Centre of gravity shifts from Canterbury to Abuja – with Paul Donison

From The Pastor’s Heart, a special edition featuring an interview with Gafcon General Secretary Bishop Paul Donison –

“Paul Donison responds to global reaction to Gafcon’s reset of the Anglican Communion and its declaration that Canterbury’s time is over.

The Lord is removing his Spirit from the Canterbury–Lambeth lampstand, and the centre of global Anglicanism is shifting from London to Africa.

The average Anglican today is not English, not Western, not male — she’s a young African woman in her twenties, probably Nigerian. The Anglican Communion is now catching up with that reality.

Since the Gafcon Primates’ announcement on 16 October 2025 — declaring that Canterbury is out and that the Bible will be the foundation document for a reordered Global Anglican Communion — reaction has been electric: claims of schism, conflict in Ireland, tensions in ACNA, questions about women’s orders, realignments in England, silence from some primates, and fresh courage from others.

And what does this mean for a blended province like Australia?

Gafcon General Secretary Paul Donison joins us with an update on plans for the Global Bishops Gathering in Abuja, Nigeria, 3–6 March 2026.”

– Watch or listen here.

Bishop Donison is speaking at Moore College on Wednesday night at 7:30pm:

Everything you always wanted to know about Gafcon

From Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net –

“The General Secretary of the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon), Bishop Paul Donison, has embarked on a speaking tour of Australia, with stops in capital cities including Sydney.

‘Sydney’s really been part of the Gafcon story right from the beginning,’ said Bishop Donison in a brief call from Melbourne Airpport during his whirlwind tour. ‘One of the opportunities for coming out to Australia is to help Australians realize how much love there is for Australia and how Australia can be such a key part of Gafcon moving forward.’

Bishop Donison has already spoken in Melbourne and Hobart and is on his way around the rest of the country before the Sydney meeting at Moore College on November 26. …”

– Read here. (Emphasis added.)

Image courtesy Gafcon Australia.

After Sydney, Bishop Donison will be speaking in Brisbane and Christchurch.

First Ordination for Diocese of the Southern Cross

A Prayer Update from Gafcon:

“We give thanks to God for a joyful milestone in the life of the Diocese of the Southern Cross, as the Rt Revd Dr Glenn Davies, Interim Bishop, and Gafcon Guarantor and Primates’ Council Advisor, presided over the first ordination of a deacon in the diocese.

Congratulations to the Revd Mekyal Keira, ordained as a Deacon in the Church of God and appointed Pastor of Kush Southern Cross Anglican Church in Western Australia, the eighth congregation in this growing diocese, launched this weekend.

We also rejoice that Alezabeth Kurundi was authorised as a Lay Minister in this new church. Praise God for His faithfulness in raising up new leaders to guard His gospel and serve His people across Australia.”

– Source.

See also:

Kush Southern Cross Anglican Church Facebook page.

“We’re an English-Arabic speaking church in the Diocese of the Southern Cross in Perth, Western Australia.”  (They meet at 160 Dampier Avenue, Kallaroo WA 6025.)

Prayer for the Persecuted Church

From Gafcon:

“This Sunday marks the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Across the world, faithful Anglicans and other believers face hardship and danger for the name of Jesus. Yet they remain steadfast, trusting that the Lord is their refuge and strength, and that nothing can silence His gospel.

As the global Gafcon fellowship, we stand with them in love and prayer. We thank God for their courage as they continue to guard God’s gospel in the face of pressure and persecution. Their witness reminds us that the Word of God is not chained, and that His Church endures by His power alone.

Pray that the Lord will uphold His persecuted people with faith, endurance, and peace. May their steadfast hope inspire us all to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations, whatever the cost.”

Image: Last year’s World Watch List from Open Doors.

Anglican Aid — In fellowship with GAFCON

From The Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid:

“Anglican Aid gives thanks to God for the gospel faithfulness of the leadership of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), following their recent statement regarding the future of the Anglican Communion. This announcement is a declaration that the Anglican Communion would not centre around a person or an office, but rest on a single foundation: the Word of God.

As the overseas aid, development, and ministry support agency of the Sydney Anglican Diocese, Anglican Aid is committed to resourcing churches in the world’s poorest countries with faithful servants trained in the word of God. We are building and resourcing theological colleges and supporting the training of over 2,500 people for various ministries. Anglican Aid longs to see the word of God faithfully proclaimed to the nations. …”

– Read it all here.

