The future has arrived for which we at the American Anglican Council (AAC) have labored so long during the season of realignment. We welcome the end of that season and the beginning of something new, the recognition of a biblically-faithful and Spirit-filled Global Anglican Communion.

For more than two decades, the AAC has stood with Gafcon, the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), and countless faithful Anglicans around the world in prayer, repentance, and reform. Now, in light of Gafcon’s recent announcement that it will no longer recognize the authority of the Canterbury-led structures, we rejoice in this moment of fulfilled reordering.

Yet while we celebrate, we also know that order alone cannot produce the faithfulness in life and mission that Archbishop Laurent Mbanda and Gafcon have championed since 2008. Faithfulness arises from submission to the Word of God, dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and the obedience of God’s people to His call. Nevertheless, as we rejoice in this decisive moment, there remain important questions that must now be addressed if this realigned Global Anglican Communion is to be truly faithful, truly global, and truly united in Christ.

One of the first and most pressing questions is whether our new reality will be defined primarily by autonomy or by interdependence. A fellowship of autonomous churches is a good beginning. It allows each province to govern itself, to be contextually faithful, and to proclaim the Gospel in its own language and culture. But there must be more than mere fellowship if we are to remain one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. When the Apostle Paul identified and discipled Gentile believers, he did not do so in isolation. He sought the counsel of the church in Jerusalem as we read in Acts 15, to authenticate the faith of those Gentile followers without requiring circumcision. That meeting, the Council of Jerusalem, was the biblical prototype of conciliar life in the undivided Church. It demonstrated that even apostles submitted to the discernment of the whole body under the authority of Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

This is the same conciliar principle that undergirds historic Anglicanism and that the AAC has championed for decades. True Anglican conciliarism, rooted in mutual submission and accountability, will be essential if this re-ordered Communion is to endure beyond the lifespan of any one leader or province.

Another urgent question concerns the shape of our new order. What structures beyond a council of primates will help sustain unity and faithfulness? Since 2018, when Gafcon first formed in Jerusalem, we have seen that primates come and go. Some of the very provinces that were founding members of Gafcon later drifted back toward Canterbury because of changes in leadership and theology. How will the Global Anglican Communion (Gafcon)  prevent this from happening again? How can we ensure that a change in one province’s leadership does not threaten the unity or integrity of the whole? Many of these questions the Cairo Covenant of the GFSA attempted to address.

We must remember that Anglican polity has always included more than primates. There are bishops, clergy, and laity all sharing responsibility for the Church’s faith and mission. If the Global Anglican Communion is to thrive, it will need structures that give voice to all the orders of ministry while maintaining the authority of Scripture and the conciliar balance of bishops in synod. We cannot simply replicate the old instruments of communion that have failed us. We must prayerfully discern new ones that are both theologically sound and practically sustainable.

A third question concerns the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches and its Cairo Covenant. The GSFA meets next week, and we pray earnestly that they will join Gafcon in this reordering of Anglicanism from Canterbury toward a truly global Anglican Communion. We grieve for the biblically-faithful Anglicans who remain within the Canterbury-led structures. Their continued participation, while understandable, has proven fruitless. It only lends credibility to ecclesial systems that have long since abandoned the authority of Scripture and the moral teaching of the Church catholic.

The Cairo Covenant was drafted precisely for a moment like this. It envisions a communion of biblically faithful provinces bound not by hierarchy but by covenant, a shared confession of faith and mutual accountability in doctrine and discipline. How will Gafcon draw from the Global South’s covenantal structures as it moves forward? Can these two movements, Gafcon and the GSFA, find in one another the complement they need? The Cairo Covenant could serve as a theological and structural foundation for the Global Anglican Communion, providing what Gafcon’s moral and missional clarity alone cannot: a durable ecclesial framework grounded in Scripture and historic orthodoxy.

There remain other theological questions among biblically-faithful Anglicans that will test our unity. One such question is whether Scripture and the historic teaching of the Church permit women to serve as bishops. Gafcon established a theological task force to study this question, and that task force recommended a moratorium for the sake of Gafcon’s own unity until further biblical and theological consensus could be reached. That moratorium has not been universally observed, and the underlying issue has not been resolved. This example reminds us that structural reform alone cannot maintain unity, faith, and order. We must have councils, synods, and theological commissions that can meet regularly to address such questions, not to enforce uniformity but to sustain communion grounded in truth.

If this Global Anglican Communion is to remain faithful, it must have the means to guard the faith once delivered to the saints, to interpret Scripture faithfully, and to teach sound doctrine with charity and clarity. As we look toward the future, we give thanks to God for the courage and conviction of Gafcon’s primates, and for Archbishop Mbanda’s leadership in this historic moment. We thank God for the countless clergy and lay leaders who have stood firm in the truth of the gospel through persecution, marginalization, and sacrifice.

The American Anglican Council rejoices in the declaration of a revitalized Global Anglican Communion, one that stands without compromise upon the authority of Scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, we look forward to the work ahead: the building of new councils, covenants, and relationships that can hold this global body together in love and truth. Our prayer is that this Global Anglican Communion will not simply be a fellowship of like-minded churches, but a true communion, one marked by faithfulness, humility, and mutual accountability. We pray that in this reordering of global Anglicanism, the world will see not division but renewal, not rebellion but repentance, not fragmentation but a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

May this be the moment when, by God’s grace, the Anglican Communion becomes once again a global witness to the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ.