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.

The Future Has Arrived — Gafcon Communique

A most significant announcement from Gafcon …

“As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion.”

Full Communique follows:

“To our dear Anglican brothers and sisters in Christ.

Grace and peace to you in the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, on the Commemoration of the martyrdom of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley.

The first Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) gathered in 2008 in Jerusalem to prayerfully respond to the abandonment of the Scriptures by some of the most senior leaders of the Anglican Communion, and to seek their repentance.

In the absence of such repentance, we have been prayerfully advancing towards a future for faithful Anglicans, where the Bible is restored to the heart of the Communion.

Today, that future has arrived.

Our Gafcon Primates gathered this hour to fulfil our mandate to reform the Anglican Communion, as expressed in the Jerusalem Statement of 2008.

We resolved to reorder the Anglican Communion as follows:

1. We declare that the Anglican Communion will be reordered, with only one foundation of communion, namely the Holy Bible, “translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading” (Jerusalem Declaration, Article II), which reflects Article VI of the 39 Articles of Religion.

2. We reject the so-called Instruments of Communion, namely the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates Meeting, which have failed to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion.

3. We cannot continue to have communion with those who advocate the revisionist agenda, which has abandoned the inerrant word of God as the final authority and overturned Resolution I.10, of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

4. Therefore, Gafcon has re-ordered the Anglican Communion by restoring its original structure as a fellowship of autonomous provinces bound together by the Formularies of the Reformation, as reflected at the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, and we are now the Global Anglican Communion.

5. Provinces of the Global Anglican Communion shall not participate in meetings called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, including the ACC, and shall not make any monetary contribution to the ACC, nor receive any monetary contribution from the ACC or its networks.

6. Provinces, which have yet to do so, are encouraged to amend their constitution to remove any reference to being in communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England.

7. To be a member of the Global Anglican Communion, a province or a diocese must assent to the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008, the contemporary standard for Anglican identity.

8. We shall form a Council of Primates of all member provinces to elect a Chairman, as primus inter pares (‘first amongst equals’), to preside over the Council as it continues “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

As I declared in my statement two weeks ago,“the reset of our beloved Communion is now uniquely in the hands of Gafcon, and we are ready to take the lead.”

Today, Gafcon is leading the Global Anglican Communion.

As has been the case from the very beginning, we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion.

At our upcoming G26 Bishops Conference in Abuja, Nigeria from 3 to 6 March 2026, we will confer and celebrate the Global Anglican Communion.

Please pray that we will lead our Communion in prayerful submission to the Holy Spirit as we hear the voice of Jesus in his wondrous Scriptures, to the glory of God.

Yours in Christ,

The Most Revd Dr Laurent Mbanda
Chairman, Gafcon Primates’ Council
Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda
Thursday 16th October, 2025.”

– via Gafcon.

Growth in AMiE

Prayer update from Gafcon:

“Today we give thanks to God for the ongoing growth of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), a Gafcon-established diocese committed to guarding and growing the gospel in England.

New church plants have begun in Hackbridge (South London), Denton (Manchester) and Bracknell (near Reading). Pray for the leaders and members stepping out in faith to proclaim Christ.

We praise God that some AMiE churches are now holding two services on Sundays, a sign of gospel growth and gathering. Pray for the Lord to raise up more leaders and resources for this new season.

We also rejoice that Bishop Tim Davies will be installed as diocesan bishop at a service of celebration and consecration on 22 November at Christ Church Central, Sheffield, 2 pm.”

– Source.

Canterbury Appointment Abandons Anglicans — Gafcon responds to the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury

From Gafcon:

To my dear brothers and sisters in our Gafcon family,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The news has finally arrived after months of prayer and long waiting. But it is with sorrow that Gafcon receives the announcement today of the appointment of Dame Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. This appointment abandons global Anglicans, as the Church of England has chosen a leader who will further divide an already split Communion.

For over a century and a half, the Archbishop of Canterbury functioned not only as the Primate of All England but also as a spiritual and moral leader of the Anglican Communion. In more recent times, the See of Canterbury has been described as one of the four “Instruments of Communion,” whilst also chairing the other three Instruments, namely the Lambeth Conference, the Primates Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council.

