IN A communiqué marking what, it says, is a “historic day for the Global Anglican Communion”, Gafcon has announced that it has dissolved its Primates Council to replace it with a new Global Anglican Council, chaired by the Archbishop of Rwanda, Dr Laurent Mbanda.
It has made the “unprecedented” decision, it says, to “share its stewardship of the Global Anglican Communion by creating the Global Anglican Council which includes primates, advisors, and guarantors, which will include bishops, clergy, and lay members each with full voting privileges”.
The dissolving of the Primates Council, set up in 2008, reflects, the communiqué says, “the willingness of the Primates to share their authority with a wider group of global Anglican leaders, both lay and clergy”.
At the same time, the communiqué reiterates Gafcon’s belief that “the current Instruments of Communion no longer meet the needs of the majority of Anglicans around the world.” It says that Dr Mbanda, a former Rwandan refugee who later studied in the United States, has been elected unanimously as chairman.
The communiqué is from the General Secretary, the Rt Revd Paul Donison, who is Assistant Bishop of Gasabo and Dean of Christ Church, Plano, in the Anglican Church of North America (which exists separately from the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada).
The Primate of the Anglican Church in Brazil (separate from the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, whose Primate recently addressed the Church of England’s General Synod) is the Most Revd Miguel Uchoa. At its G26 Mini-Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, held from Wednesday to Friday this week, has been elected unanimously as Vice-Chairman, and Bishop Donison is elected General Secretary. The leaders’ terms will conclude at the end of Gafcon V, in Athens, in 2028.
The appointments were also announced at a Gafcon press conference on Thursday.
The BBC, which reported the moves as Gafcon’s pulling back from electing a rival to the new Archbishop of Canterbury, said: “Reporters reacted with some puzzlement to news of the appointments as they were announced . . . with some suggesting it still amounted to an act of defiance.”
Asked at the press conference about Gafcon’s relation to the new Archbishop of Canterbury (News, 30 January), a Gafcon spokesman, Canon Justin Murff, said: “The Global Anglican Council recognises Archbishop Laurent Mbanda as its leader.” He continued: “Sarah Mullally is the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
In October, Dr Mbanda wrote that Gafcon was unable to “advocate a revisionist agenda”, and would therefore “reject the so-called Instruments of Communion” — that is, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates’ Meeting. Of these, it is the ACC that includes clergy, bishops, and laity as representatives, with voting rights, of member Churches of the Anglican Communion.
That came two weeks after Dr Mbanda received with “sorrow” news of Archbishop Mullally’s nomination to the see of Canterbury, on the grounds of both the principle of “male-only episcopacy” and her position on the provision of stand-alone services of prayers and blessings for same-sex couples (News, 20 October 2025).