Photo: Anglican Aid CEO Tim Swan with Archbishop Ande from the Anglican Church of Congo.

2025 Global Vision Tour with Gafcon General Secretary Bishop Paul Donison

A few months ago, we noted that Gafcon General Secretary Bishop Paul Donison would be speaking at events across Australia and in New Zealand in November.

Details are now available – via the Gafcon Australia website.

“Hear about Gafcon’s Global vision – challenges and opportunities from Bishop Paul Donison and your local Gafcon leaders.

The 90-minute presentation will provide an opportunity to deepen your understanding of Gafcon and connect with others.

Admission to this public event is FREE, and a light supper will be served at the conclusion.”

November 2025

Melbourne
Tuesday 18th  7.30 pm Ridley College, 170 The Avenue, Parkville

Hobart
Wednesday 19th  7.30 pm Wellspring Anglican, 43-47 Grosvenor St, Sandy Bay

Perth
Thursday 20th  6 pm Dalkeith Anglican, 56 Viking Rd, Dalkeith

Adelaide
Friday 21st  7.30 pm St Bart’s Norwood, 77 Beulah Rd, Norwood

Sydney
Wednesday 26th 7.30 pm Moore College, 1 King St, Newtown

Brisbane
Friday 28th 7.30 pm St Phil’s Rochedale, 270 Rochedale Rd, Rochedale

Christchurch, NZ
Saturday 29th November Trinity Church

See also this message from The Rev. Peter Smith, Chair of Gafcon Australia.

Key Gafcon stories from the last week

In case you missed them, here are some key posts related to last week’s Gafcon announcement. Each will open in a new window  –

The Future Has Arrived — Gafcon Communique 16 October 2025.

Enough’s Enough! — A Bible-Centred Reordering of Global Anglicanism — The Pastor’s Heart with Archbishop Laurent Mbanda.

A Long Awaited Future – Dr Mark Thompson.

The Anglican future is here – SydneyAnglicans.net with a Media Release from Bishop Peter Hayward, Commissary for the Archbishop of Sydney.

Gafcon Reboots the Communion – Anglican Unscripted.

The patience of Gafcon – some historical background.

The Future of Anglicanism Has Arrived: What GAFCON’s Statement Means for Evangelicals – Gafcon General Secretary Bishop Paul Donison.

Sydney Standing Committee welcomes Gafcon announcement – SydneyAnglicans.net.

Gafcon photo.

Sydney Standing Committee welcomes Gafcon announcement

From SydneyAnglicans.net, a Public Statement from the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Sydney –

“Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney

Public Statement

At its meeting on 20th October, 2025 passed the following resolution welcoming Gafcon’s announcement on the future of the Anglican Communion.

‘Standing Committee –

(a)       welcomes the attached 16 October 2025 statement by the Most Rev Laurent Mbanda, the Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council, entitled ‘The Future has Arrived’, and commits itself to pray for the Global Anglican Communion,

(b)       humbly prays that the Scriptures – the authoritative and life-giving word of Christ – may be firmly established at the heart of every parish and diocese within the Anglican Church of Australia. To this end, we commit ourselves to working faithfully through the structures of the Australian Church, and

(c)       encourages all Sydney Bishops to attend the GAFCON gathering of the world’s orthodox Anglican Bishops in Abuja, Nigeria, from 3 to 6 March 2026.’

Sydney, October 20, 2025.”

– Source.

GAFCON Anglicans Seek to Lead, Who will Follow?

“A group of leading Anglican traditionalists this month announced a reordering of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Top bishops (primates) of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a renewal movement composed of both historic Anglican provinces and newly inaugurated Anglican churches, are seeking to bind the Anglican family not around a common tie to the See of Canterbury but around shared theological commitments. Among them the centrality of holy scripture. …”

– While we might not warm to the ‘traditionalists’ label, Jeffrey Walton at Juicy Ecumenism finds ‘encouragement in this month’s necessary step’.

The Future of Anglicanism Has Arrived: What GAFCON’s Statement Means for Evangelicals

“On October 16, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, the leaders of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) released a statement beginning with the striking words: ‘The future has arrived.‘

For many outside Anglicanism, this may sound like insider church politics. But the statement represents something much larger: a historic reordering of the Anglican Communion that has profound significance for global evangelicalism. …”

– On Saturday, Australian time, The Gospel Coalition published this piece by Gafcon General Secretary Bishop Paul Donison.

