Posted on 10/17/2025 1:08:06 PM PDT by Morgana
The unity of Church of England has been dealt a major blow to the denomination in a punishing reminder that theological treason has consequences, after a group representing nearly 40 million members—ten times the number of Anglicans in the UK—announced they are the real Anglican Communion and will no longer be in communion with their progressive counterpart, dividing the denomination in two while declaring “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.”
Over the past two decades, the denomination has been liberalizing at a rapid rate, recently appointing Sarah Mullally, a pro-choice feminist as the new Archbishop of Canterbury and allowing the church to bless same-sex couples, with a major contingent pushing the church to deem homosexuality no longer sinful.
The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon), which represents the conservative branch of the denomination, mainly in the developing world and Africa, has seen the writing on the wall and has been pushing back against the denomination, routinely castigating them for their abandonment of the scriptures and historic Anglican teaching.
Anglicans have four Instruments of Communion: the Archbishop of Canterbury, (someone first among equals) the Lambeth Conference (a meeting of bishops around the world that gathers once a decade), the Primates’ Meeting (a meeting of the bishops and archbishops of each of the church’s 41 provinces, with the last one held in 2020), and the Anglican Consultative Council, which includes everyone from bishops to deacons to laity and meets every three years.
Prior to their annoucement, Gafcon formed their own version of the Lambeth Conference in 2008, called the Jerusalem Conference, and issued the Jerusalem Declaration, a conservative statement that affirms historical Christian orthodoxy, including the view of marriage as between one man and one woman. They further formed their own Primates’ Council, held meetings, and recently released a statement that they “no longer recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury as an Instrument of Communion” or the “first among equals” of global Primates.
While this put them on the precipice a major church split, the real step to break communion was if, despite having their own alternatives, these Gafcon-affiliated provinces publicly announced they are no longer in communion with any Anglican provinces that refuse to affirm the Jerusalem Declaration, refuse to attend Lambeth, and refuse to participate in the Primates’ Meeting.
That day has come.
Yesterday, in a letter that must be read in its entirety, Gafcon promised just that, announcing they are NOT splitting off from the historic Anglican Church to form a new Anglican Communion, but rather that they ARE the true Anglican Communion and will be reordering themselves accordingly.
They also announced they will be replacing the Archbishop of Canterbury with their own appointed “first among equals,” declaring the current Archbishop, Sarah Mullally, an imposter and an illegitimate usurper.
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
Analogous to the Methodist split in the U. S.
Church of England , does that make King Charles their Pope ?
‘enery ain’t going to like et.
Even more historically significant. The Church of England was at one time a part of the Catholic Church of a linage with the historical Church from the time of the Apostles. Methodism never was, only coming into to being in the 1700's under the Wesley brothers.
No. I believe his official title is Defensor Fidei, Defender of the Faith.
He IS the head of the church of england & if im wrong ??
anglican?
If KCIII is head of the COE this may bring him to heel as he has been on his islam kick for awhile now & very publicly, too.
People in the UK have bern complaining about this for awhile now, they distrust KC because he bends to the muzzies
King Charles is the nominal head of the Church of England. His headship does NOT extend to the rest of the UK, and certainly not to the Commonwealth or other nations with Anglican churches.
GAFCON has more practicing members, and has broken away from the current Anglican Communion.
👍 So...how does this affect the split?
Alas, King Charles is nowhere near Papal status, as he is instead the Grand Mufti and Imam of UK Islam.
Unofficialy, he has abrogated that title in favor of Defensor Allia Fidei, the defender of all faiths, in particular the Muslim faith.
That would be Defensor Omnium Fiderum, I believe. : )
Seems Sarah is a homo.
Henry wouldn’t have tolerated a woman’s as Archbishop of Canterbury.
...and that is just the start.
King Charles is praying with the Pope lately.
That's not quite accurate; the Wesleys were communicants of the Church of England and only wished to reform the CoE, not compete with it. But like Luther vis a vis the RCC, they were pushed out of the Church of England, which had become hidebound in class snobbery; John Wesley's preaching to the poor and disadvantaged "riffraff", eventually leading to the Holiness and temperance movements, also led to his ouster from CoE.
So, since you correctly note that the Church of England had lineage from the time of the Apostles, surely that lineage extended to Wesley through the CoE. Here in America, the largest Methodist body from the 1700s when Francis Asbury came over from England to plant churches, until the 1960s when the UMC started its merger and decline, was the "Methodist Episcopal church", and closely followed the Episcopalian (Anglican) liturgy.
No, he is not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.