A Long Awaited Future

Posted on October 17, 2025 
Filed under Anglican Communion, GAFCON

Dr. Mark Thompson shares his gratitude for the faithfulness of the Gafcon Primates.

Take the time to read in full –

The recent announcement from the Gafcon Primates, The Future has Arrived (16 October 2025), begins a new era in the long history of the Anglican churches.

In 2008 Anglican bishops from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem to support each other in the mission of reaching the world for Christ and growing churches where Christ is honoured as the teaching of Scripture is cherished and obeyed.  The Gafcon movement was born out of a desire to stand together under the authority of Scripture, to repent of our own failure to do so, and to call to repentance those Anglicans, and particularly those in leadership, who have departed from the explicit teaching of Scripture in their belief, teaching, or practice. Gafcon’s preoccupations have always been biblical faithfulness and missional urgency.

Since that very first meeting there has been no repentance at the highest levels in the Church of England. Successive archbishops have continued to pursue a revisionist agenda, turning aside from the teaching of the Bible, not merely on matters of human sexuality and marriage, but also with regard to gender, the sanctity of human life from the womb to the grave, the universality of sin, the centrality of Jesus’ atoning death and physical resurrection, the nature and authority of Scripture itself, and the exercise of Christian ministry. Sometimes this has been done by remaining silent in the face of programs of doctrinal revision promoted by others. At other times this has involved their own outright denial of what the Bible teaches. At still other times they have redefined the Bible’s teaching in ways entirely inconsistent with its explicit wording, in an attempt to legitimate their own decision to permit things the Bible prohibits or to forbid things the Bible calls on us to do in response to God’s grace.

The program of theological revision and missional decline that had begun long before the first GAFCON has continued unabated and has indeed accelerated in recent years. The recent appointment of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, has merely confirmed that trajectory. In many ways the irrelevance of the Church of England hierarchy to the rest of the Anglican Communion is even more apparent. Gafcon has made repeated calls for repentance and a change of direction. There have been innumerable meetings seeking to bring about the most needed changes. Though its statements have been strong, the movement has shown admirable restraint in inviting those opposed to them to return to the Scriptures and rejoin with them in genuinely Christian fellowship. However, there has been no repentance and no return. The Gafcon leaders have now judged that time is up. Enough is enough.

I am so grateful for the faithfulness and courage of the Gafcon Primates. This latest statement is bold and clear, and it will be an encouragement to those who have been watching and waiting to see when the words will be translated into action. The primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican Communion is at an end. The so-called instruments of unity, which have in reality proven to be instruments of doctrinal deviation and division, are no longer recognised. The Communion is now reset (not replaced but reset) as the Global Anglican Communion and we are looking forward to a new era of evangelism, mission, growing mature and Christ-like churches, and a clear, unambiguous message to the world. Let the Canterbury Communion continue to wither on the vine and let the Global Anglican Communion push forward from this new beginning, continue, and on the last day finish, as a faithful expression of Christian discipleship and mission.

Mark D Thompson is the Principal of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. He serves in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and is the Chair of its Diocesan Doctrine Commission, which recently produced a report on Authentic Anglicanism.

First published at The Australian Church Record.