African Bishops Declare Hostile Takeover of Anglican Communion
GAFCON represents about 50% of the Anglican Communion. Over 95% of GAFCON's membership is located in Africa.
KIGALI — On October 16, 2025, the GAFCON Primates’ Council, led by Abp. Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda, announced a "reordering" of the Anglican Communion. According to a post by Anglican Ink, this act comes as a response to the election of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.
GAFCON (the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans) is a coalition of conservative provinces within the Anglican Communion. It represents about 50% of the Anglican Communion. Over 95% of GAFCON's membership is located in Africa.
This "reordering" would declare the Bible as the sole foundation of communion, rejecting certain traditional Anglican "instruments of communion"—the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth Conference, Anglican Consultative Council, and Primates Meeting—for failing to uphold Anglican doctrine.
GAFCON has severed ties with liberal Anglicans—those in the United Kingdom and, presumably, the United States—and emphasized the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration as the standard for Anglican identity.
In his statement, Abp. Mbanda declared: "We have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion."
GAFCON will celebrate this development at the G26 Bishops Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, March 3-6, 2026, calling for prayerful submission to the Holy Spirit.
The more liberal provinces of the Anglican Communion—in particular, the Church of England and the Episcopal Church, USA—are expected to contest GAFCON's authority to "restructure" the Communion.
