By Emeka Odogwu
Over three hundred and forty-Seven (347) Anglican Bishops and over One hundred and twenty-one (121) lay and clerical Anglican leaders from 27 provinces across the globe, met from 3-6 March 2026 in Abuja, Nigeria to redefine the future of the Global Anglican Communion. This came from the Global Anglican Future Conference, GAFCON.
The Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion hosted the gathering known as Global Anglican Council which was seen as to confer and celebrate the Global Anglican Communion.
At the event, the Chair of the Gafcon Primates’ Council, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, announced the inauguration of the *Global Anglican Communion* in their October 2025 Martyrs’ Day Statement (MDS).
According to Archbishop Mbanda the *Global Anglican Communion* , was founded on the person and work of Jesus Christ and the authority of his word, and His commission to make disciples of all nations.
Archbishop Mbanda further said that the future has arrived.
He said: “For more than two decades, we have in prayerful humility, called for the repentance of those senior leaders of the Anglican Communion who have denied the orthodox faith in word and deed.
Reordering the Anglican Communion is now necessary, because a significant number of provinces who claim to be Anglican have abandoned the authority of Scripture and failed to follow Christ faithfully. While matters of human sexuality are one expression of this, this is merely symptomatic of doctrinal and moral departures from the teaching of Scripture.
The leadership of the Canterbury Instruments of Communion have failed to exercise discipline and maintain the biblical witness and uphold fundamental Anglican Doctrine as expressed in its Reformation Formularies (the Thirty-nine Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer including the Ordinal). Instead, these Instruments seek to hold together a confused communion of institutional co-existence, based on the fiction of “walking together” with those who are walking away from the truth of the gospel and the teaching of Jesus.
He noted that GAFCON is Leading the Communion, hence,
successive statements from GAFCON Assemblies have expressed our commitment to reform the Anglican Communion, most recently in the 2023 Kigali Commitment.
Resetting the Communion is an urgent matter… The goal is that orthodox Anglicans worldwide will have a clear identity, a global ‘spiritual home’ of which they can be proud, and a strong leadership structure that gives them stability and direction as Global Anglicans.
Since 2008, GAFCON has taken the initiative to authenticate genuine Anglican Dioceses and provinces which had been marginalised by revisionist leaders. GAFCON has also nurtured a real fellowship among Anglican churches based on shared theological conviction.
Global Leadership for a Global Communion
Gafcon’s initiative to reorder the Communion is a continuing expression of its leadership. GAFCON was originally formed as a fellowship within the Anglican Communion. Now that the Anglican Communion is being reordered, the GAFCON Primates Council has been replaced by the Global Anglican Council.
The newly constituted Global Anglican Council consists of Primates, Advisors, and Guarantors as voting members. The Chair and Deputy Chair shall be elected from among the Primates by the whole Council. Primates who retire from their provinces will continue on the Council until the conclusion of the next GAFCON Assembly.
We were delighted to hear at our gathering that Archbishop Laurent Mbanda has been elected Chair, Archbishop Miguel Uchôa has been elected Deputy Chair and Bishop Paul Donison has been elected as General Secretary. We recognise that there is still much work to be done by the Global Anglican Council, including working out the implications of the Jerusalem Declaration in word and deed.
The role of the Global Anglican Council is to guard and strengthen the faith of Global Anglicans. They will acknowledge and welcome existing provinces and dioceses who desire to participate in the Global Anglican Communion, and will be responsible for inviting new Primates to a seat on the Council. The Global Anglican Council will also authenticate newly formed provinces and dioceses who seek recognition as Global Anglicans.