However, due to the failure of successive Archbishops of Canterbury to guard the faith, the office can no longer function as a credible leader of Anglicans, let alone a focus of unity. As we made clear in our Kigali Commitment of 2023, we can “no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as an Instrument of Communion” or the “first among equals” of global Primates.

We had hoped that the Church of England would take this into due consideration as it deliberated over the choice of a new Archbishop of Canterbury and would choose someone who could bring unity to a divided Anglican Communion. Sadly, they have not done so.

Though there are some who will welcome the decision to appoint Bishop Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy. Therefore, her appointment will make it impossible for the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve as a focus of unity within the Communion.

However, more concerning is her failure to uphold her consecration vows. When she was consecrated in 2015, she took an oath to “banish and drive away all strange and erroneous doctrine contrary to God’s Word.” And yet, far from banishing such doctrine, Bishop Mullally has repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality.

In 2023, when asked by a reporter whether sexual intimacy in a same-sex relationship is sinful, she said that some such relationships could, in fact, be blessed. She also voted in favour of introducing blessings of same-sex marriage into the Church of England.

Anglicans believe that the church has been given authority by God to establish rites and ceremonies and to settle doctrine controversy, “and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word” (Article XX). The church cannot bless or affirm what God has condemned (Numbers 23:8; 24:13). This, however, is precisely what Bishop Mullally has sought to allow.

Since the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury has failed to guard the faith and is complicit in introducing practices and beliefs that violate both the “plain and canonical sense” of Scripture and “the Church’s historic and consensual” interpretation of it (Jerusalem Statement), she cannot provide leadership to the Anglican Communion. The leadership of the Anglican Communion will pass to those who uphold the truth of the gospel and the authority of Scripture in all areas of life. 

Gafcon gathered in Jerusalem in 2008 to reset the Anglican Communion back onto its biblical foundations. Today’s appointment makes it clearer than ever before that Canterbury has relinquished its authority to lead. The reset of our beloved Communion is now uniquely in the hands of Gafcon, and we are ready to take the lead.

For such a time as this, Gafcon has summoned global orthodox Anglican bishops to Abuja, Nigeria, from 3 to 6 March, 2026, for the G26 Bishops Assembly. This may be the most significant gathering of faithful Anglicans since 2008.

Today’s announcement will cause sadness and dismay among Anglicans worldwide.  Yet, every morning, Anglicans throughout the world recite the words of Psalm 95: “Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” 

Today, that is our prayer for all bishops and leaders within the Anglican Communion, including Bishop Sarah Mullally. We pray that as she takes upon herself the weight of this historic office, she will repent, and earnestly work with the Gafcon leadership to mend the torn fabric of our Anglican Communion. 

May all our hearts be softened to hear the voice of God in Scripture, and may we all be inclined to obey, as we move out in gospel mission to a lost and hurting world, for the glory of God.

Yours in Christ,

The Most Reverend Dr Laurent Mbanda
Chairman, Gafcon Primates Council
Friday 3rd October, 2025.

via e-mail.

Lawyers Task Force Leader Honoured

From Gafcon:

“We give thanks to God for the ministry of Dr Robert Tong AM, who continues to serve as the Leader of our Gafcon Lawyers Task Force.

Dr Tong was honoured this week at the Synod of the Diocese of Sydney, Australia, as he retires from his formal ministry in their Synod after 55 years of service.

Join us in thanking God for his strategic mind, theological wisdom, extensive knowledge of church law, and the personal example of faith and integrity he has provided throughout his years of service.

We continue to pray for the important ministry of The Gafcon Lawyers Network, as they provide legal and canonical counsel and resources to the Primates, bishops, clergy and other leaders of Gafcon as we seek to live out the Jerusalem Declaration and its implications for our life and ministry together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures.”

– From Gafcon.

ACL members continue to be thankful for Robert’s long term commitment to advancing the reformed and evangelical character of the Anglican Church of Australia, particularly in the Diocese of Sydney, through Anglican Church League, including his continued service as Chairman.

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