Gafcon Meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, Calls for Anglican Break From Canterbury-Led Structure

Gafcon, a conservative grouping within the Anglican Communion, has called for its members to break from structures led by the Archbishop of Canterbury. According to a report on roysreport.com, the group announced the planned split on October 16, 2025. Two weeks earlier, Sarah Mullally had been appointed as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.

The report says Gafcon, founded in 2008 and currently chaired by Rwanda’s Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, objects to Mullally’s appointment. Gafcon contends that it is impossible for her to serve as a focus of unity, because the majority of the Anglican Communion believes the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy. The group also objects to England’s 2023 decision to provide church blessing rituals for same-sex couples, which it says violated Mullally’s consecration oath. Gafcon’s statement rejects Canterbury’s leadership and related international institutions, and says the group is the Anglican Communion, to be renamed the Global Anglican Communion.

According to the same report, all orthodox bishops were summoned to Abuja, Nigeria, from March 3 to 6 to formalize the breakup, elect a leader, and set next steps. A separate report from christiancentury.org, dated March 2025, describes the gathering as already having taken place. It says the Global Anglican Future Conference convened in Abuja from March 4 to 6, was referred to as the G26, and took the theme “Choose this day, whom you will serve.” The conference renamed itself the Global Anglican Communion and elected a new leadership structure. That report says 347 Anglican bishops and 121 lay and clerical leaders from 27 provinces attended.

The christiancentury.org report gives the leadership results. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda was elected chairman of the newly formed Global Anglican Council. Miguel Uchôa, archbishop of the Anglican Church in Brazil, was chosen as deputy chairman, and Paul Donison, a Canadian-born U.S. bishop, became general secretary. The report says the call for disengagement includes avoiding future meetings led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, such as the Lambeth Conference. The two reports differ on timing, since one describes the Abuja meeting as upcoming and the other as concluded, and the supplied material does not resolve that difference.

The Anglican Communion’s headquarters in London, according to the roysreport.com account, invited delegates to a consultation in Northern Ireland from June 27 to July 5 to discuss proposals for a revised structure and decision-making. That invitation offers a point of contact between the Communion’s central office and the groups seeking separation, and the report does not say how Gafcon responded to it. Honest dialogue of this kind is consistent with the peacemaking aim of Romans 12:18, which speaks of living at peace with others as far as it depends on you.

A third report, from milwaukeeindependent.com, describes Gafcon as a conservative faction within the Anglican Communion that is pushing for a formal break from the global Protestant church family. The report says the push follows the recent appointment of Bishop Sa, but the supplied text breaks off at that point, so the full name and the details of that appointment cannot be confirmed from this source.