Questions for GAFCON

12 snips

Nov 3, 2025

In this insightful discussion, Mark Michael, editor of The Living Church, and Matthew Olver, its executive director, delve into the implications of GAFCON's launch of a Global Anglican Communion. They explore the reactions from various Anglican communities divided between joy and concern. Mark provides context on GAFCON's origins and its relationship to other movements, while Matthew emphasizes the need for accountability, repentance, and prayerful unity. Together, they question how these shifts will impact parish relationships and Anglican identity.

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INSIGHT

Global South Was Not Fully Consulted

GSFA and GAFCON overlap theologically but differ in governance and public role, and GSFA leaders say they were not consulted.
The limited consultation partly explains widespread silence among Global South primates after the communique.

INSIGHT

Money Used As A Tool For Separation

The communique pressures provinces to cut ties and refuse funds from Canterbury-aligned bodies, framing such funds as 'dirty money.'
Leaders warned they would cut off churches that continue those financial ties.

INSIGHT

'Restore Autonomy' Contradicts Anglican History

GAFCON claims to 'restore' the communion as autonomous provinces, but autonomy has always been the Anglican norm.
The communique's framing creates confusion because it presents existing structures as the problem despite longstanding provincial independence.

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This bonus episode of the podcast responds to the launch of a Global Anglican Communion, which would be separate from the Anglican Communion as we have known it.

There are Anglicans rejoicing over this news. Anglicans grieving over this news. Anglicans who don’t know what to think. And a lot of Anglicans who may not know what’s going on, or may not know what this has to do with them.

Today, we explore some of these feelings and questions, and pose some questions of our own.

On Oct 16, a communiqué email went out from a conservative, international fellowship of Anglican churches, representing several major Anglican provinces worldwide, known as GAFCON. (There are a lot of acronyms in this episode, but we will spell them out as we go.) This communiqué dropped into people’s inboxes with the title “The Future Has Arrived.” Here are a few introductory paragraphs:

“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.”

Then follow 8 resolutions for establishing a Global Anglican Communion separate from the Anglican Communion and the Instruments of Communion.

TLC editor Mark Michael and executive director Matthew Olver join podcast host Amber Noel to ask questions about the meaning and contents of this communiqué, its language and propositions, the history that led up to it, its timing in light of current leadership scandals in the ACNA, and what people who want to move forward with GAFCON might be risking, particularly leaders from the Global South, or what they may still need to know. We also direct specific questions to GAFCON leaders themselves.

And we invite you to join us. If you are a leader in the Anglican Communion, in GAFCON, in the ACNA, or in the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans, and you have something you want to ask, share, or correct in response to this podcast, please get in touch: ambernoel@livingchurch.org. We have questions and critiques, but we also want to understand better what’s going on, and why, and how we can receive needed renewal and reformation together.

Thanks for listening to this conversation. And if you have something to bring to the table, we hope to hear from you.

From this episode:

Resources from GAFCON:

Oct 16 “The Future Has Arrived” communiqué

The Jerusalem Declaration (founding document of GAFCON)

Bishop Paul Donison’s interview on the Stand Firm podcast

Bishop Laurent Mbanda's podcast interview

Resources from The Living Church:

Analysis: GAFCON Creates Global Anglican Communion

‘You Have Broken My Heart’—A Letter to My Siblings in GAFCON

Poggo Responds to GAFCON Communion Launch

The Inside Story on GAFCON’s Communiqué