the church’s true leadership.
“We are not a new Anglican communion,” said Justin Murff, Gafcon’s press secretary. “We are the Anglican communion reordered.”
Gafcon emerged in 2008 after a coalition of church leaders boycotted the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops and instead gathered in Jerusalem as they protested Western Anglican churches blessing same-sex unions and appointing gay and lesbian men and women as bishops. Gafcon also welcomed the Anglican Church in North America into its fold.
Then in 2023, Gafcon rejected recognition of then–Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as head of the communion after the Anglican church agreed to bless same-sex marriages. (The proposal was later abandoned, although the synod said it would reconsider a future proposal.)
Things came to a head last October when the Church of England chose Sarah Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury. Gafcon said the church had abandoned global Anglicans by selecting a leader who promotes revisionist views on marriage and sexuality, as Mullally had brought forth the motion to offer blessings to same-sex couples.
Mbanda called on churches to choose between being part of Gafcon or the official Anglican Communion, requiring them to stop attending meetings and receiving funds from the church if they joined Gafcon.
Samuel Egesa, a Ugandan bishop, said Scripture clearly defines marriage to be between a man and a woman and Anglican churches shouldn’t be able to openly disobey God’s Word.
“We are saying the future is here,” Egesa said. “[Gafcon] is the original Anglican communion, which actually follows the gospel.”
While critics claim Gafcon rejects Mullally’s leadership because she is a woman, the conservative group counters that what it takes issue with is “whether scripture or contemporary culture governs the life of this church,” Murff told journalists at the conference.
A majority of global Anglicans believe in male-only bishops, Donison said, yet Gafcon does not have an official position on women’s ordination. Instead it leaves the decision to individual provinces and dioceses.
“This is a secondary matter that faithful Christians disagree on,” he said. “Gafcon’s job is not to solve all the questions for the world but to lead and hold the unity of the faith on the core doctrines.”
The Anglican Communion plans to discuss proposals on how to deal with the disagreements between the Church of England and global Anglican churches at a conference in Belfast in June and July, yet Gafcon has said it would take part. Donison added that Gafcon has no relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury and would only accept her if “she has a change of heart biblically.”
However, another group of conservative Anglicans, the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), stated that they remained in communion with the Church of England. ] Donison noted that Gafcon and GSFA have overlaps and often engage with each other. “We pray for each other and support each other,” he said. “Most of them are actually already in with us. Not all of them are, but for those who aren’t, [our] arms are open wide.”
Eric, the bishop of Ekkios, noted that Gafcon is a good fit for the population he serves. A former Muslim extremist, Eric became a Christian after God miraculously healed his cousin. Since his conversion in 1991, Eric has worked to help Christians converts like himself.
“When we come to know Jesus, we kind of lose everything—community, identity, belonging,” Eric said. “We seek to provide a home for such people. And we don’t fit the structure of Canterbury.”
Eric said members of Ekkios need a community where new converts are cared for and advocated for, a community centered on Scripture and the truth. He likened the church to a mother (umma in Arabic) who embraces and tends a child from the womb.
“When you leave Islam for Christianity, you are looking for an umma,” he said. “And for us, the global Anglican church is our umma. It’s our community, our mother—where we belong.”
">Christianity Today.
Comentarios