THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED: THE GLOBAL ANGLICAN COMMUNION AND THE END OF AN ERA
A Historic Declaration
On 16 October 2025, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) issued a communiqué titled “The Future Has Arrived,” marking what many believe to be the most decisive turning point in the Anglican world since the Reformation. The statement, signed by the Primates of the movement, declared the birth of a new reality: the Global Anglican Communion. This is not, they insisted, a departure from Anglicanism but a restoration of its foundations. “We have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion,” the communiqué declared, making the bold claim that fidelity to Scripture, rather than institutional recognition by Canterbury, is now the defining mark of authentic Anglican identity.
GAFCON’s leaders—representing provinces and dioceses from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas—asserted that the traditional “Instruments of Communion” (the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ Meeting) had “failed to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion.” In their view, these bodies have allowed false teaching to spread unchecked, undermining both Scripture and the moral witness of the Church. To restore order and truth, they proposed an alternative foundation: the Word of God itself, “translated, read, preached, taught, and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the Church’s historic and consensual reading.”¹
The communiqué called upon all member provinces to amend their constitutions, removing references to communion with the See of Canterbury, and to withdraw financial and structural support from the Anglican Consultative Council. They were also encouraged to reject funding from Canterbury-based bodies so as to maintain moral independence. Membership in the new Global Anglican Communion would henceforth require adherence to the Jerusalem Declaration (2008), the doctrinal charter which has served as GAFCON’s touchstone since its founding in Jerusalem.²
To consolidate this new order, GAFCON announced the formation of a Council of Primates for all aligned provinces, with a primus inter pares to be elected at the G26 Bishops’ Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, scheduled for March 2026. That gathering, they said, would mark the first formal assembly of the Global Anglican Communion and the definitive shift of Anglican leadership from Canterbury to the Global South.³
Evangelical Endorsements: Reform According to the Word
The announcement was greeted with jubilation among evangelical commentators. The Gospel Coalition hailed it as “a historic re-ordering of Anglicanism,” calling it a model for Christian renewal in an age of ecclesial compromise.⁴ The article noted that “Christians are not called to abandon the faith but to reform the Church according to the Word,” echoing the Reformation’s enduring principle of ecclesia semper reformanda—the Church always being reformed according to Scripture. For evangelicals, GAFCON’s boldness in acting upon this conviction was both a relief and a challenge.
The Coalition emphasised three enduring lessons: that Scripture alone can serve as the foundation of unity, that institutional decay must never be mistaken for divine permanence, and that the courage of Global South Christians offers a prophetic example to the West. It concluded with a phrase that encapsulates the new spirit of Anglican self-understanding: “Global Anglicans are not leaving Anglicanism; they are leading it.”⁵
Reactions from the Communion
The official response from the Anglican Communion Office was cautious but revealing. Secretary-General Anthony Poggo issued a pastoral statement acknowledging “deeply held differences” but urging Anglicans “to make room for one another” within the existing structures.⁶ He appealed to the Communion’s historic breadth, arguing that “to persist in imperfect, impaired communion is to commit to work at this task together, and not apart.” His plea, however, was met with quiet scepticism among Global South primates who believe that “impaired communion” has long since given way to outright apostasy.
Independent observers confirmed that the implications of the communiqué are profound. The Living Church described GAFCON’s declaration as effectively creating “a Global Anglican Communion parallel to Canterbury’s structure.” Baptist News characterised it as “a major split and a snub to the Church of England,” while Virtue Online reported that the communiqué amounts to “formal separation in all but name.”⁷ Even secular outlets took notice. Reuters connected the announcement with the wider discontent following the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, which provoked resistance from African and Asian primates who view the innovation as “a departure from what Scripture teaches.” The Times reported that several African bishops had denounced the decision, arguing that it confirmed Canterbury’s moral disqualification to lead the Communion.⁸
At the grassroots level, Anglican clergy and laity expressed a mix of sorrow and vindication. On the r/Anglicanism forum, one contributor lamented, “The Anglican Communion as a whole has lost a lot with this schism,” while another wrote, “Abandoning the Instruments of Communion and replacing them while still claiming to be the true Anglican Communion is both bold and inevitable.” The tone across discussions was one of grief tempered by realism—the sense that unity without truth had already become an empty formality.
Responses from Asia and the South Pacific
Across Asia and the South Pacific, GAFCON’s communiqué resonated strongly. The Church of the Province of South East Asia—encompassing Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Indonesia—had already signalled its unease earlier in October. In a letter dated 5 October 2025, its bishops declared that they could not recognise Sarah Mullally as “first among equals,” describing her appointment as “a departure from what Scripture teaches regarding marriage and sexuality.”⁹ This was one of the earliest and clearest regional affirmations of the GAFCON perspective.
