On the closing day of the G26 conference, the Rt Rev. Paul Donison, General Secretary of the Global Anglican Communion, declared that the movement’s long‑anticipated “future” had now decisively arrived—and that it brings concrete structural change, not merely rhetoric.

In a key clarification given on 6 March 2026 at the St Matthias House in Abuja — the Church of Nigeria’s headquarters, Donison explained that the newly articulated Global Anglican Council has moved beyond a primates‑only model to include primates together with “advisors and guarantors”—bishops, clergy, and laity—each with equal voice and vote. He described this as a “gloriously unprecedented” development at the global level, noting that while synodical participation of clergy and laity is common within dioceses and provinces, it has not previously been realized in worldwide Anglican structures.

This shift, he said, flows from a deliberate act of self‑limitation by the Gafcon Primates Council, who chose to share their authority rather than consolidate it. “In a world where people cling to authority and power and try to grab more of it for themselves,” Donison observed, the primates had instead invited non‑primates to sit at the same table with equal standing, which he called “a gift from God.” 

Donison used the floor time to address confusion among both secular and internal Anglican media about language in the Martyr’s Day statement and subsequent announcements, particularly the earlier description of a “primus inter pares” among the primates. He stressed that the Council’s discernment since Martyr’s Day had led it away from this title, not as a retraction of the earlier statement but as the fruit of the Spirit’s ongoing work in “prayer and deliberation,” guiding the church “towards the truth.”

Looking back to the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, Donison reminded his audience that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s role as “first among equals” arose in a context where a bishops‑only gathering was created, even over against petitions from American and Canadian delegates to include clergy and laity. By contrast, G26 has established an instrument in which the “whole church” gathers, making the old Canterbury‑derived title conceptually inapt: “by definition it’s not the first among equals.”

This theological and constitutional move is also, he argued, a conscious step away from the historic “instruments of Canterbury,” which Gafcon leaders now judge to have failed by tolerating and even enabling departures from “the faith once delivered to the saints.” If those instruments and their leadership have been left behind, Donison contended, then the titles bound up with them—such as “primus inter pares”—must also be relinquished as the Communion embraces a new future.

In place of a Canterbury‑style primacy, Donison said, the Global Anglican Council now has a chairman whose role is to model servant leadership, “a chair that serves the council.” He urged delegates to mark the profundity of this moment, even in a hall still heavily weighted toward episcopal presence—he humorously estimated “327 bishops” to only about “130 laity”—and insisted that bishops must return home and tell their clergy and laity the good news: “We now get to sit at the council. We get to sit at the table.”

For Donison, this structural reordering is not merely constitutional but spiritual, embodying humility at the heart of leadership. He anchored the new arrangements explicitly in the pattern of Christ, quoting the Lord’s own words that “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” and presented the re‑formed Global Anglican Council as a practical outworking of that gospel shape within the governance of the Communion.

The Conference continues this afternoon.Global Anglican Council Opens Door to Laity and Clergy at G26  

On the closing day of the G26 conference, the Rt Rev. Paul Donison, General Secretary of the Global Anglican Communion, declared that the movement’s long‑anticipated “future” had now decisively arrived—and that it brings concrete structural change, not merely rhetoric.

In a key clarification, Donison explained that the newly articulated Global Anglican Council has moved beyond a primates‑only model to include primates together with “advisors and guarantors”—bishops, clergy, and laity—each with equal voice and vote. He described this as a “gloriously unprecedented” development at the global level, noting that while synodical participation of clergy and laity is common within dioceses and provinces, it has not previously been realized in worldwide Anglican structures.

This shift, he said, flows from a deliberate act of self‑limitation by the Gafcon Primates Council, who chose to share their authority rather than consolidate it. “In a world where people cling to authority and power and try to grab more of it for themselves,” Donison observed, the primates had instead invited non‑primates to sit at the same table with equal standing, which he called “a gift from God.” 

Donison used the floor time to address confusion among both secular and internal Anglican media about language in the Martyr’s Day statement and subsequent announcements, particularly the earlier description of a “primus inter pares” among the primates. He stressed that the Council’s discernment since Martyr’s Day had led it away from this title, not as a retraction of the earlier statement but as the fruit of the Spirit’s ongoing work in “prayer and deliberation,” guiding the church “towards the truth.”

Looking back to the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, Donison reminded his audience that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s role as “first among equals” arose in a context where a bishops‑only gathering was created, even over against petitions from American and Canadian delegates to include clergy and laity. By contrast, G26 has established an instrument in which the “whole church” gathers, making the old Canterbury‑derived title conceptually inapt: “by definition it’s not the first among equals.”

This theological and constitutional move is also, he argued, a conscious step away from the historic “instruments of Canterbury,” which Gafcon leaders now judge to have failed by tolerating and even enabling departures from “the faith once delivered to the saints.” If those instruments and their leadership have been left behind, Donison contended, then the titles bound up with them—such as “primus inter pares”—must also be relinquished as the Communion embraces a new future.

In place of a Canterbury‑style primacy, Donison said, the Global Anglican Council now has a chairman whose role is to model servant leadership, “a chair that serves the council.” He urged delegates to mark the profundity of this moment, even in a hall still heavily weighted toward episcopal presence—he humorously estimated “327 bishops” to only about “130 laity”—and insisted that bishops must return home and tell their clergy and laity the good news: “We now get to sit at the council. We get to sit at the table.”

For Donison, this structural reordering is not merely constitutional but spiritual, embodying humility at the heart of leadership. He anchored the new arrangements explicitly in the pattern of Christ, quoting the Lord’s own words that “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” and presented the re‑formed Global Anglican Council as a practical outworking of that gospel shape within the governance of the Communion.

The Conference continues this afternoon.