He shares a way forward for those who find themselves in provinces or diocese who do not align with the Global Anglican Communion.

Photo: Bishop Paul Donison, courtesy Gafcon.

The patience of Gafcon

Historical perspective is always important.

The background to the Gafcon Communique of October 16 2025 is more than 17 years of patience on the part of the Gafcon Primates and biblically faithful Anglicans around the world.

And that first Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem in 2008 came after many years of calling Anglican leaders in England, Scotland, Wales, Canada and the United States back to the Scriptures.

In late 2007, Archbishop Peter Jensen outlined, for Sydney readers, the reason for a Global Anglican Future Conference.

A few months later, in March 2008, St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney hosted a meeting explaining why Sydney Bishops would not be attending Lambeth that year.

In June 2008, the GAFCON Final Statement and The Jerusalem Declaration were released at the end of that first GAFCON gathering in Jerusalem.

Ten years ago, in March 2015, Archbishop Peter Jensen gave the Richard B. Gaffin Lecture at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. His topic was “Beginning in Jerusalem: The Theological Significance of the 2008 Global Anglican Future Conference”. His address is essential viewing to understand the eternal issues involved. He explains the reasons for GAFCON, giving a glimpse into the pain involved, and the hope for the future.

Other relevant documents can be accessed from our Reference Documents and Press Releases page and in the “Anglican Communion” section of our Resources page.

All this historical background should lead us to do three things –

  1. Thank God for our leaders who value faithfulness to Christ and his Word over the lure of this world.
  2. Pray for godly wisdom for the road ahead, so that many will be saved and built up in Christ for the honour and praise of his Name.
  3. Be committed to the Scriptures and the work of the gospel.

Gafcon Reboots the Communion

In the latest Anglican Unscripted video, Kevin Kallsen and Canon George Conger at Anglican TV discuss what is happening with Gafcon and the Anglican Communion.

Click this link to go to the relevant part of their conversation.

The Anglican future is here

“In a much anticipated announcement, the leaders of the Global Anglican Future Conference who represent the majority of Anglicans worldwide have begun the re-ordering of the Anglican Communion.

‘The future has arrived,’ said GAFCON in an eight-point plan symbolically released on the day of Commemoration of the martyrdom of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Anglican leaders who stood for biblical truth. …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell reports on the Gafcon announcement, as well as reactions from Sydney.

See also (and quoted in the above article), this Media release from Bishop Peter Hayward, Commissary for the Archbishop of Sydney:

The Global Anglican Future statement on the Anglican Communion

In an initial statement responding to the announcement by Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, Bishop Peter Hayward, Commissary for the Archbishop of Sydney, said:

“We are thankful to God for the biblical faithfulness and clarity of the GAFCON primates. Their decisiveness at such a critical time gives comfort to orthodox Anglicans worldwide and supports mission with authentic, loving and truthful witness.”

Bishop Peter Hayward
Commissary for the Archbishop of Sydney (on leave)
18 October 2025.

Photo: The first GAFCON gathering in Jerusalem, 2008.

A Long Awaited Future

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.

Enough’s Enough! — A Bible-Centred Reordering of Global Anglicanism — with Laurent Mbanda

This afternoon, for The Pastor’s Heart, Dominic Steele spoke with Chair of the Gafcon Primates Council, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda –

“We are now the Global Anglican Communion,” declares Archbishop Laurent Mbanda — the Chair of Gafcon, Primate of Rwanda, and leader of Global Anglicans.

Bible-believing Anglicans around the world are praising God today.

The Anglican Communion is being reordered — reset — with the Bible once again at its foundation.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the revisionists, and the so-called Canterbury Communion are out — they’ve repeatedly abandoned Cranmerian Anglicanism, and ultimately, Jesus himself.

This reordering seeks to restore the Communion’s original structure — a fellowship of autonomous provinces bound together by the Formularies of the Reformation. There will be no communion with those who have abandoned the authority of Scripture.

A new Council of Primates will be formed, electing a chairman to preside as primus inter pares — first among equals.

Archbishop Mbanda is here in Sydney this week with a group of Primates and the founding fathers of Gafcon. Their informal consultations culminated in a clear and momentous statement — so significant that an online Global Primates Meeting was held at 11 p.m. Sydney time last night to ratify the decisions made.

Many of those leaders are now on planes heading home. But Archbishop Mbanda joins us in our Pastor’s Heart studio.”

– Watch here.

Next Page →