Exactly what sort of fellowship is Gafcon, the global movement of theologically conservative Anglicans? Is it complementarian? Is it just for people who have left the traditional structures of the Anglican Communion? Is it a new church bureaucracy? These and other questions often raised by Gafcon afficionados, or the Gafcon curious, or even Gafcon rejectors were answered by Bishop Paul Donison, the Gafcon General Secretary, currently touring Australia and New Zealand. The answers in this story come from the Global Vision Tour event at Moore College.

Anglicanism is growing

“I’m amazed at what the Lord is doing. I was in GE Rwanda in August of this year. They were celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the church, the Anglican church in Rwanda. And as I was making my letter in August, they informed me to set your expectations. It’s a rather late-planned gathering, and it wasn’t hugely funded. So, just a bit of a small gathering. I arrived at a meeting of 10,000 people in tents for three days, celebrating the hundredth anniversary…

“The province of Nigeria consecrated 15 new bishops two weekends ago because they’re launching 15 new dioceses. We’re busy in Texas planting churches. The province of Nigeria is busy planting dioceses. And of course, this is within the context of immense persecution and pressure, at least 30 Christians put to death every day in Nigeria, as the [Church of Nigeria] staff say. And yet the church grows, God is at work.

“I was in Recife, Brazil, for a confirmation earlier this year and was amazed to stand up on a platform with hundreds and hundreds of young people coming forward to be confirmed. And of course, it didn’t look quite like the other solemn confirmations we have in my cathedral, that they were wonderfully exuberant dancing for the Lord, young, many of whom have just come to faith in the last year because the church in Brazil is growing like crazy. Of course, those Brazilian bishops, they’re incredible, they’re all bodybuilders, and they have tattoos on their arms, and they make me feel like a very small man. 

Donnison suggested that we read the testimony of Bishop Yassir Eric of  “I Was the Enemy Jesus Told You to Love” in Christianity Today. It tells the story of a young radicalised Muslim from a leading Sudanese family, part of a gang that shoots to kill a Dinka Christian student at their school. Years later, having met Jesus and been imprisoned for preaching, Bishop Yassir is at a pastor’s conference and meets a man bearing scars – the boy he had tried to kill, carrying a Bible with Yassir’s name at the top of a list for whom he had prayed. 

Yassir Eric was not able to be recognised by the Canterbury-based Anglican Communion, so Gafcon stepped in and consecrated him as a Bishop for EKKIOS, a new diocese in formation under Gafcon for Muslim-background believers (MBBs). 

The Martyr’s Day statement

Donison, like other Gafcon leaders, repeated that nothing new had been said in the Gafcon “Martyr’s Day Statement” on October 16 this year, which said “the future has arrived here.” 

“We had the Primates Chair, Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, the Archbishop of Rwanda, call together a consultation. He brought together a few Primates. He brought some of the founding fathers of the movements together. He brought some of the guarantors. And so as we sat together, yes, in Macquarie Park just six, seven weeks ago, we didn’t come there to write a statement. Isn’t it wonderful about the African approach to church meetings, you don’t deliver a pre-written statement. You show up ready to see what the Lord is going to do.

“And so what do we do? We gather together, and we recount our history. We went all the way back to before even 1998, to the 1994 ‘first trumpet’ out of the Global South… as we got through that whole history up to today, suddenly what began emerging was a statement, a contemporary moment to say something. And what we said in that statement was nothing new …

In those eight points, which have been said before, we said everything from the fact that we continue to reject the authority of Canterbury and the Church of England, who have continually told us we need to look to the so-called four instruments of communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primate’s Meeting. These are the four ways you know you are Anglican. We said what we did from the very beginning. These are not the marks of Anglicanism.

“And so the statement said simply, ‘Hey again, we said before, these structural provisions to hold us together have failed.’ And they went on to say that as we go forward, we need to be truly the Global Anglican community. What that means is we recognise that autonomous dioceses and provinces, sort of a pre-Lambeth vision of Anglicanism. It says it’s not magisterial. It’s not like everything comes out from the top. Sydney is its own autonomous, at least semi-autonomous, diocese. And that’s amongst all these dioceses around the world, we’re gathered together in a fellowship, and therefore, of course, we’re not going to tell people what they must or must not do in certain regions.

Gafcon is not just for complementarians.

Myth-busting number one: People assume Gafcon takes certain positions on issues. Donnison points out that this may be false. “We had some big positions on all kinds of important first-order issues, but even written in to [Gafcon’s founding document] the Jerusalem Declaration, article 12 says that there are certain secondary issues, second-order issues, that we recognise there’s freedom in. So people, for example, will say, ‘well Gafcon, only for complementarians’: I’ll say Gafcon has a lot of faithful complementarians in Gafcon. But it’s not just for complementarians. There are egalitarians within Gafcon.