In Australia, Archbishop Kanishka Raffel of Sydney welcomed GAFCON’s clarity, thanking God “for the faithfulness and courage of the Global South.” The Diocese of the Southern Cross, established in 2022 to provide oversight for faithful Anglicans unable to remain under revisionist bishops, declared its full support for the communiqué. In New Zealand, the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa New Zealand (CCAANZ) reaffirmed its 2019 foundation under GAFCON’s patronage, stating that communion must rest upon Scripture, not institutional recognition. The movement’s reach, once limited to Africa, has now unmistakably encompassed Oceania.
Commentators noted that this marks a historic reorientation: the Anglican world is no longer a federation governed by Canterbury, but a confessional fellowship whose spiritual authority flows from Abuja, Nairobi, Kampala, Sydney, and Singapore. The old imperial architecture of the Church has given way to a genuinely global expression of faith, rooted in Scripture rather than geography.
Developments in South America
In Latin America, responses were equally telling. The Igreja Anglicana no Brasil (IAB), a recognised GAFCON province, promptly echoed the communiqué through its networks, reaffirming that it “stands within the Global Anglican Communion.” The Anglican Church of Chile, which became an independent province in 2018, issued a bishops’ statement on 7 October 2025, days before the GAFCON communiqué, declaring that it was “difficult to recognise Canterbury’s leadership” and reaffirming that “Anglican unity is rooted in faithfulness to the Gospel, not in institutional allegiance.”¹⁰
The Anglican Church of South America (covering Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay) has not released a formal communiqué, but regional commentary in Spanish and Portuguese media suggests strong sympathy with GAFCON’s theological stance. Observers note that while official pronouncements remain cautious, the practical alignment of clergy and parishes is already shifting toward the GAFCON orbit.
India and the Subcontinent
In India, developments have been quieter but potentially significant. The GAFCON Anglican Bishops Council of India (ABCI) maintains a visible online presence, describing itself as part of the “global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Communion.”¹¹ While the ABCI has not issued a formal statement responding to the 16 October communiqué, its continued activity indicates an established and growing constituency of Indian Anglicans sympathetic to GAFCON’s theology.
By contrast, the larger united churches—the Church of South India (CSI) and the Church of North India (CNI)—have so far remained silent. Both are complex unions that include Anglican elements within broader ecumenical structures, and their leadership appears to be taking a cautious, observational stance. The silence may reflect internal diversity: many clergy in these bodies privately support GAFCON’s theological principles while remaining institutionally loyal to the united churches.
A New Anglican Epoch
From Africa to Asia, Sydney to São Paulo, GAFCON’s announcement has confirmed what had been slowly unfolding for two decades: the gravitational centre of Anglicanism has shifted from the secularised West to the faith-filled Global South. The claim that Scripture—not sentiment, synod, or see—is the only true foundation of unity now defines the identity of millions of Anglicans.
This reordering of authority represents more than an administrative change; it is a theological watershed. The very concept of communion is being redefined, from an institutional network to a fellowship of truth. Where the postcolonial Church often mirrored the political structures of its former empire, GAFCON’s realignment represents an inversion of that pattern: the once-missionary continents now lead, and the once-leading provinces now follow—or fall away.
The question that remains is whether history will call this transformation reformation or schism. To the GAFCON faithful, it is a new beginning—the recovery of an Anglicanism that never needed Canterbury’s permission to exist. The image of sunrise over Jerusalem, chosen as GAFCON’s emblem, symbolises not rebellion but renewal. “The West may have the cathedrals,” one African prelate remarked, “but we have the faith.”
Whatever the verdict of history, 16 October 2025 will stand as the day when Anglicanism’s centre of gravity changed forever: when the heirs of Cranmer and Ridley found their voice not in England, but in Africa, Asia, and the Americas; when the Church of England ceased to define the Communion, and the Communion began to define itself anew around the Word of God.
Footnotes
¹ GAFCON, The Future Has Arrived (Communiqué, 16 Oct 2025).
² GAFCON, The Jerusalem Declaration (Jerusalem, 2008).
³ GAFCON, The Future Has Arrived.
⁴ The Gospel Coalition, The Future of Anglicanism Has Arrived: What GAFCON’s Statement Means for Evangelicals (Oct 2025).
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Anthony Poggo, Anglican Communion Office Statement (Oct 2025).
⁷ The Living Church; Baptist News, A House Divided: The Anglican Communion’s Great Reset (Oct 2025).
⁸ Virtue Online, GAFCON Declares Formal Separation from the Anglican Communion; Reuters, Anglican Grouping Objects to Female Archbishop of Canterbury (3 Oct 2025).
⁹ Church of the Province of South East Asia, Pastoral Letter (5 Oct 2025).
¹⁰ Anglican Church of Chile, Bishops’ Statement (7 Oct 2025).
¹¹ GAFCON Anglican Bishops Council of India (ABCI), Mission Statement (accessed Oct 2025).
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