UPDATE Bishop Paul Donison has sent us a note saying this article “contains total inaccuracies” and that he will be making the details known soon. One inaccuracy is that we referred to Jodie McNeil as the general secretary in our opening par. that is Paul Donison’s role, and McNeil is Global Operations Manager.
UPDATE 2 A new list has been published. https://theothercheek.com.au/global-anglican-council-official-list/
Gafcon’s Global Operations Manager, Jodie McNeill, has helpfully given The Other Cheek a list of exactly who is on the Global Anglican Council whose formation was announced at the recent Bishops’ meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. The new council is designed to lead the Global Anglican Communion – whose membership was also clarified in the Nigerian capital.
“The short answer is that the Global Anglican Council comprises the current Primates, Advisors, as well as the Guarantors,” McNeill confirmed.
As listed on the Gafcon website the current Primates (National Church Leaders) are
• Laurent Mbanda, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda. (Chair)
• Miguel Uchôa Cavalcanti, Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Brazil, (Vice Chair)
• Georges Titre Ande, Primate of the Anglican Church of the Congo.
• Justin Badi Arama, Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.
• Samuel Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu, Primate of the Church of Uganda.
• Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba, Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).
• Siegfried John Ngubane, Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA)
• Stephen Than Myint Oo, Archbishop of the Church of the Province of Myanmar.
• Jackson Ole Sapit, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya.
• Samy Fawzy Shehata, Archbishop and Primate of Alexandria.
• Steve Wood Archbishop, Anglican Church in North America. [Currently suspended by his church]
• Enrique Lago Zugadi, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Chile.
On Council by virtue of his office:
• Paul Donison General Secretary.
Advisors:
• Jay Behan, Presiding Bishop of the Diocese of the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa/New Zealand.
• Glenn Naunton Davies, Bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross.
• Yassir Eric, Presiding Bishop of EKKIOS (a new Province in formation for Muslim Background belivers).
• Ezekiel Kondo Kumir Kuku, Archbishop and Primate of Sudan.
• Andrew John Lines, Presiding Bishop Anglican Network in Europe.
• Kanishka Raffel, Archbishop of the Diocese of Sydney.
• James Wong Yin Song, Former Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Province of the Indian Ocean, and Bishop of The Seychelles.
Guarantors (but not already members of the Primates Council or Advisors)
• Peter Akinola, Former Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
• Mr Olayinka Fisher.
• Mr Emmanuel Kampouris.
As reported by The Other Cheek, Olayinka Fisher is a Nigerian entrepreneur and a former member of the International Cricket Council, and Emmanuel Kampouris is an American businessman and philanthropist.
Who is in and who is not in the Global Anglican Communion
There is a low fence around the Global Anglican Communion, the name Gafcon is using to describe Anglicans linked by adhering to traditional confessions.
The lengthy Abuja Affirmation issued at the end of the recent bishops’ meeting restates who is in the Global Anglican Communion – “We are in fellowship with all who assent to the Jerusalem Declaration.”
The Jerusalem Declaration (JD)affirms the longstanding Anglican confessions of faith.
• The four Ecumenical Councils (that defined such things as Jesus being both God and man).
• The creeds (Apostles, Nicene and Athanasian).
• The Thirty-nine Articles.
• The 1662 Book of Common Prayer “as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer.”
The JD also includes a clause that upholds “the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family.”
Abuja says of the Canterbury-defined communion, “there is, and will continue to be, an institution that calls itself the Anglican Communion, which defines communion on an institutional basis… There are not two Communions, but two incompatible definitions of communion – one confessional, the other institutional.”
So, while the majority of Anglicans around the world belong to national churches that regard themselves as being in the Global Anglican Communion (Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, on their own, are a majority of attenders at Anglican churches), membership extends to people who are in Anglican churches formally linked to the Canterbury-based communion.
This includes Australian Anglicans, in a “mixed province,” who can participate individually, as members of local Gafcon branches or bodies like the Sydney Diocese that have adopted the Jerusalem Declaration.
This, despite the Anglican Church of Australia’s Constitution stating that “This Church will remain and be in communion with the Church of England in England and with churches in communion therewith so long as communion is consistent with the Fundamental Declarations contained in this Constitution.”
(Those fundamental Declarations include the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed, “the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as being the ultimate rule and standard of faith,” and the “commands of Christ.”)
The Abuja affirmation makes this plain: Australia, or individual parts of it, can join the Global Anglican Communion as a Province if they so choose. “For the sake of clarity, we avoid the language of being ‘in communion’ due to its legal implications when discussing participation within the Global Anglican Communion. This is because some orthodox dioceses outside the UK have provincial constitutions that define their Church as being “in communion” with the Church of England. However, this in no way prevents such dioceses from participation as Global Anglicans, provided they give their assent to the Jerusalem Declaration.”
There is one important caveat in the Abuja Affirmation that will force a small number of people to choose. “Leaders who hold office in the Global Anglican Communion must not attend future Primates’ Meetings called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, nor attend the Lambeth Conference, nor attend ACC [Anglican Consultative Council] meetings or participate in Commissions of the ACC, nor personally approve financial contributions to the ACC.”
This might mean that an evangelical Primate in a mixed province, as we have in Australia, would have to choose between being on the Global Anglican Council or taking part in those bodies convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
But that caveat only applies to very few people. The rest of us can choose to be part of the Global Anglican Communion based on what we believe. And we don’t have to leave or transfer from any church body to do so.