“These are really important issues. I remember sitting with Dr [J. I.] Packer years ago, I was his chaplain for a few years. I was at a conference with Dr Packer. He had just written a new catechism for the ACNA (Anglican Church in North America). People were concerned that certain issues were not in the catechism. They were trying to nail Dr Packer to the wall. And I just remember him just so brilliantly saying, ‘Gentlemen, these questions you’re raising are very importanttheological questions.’ And they all got above themselves. And then he said, ‘but they’re not essential theological questions.’ … There’s diversity within what makes you a biblical anglican within our world. And we have freedom in those secondary issues.”

Gafcon is both for those who leave and those who stay in traditional Anglican structures

Donison’s second myth-busting effort was on the issue of leavers and stayers. “Some people tell me, when I visit regions, ‘oh, I guess you’re saying we must leave our existing structures, our historic diocese.’ Absolutely not. There are those who, by conscience, contend within historic structures and those who, by conscience, contend outside of historic structures. 

“I think that’s a pretty foundational principle. The issue of conscience came up during the Reformation. Luther is famous for his statement: ‘My conscience is captive to the word of God.’ Is it right or safe to go against that? Conscience has influenced most evangelicals ever since, not compelling your conscience one way or the other. Gafcon is a fellowship together; whether you’re inside or outside of historic structures, you sign the Jerusalem Declaration.

“And that’s why, for example, we state that we ‘encourage’ dioceses and provinces to remove their constitutional references to the Church of England or Canterbury. We argued over that word. It was a good decision to settle on ‘encouraged.’ We didn’t say ‘must,’ because how could we claim earlier in the statement that we’re a bunch of autonomous dioceses and then say, ‘you must do this’?

“… It’s not a perfect statement. There’s much to get worked on. I’ve been criticised by many from the western countries and say, should have said it this way, should have said it way. So of course … how do you possibly ever write a global statement, a global statement that can translate easily into every single culture which the gospel has reached. And of course there’s going to be discussion and interpretation and local application.”

When does Gafcon next meet?

Gafcon Chair Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, first instruction to Donison as he became Gafcon General Secretary, “We are going to meet more often,” and the “G26” meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, for Bishops is part of that pattern.

Donison had news: “The big conference which will next meet in 2028, … will be in Athens. Hey, you heard it here tonight. It’s going to be in Athens. The Primates’ Council made decisions a couple weeks ago. There’s a few reasons why we’re not going to go to Jerusalem so well, if you can’t go to Jerusalem, where would be a place like Jerusalem that’s got such biblical history sites to see. Athens, praise the Lord. You might want to be there to be at the biggest conference ever. But in between, we’ll do these mini conferences, many conferences.” 

Q and A: Gafcon and the Global South

A question from the floor: “Could you describe the current relationship between Gafcon and the global South fellowship and challenges and opportunities of that relationship?”

Donison: “Well, the amazing thing about Gafcon and the Global South is that you’ve got such an incredible overlap. So for those of you who look at the various websites, you look at the leadership of clients, there’s tremendous overlap, and Glenn Davies likes to draw concentric circles and show us how everybody fits inside this and inside that. And it’s an amazing picture of just how we really are together in so many ways. … So it’s great unity, but there’s a different strategy and that’s the reality we’ve got to see play out, so that there will be increased unity along the way. 

“What GSFA is seeking to do is through things like the IASCUFO (Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order), or the Nairobi-Cairo report that’s come out, suggesting new ways of reforming the communion structures.

“That’s very much what GSFA is focused on in many ways. Let’s reform the existing structures. By the way I’m speaking as a bishop in both, because I’m ACNA. ACNA is both Gafcon and GSFA. So really the focus strategically for GSFA is reforming the structures, having a covenantal structure that replaces and reforms those structures. Gafcon is much more focused on moving forward in establishing new regions, new connections, much less interested in trying to recreate or reclaim what we see as mostly man-made structures that develop these four instruments of communion along the way.

“And so instead, what I’ve said to some folks is if you wonder why GSFA and Gafcon aren’t more unified in strategy, the clarity is in 2008, many of the Primates said we’re not going to go to Lambeth meetings. And we said that pretty consistently going forward, we’re not going to go to Lambeth. 

“In 2022, I think there was a marked shift in strategy for some, again, by their conscience they made that decision and their brothers who walk alongside, but it was a very different decision in 2022 for many of the bishops to go to Lambeth. And they went and they did differentiate themselves and they said we’re not going to go receive communion with the others. But that was a moment where I think you saw a major strategic shift. Some were going to say actually the Gafcon approach of not going to meetings may not be for all of us and most of Gafcon or the majority of Gafcon said we’re going to continue to stop going to these meetings… There are two different strategies and there are brothers and sisters together in unity in many ways. So I think that’s the reason. If we’re waiting for the two groups to come together, I hear that everywhere. ‘Can’t you just come together?’ andwe’d love to, but there’s some actually very fundamental differences in the strategy right now. And the Lord is going to work out how those strategies, by his grace, actually may work together in the long run to reform the whole Anglican fellowship.”

The livestream can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/gafconference/videos/1343619610837003