Choose this day whom you will serve…
As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD (Joshua 24:15)
Greetings from Abuja, Nigeria where 347 Anglican bishops and 121 lay and clerical Anglican leaders from 27 provinces met from 3-6 March 2026, generously hosted by our brothers and sisters in the Church of Nigeria.
The Chair of the Gafcon Primates’ Council, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, announced the inauguration of the Global Anglican Communion in the October 2025 Martyrs’ Day Statement (MDS). As that statement foreshadowed, we met in Abuja both to “confer and celebrate the Global Anglican Communion.”
We gathered together under the Word of God prayerfully to discern the Lord’s future for the Global Anglican Communion, founded on the person and work of Jesus Christ and the authority of his word, and his commission to make disciples of all nations.
We met each morning for prayer, praise and hearing God’s word. Our plenary sessions explored the implications of the MDS. Our Global Vision Event encouraged us in the work of fulfilling the Great Commission.
The Future has Arrived
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.
The Bible at the Heart of the Communion
The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. The communion is a fellowship of churches who submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, whose life and teaching is revealed in the Scriptures. We understand the Bible is to be ‘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 Thirty-nine Articles of Religion.
The Bible is God’s Word written (Article XX). It was breathed out by him and written for us by faithful messengers. It carries God’s own authority and is its own interpreter – it is clear, sufficient and true for all times. God’s Word is the final authority in the church and in the life of discipleship.
The Canterbury Instruments have compromised the authority of the Scriptures by normalising hermeneutical pluralism, elevating cultural capitulation, and reframing the rejection of Scripture’s authority and clarity as “good disagreement”, and not what it really is – false teaching.
The Failure of the Canterbury Instruments
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.” (MDS)
Recent Archbishops of Canterbury have failed to guard the faith by inviting bishops to Lambeth who have embraced or promoted practices contrary to Scripture. The former Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed the provision of liturgical resources for the Church of England to bless people who had entered same-sex civil marriages. The current Archbishop of Canterbury led the “Living in Love and Faith” project that produced these liturgical resources for the Church of England. The moral and spiritual authority of the Seat of Augustine has been severely compromised by this.
Notwithstanding the unequivocal rejection of “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture” as expressed in Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, contrary teaching has continued to gain a foothold in some Anglican provinces. At Lambeth 2022 it was treated as a matter over which Christians could disagree but remain in fellowship. Archbishop Justin Welby affirmed both a “traditional teaching” and a “different teaching”, the latter held by those who are “not careless about Scripture. They do not reject Christ. But they have come to a different view on sexuality after long prayer, deep study and reflection on understandings of human nature”. This is unambiguously contrary to Anglican doctrine as it has been received.
The ACC and the Primates’ Meetings have likewise failed to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion, notwithstanding the repeated recommendations of various reports, for example the 2004 Windsor Report. They have neither restrained nor challenged false teaching and instead have called for the acceptance of false teachers as fellow members of the Communion.
A Confessional Communion
True communion is confessional, rather than defined by a shared history or institutional structures.
The Jerusalem Declaration, which includes the Reformation Formularies, expresses our common confession of the Biblical truth, shared faith, and communal conviction. We are in fellowship with all who assent to the Jerusalem Declaration.
However, there is, and will continue to be, an institution that calls itself the Anglican Communion, which defines communion on an institutional basis. This body has recognised that its current institutional rules have failed to maintain genuine communion and is currently exploring the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals to change its institutional rules. But these proposals are based on a commitment to “walk together to the maximum possible degree” despite fundamental disagreement on the Bible’s teaching. This cannot lead to true communion.
There are not two Communions, but two incompatible definitions of communion – one confessional, the other institutional.
The Global Anglican Communion
At its inception, the Anglican Communion was based on a common confession. At the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, Archbishop Charles Longley stated its purpose as:
[for] cementing yet more firmly the bonds of Christian communion between Churches acknowledging one Lord, one faith, one baptism, connected not only by the ties of kindred, but by common formularies…our very presence here is a witness to our resolution to maintain the faith which we hold in common as our priceless heritage, set forth in our Liturgy and other formularies.
The Global Anglican Communion is a return to this historic sense of the Anglican Communion as “a fellowship of autonomous provinces bound together by the Formularies of the Reformation” (MDS). True communion is a voluntary fellowship which at its heart is neither synodical nor legal.
The Global Anglican Communion is neither a breakaway Communion nor an alternative Communion. The Jerusalem Statement clearly says that “We cherish our Anglican heritage and the Anglican Communion and have no intention of departing from it”. What has occurred instead is a shift of the stewardship of the Anglican Communion from the Canterbury Instruments to the Global Anglican Communion. We are returning the Anglican Communion to its roots. The Global Anglican Communion is not a new Communion, but the historic Anglican Communion reordered from within.
We warmly invite all who submit to the Lord Jesus and cherish the Bible and our Anglican Formularies as expressed in the Jerusalem Declaration to join us.
The Jerusalem Declaration as Our Confession
Christian unity is not based on shared human values, inherited institutional structures or a common commitment to mission. These are merely the fruit of Christian unity, not its essence. According to John 17, Christian unity is union with Christ, a gift from God that comes from trusting the words of Jesus which the Father gave him.
The English Reformers understood that the gospel revealed in Scripture is the source of life for the church now and for our eternal life together in the age to come. Consequently, they reformed their Church accordingly.
The Jerusalem Declaration was written as an expression of authentic Anglican doctrine because the Canterbury-led Anglican Communion had lost connection to its biblical roots, compromising its values, structures and mission. To embrace the Jerusalem Declaration is to apply historical Anglican doctrine and practice to the needs of contemporary society. We encourage all provinces to distribute and recommend appropriate translations of the Jerusalem Declaration for study.
Principled Disengagement
While our fellowship in the Global Anglican Communion is based on assent to the Jerusalem Declaration, leadership in the Global Anglican Communion requires a principled disengagement from the Canterbury Instruments. Leaders who hold office in the Global Anglican Communion must not attend future Primates’ Meetings called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, nor attend the Lambeth Conference, nor attend ACC meetings or participate in Commissions of the ACC, nor personally approve financial contributions to the ACC. It is also expected that they will not receive financial assistance from compromised sources. This principle enables, for example, a Gafcon Branch chair in a mixed province to participate in Global Anglican Communion leadership.
A full and public disengagement from these structures is necessary. The clear and consistent teaching of the New Testament is that those who seek to lead the church astray must not be tolerated and Christians must refuse to have fellowship with those who promote false teaching (Romans 16:17; 2 John 10-11; Revelation 2:20).
Continued participation in these Canterbury-led meetings gives credence to the lie that it is possible to “walk together despite deep disagreement” with those who have abandoned biblical teaching. A separation from the Canterbury Instruments is necessary to demonstrate that such teaching is not of secondary importance. The warning of the prophet Amos rings true: “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Office holders in the Global Anglican Communion who continue to participate in any Canterbury Instruments will not be able to continue in this role.
Those who disengage from the Canterbury Instruments are not schismatic. The Church of England was reformed by Thomas Cranmer, leaving the errors of the Church of Rome behind. Like Cranmer, we are reforming the Communion from within and leaving the Canterbury Instruments behind. The Global Anglican Communion is committed to Anglican orthodoxy. The Jerusalem Declaration is the contemporary expression authentic Anglican Communion: apostolic in its foundation, global in its spread, and catholic in its beliefs.
Constitutional Disconnection
As noted above, participation in the Global Anglican Communion is by assent to the Jerusalem Declaration. That assent may be made by resolution of a Provincial or Diocesan Synod, or it could be incorporated into their respective constitutions. Parish Church Councils and individuals may also participate by assenting to the Jerusalem Declaration.
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. However, we recognise that such amendments take time, and often involve complex canonical changes, sometimes requiring acts of civil parliaments. As such, whether or not an orthodox province or diocese makes such amendments, all (including churches) who have assented to the Jerusalem Declaration are participants in the Global Anglican Communion.
For the sake of clarity, we avoid the language of being “in communion” due to its legal implications when discussing participation within the Global Anglican Communion. This is because some orthodox dioceses outside the UK have provincial constitutions that define their Church as being “in communion” with the Church of England. However, this in no way prevents such dioceses from participation as Global Anglicans, provided they give their assent to the Jerusalem Declaration.
Gafcon has always been committed to supporting faithful Anglicans whether they stay in revisionist or mixed provinces or decide to leave and establish separate provinces or dioceses. This commitment will continue for Global Anglicans, as we seek to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations and to see the Lord’s blessing upon his church, in the knowledge that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
Gafcon has always acknowledged that it is a matter of conscience, when rejecting the authority of revisionist leaders, as to whether one remains or not in a compromised ecclesial structure. We stand, for example, with those who remain within the Church of England who assent to the Jerusalem Declaration, who seek to remain as a faithful witness within the Church of England structures. And we stand with those who have joined Gafcon-authenticated, such as The Anglican Network in Europe, who are a faithful witness in the UK and Europe.
Gafcon is Leading the Communion
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.
Discerning the Communion’s Way Forward
At Abuja, we rejoiced in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ – the good news that God, in his great love for sinners, gave his Son so that, through his death and resurrection, sinners might be forgiven and adopted through the Spirit and live as God’s beloved children forever. Without this gospel, the Church dies. We gathered to celebrate the inauguration of the reordered Global Anglican Communion, with this gospel at its heart.
We invite all faithful Anglicans and all who wish to be Anglicans to be part of the Global Anglican Communion, where fellowship is based on a shared confession articulated in the Jerusalem Declaration which issues in a shared commitment to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations.
The theme of the G26 conference has been “Choose this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). While some of Israel’s forefathers had chosen to serve other gods, Joshua and his household chose to serve the Lord. Our Abuja Affirmation is that we and our global household of faithful Anglicans will also serve the Lord.
The Most Revd Dr Laurent Mbanda
Chairman, Global Anglican Council
Abuja, Nigeria
Friday, 6th March, 2026
https://gafcon.org/communique-updates/the-abuja-affirmation/